ajy@hou2b.UUCP (12/14/83)
Another "Charlie Brown Christmas" has come and gone, but this time I'm going to try and find out who writes and performs the sound track. I understand the fellow had cut a record a while back and I would like to get a hold of it, somehow, as I find it, well, tasty. Does anybody know who writes and plays the Peanuts sound tracks? Does he (I thinks it's a he) have an album? Is it still in print? I understand the writer/performer died a while ago.
knight@rlgvax.UUCP (Steve Knight) (12/14/83)
All the music for the Peanuts television specials (at least the early ones;
I can't speak for the later ones) was written by Vince Guaraldi, performed
by the Vince Guaraldi Trio. I've seen albums available in the past couple
years including "A Charlie Brown Christmas," and "A Boy Named Charlie Brown;"
check in the jazz section at record stores. Apart from the Peanuts music,
Guaraldi had a very big hit in the early 1960's (1962 springs to mind...)
with "Cast Your Fate to the Wind," which is available on the album "Jazz
Impressions of Black Orpheus." Definitely worthwhile.
A related anecdote:
In recent years, George Winston has been performing some of Guaraldi's
works in concert, including "CYFttW" and "Linus and Lucy" (the opening
theme music to the Peanuts specials). Winston, in fact, flagrantly
distributes copies of the sheet music for "Linus and Lucy" at his concerts.
As he tells it, he wanted to buy some copies for gifts, but the music
was out of print and the publisher had no intention of reprinting it, so
he decided he'd put it back *in* print with the help of a cheap copy shop
down the street. When the distributing got flagrant enough, the publisher
brought suit against him, but the court ruled that since "Linus and Lucy"
was out of print, Winston could make copies for friends, and, "Well, I had
some pretty good lawyers--they defined 'friend' as anything with a
heartbeat..."
His motive for distributing it? Well, he feels that "Linus and Lucy" is a
a song that should be played wherever there's a piano. Sounds good to me.
Steve Knight
{seismo,allegra,some other sites}!rlgvax!knightseifert@ihuxl.UUCP (D.A. Seifert) (12/15/83)
The music for the early Peanuts specials was done by Vince Guaraldi. The newer specials are done by someone else, since Guaraldi is now deceased. The new ones are, in my opinion, not as good. The album to get is "A Charlie Brown Christmas" by the Vince Guaraldi Trio. Piano, bass, and drums. All accustic. One cut has a children's choir. Very excellent jazz versions of some traditional Christmas songs and some Guaraldi originals. There is another V.G. album called "Oh Good Grief", which has tunes from several of the Peanuts specials. It good, but not as good as the Christmas album. It has some sort of electric harpsichord which I don't especially care for. (I like electric instruments in general, just not this particular one) Of course, there are other V.G. albums, not related to Peanuts specials. These are also good. Unfortunately, they were recorded several years ago, and suffer from lots of tape hiss. (use them for soft background music and you won't notice) Mobile Fidelity has issued a half-speed audiophile version of the album with "Cast your fate to the wind", V.G.'s big hit. I haven't got this one yet. There are also children's soundtrack albums of the various specials. Presumably these contain the dialog as well as the music. A dyed-in-the-wool Peanuts fan, Snoopy -- ) ( ) from the mildly opinionated keyboard of _)__________________ |OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO| Dave Seifert |OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO| ihnp4!ihuxl!seifert |OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO| |------------------|
mem@sii.UUCP (Mark Mallett) (12/22/83)
b I just read an article "Re: Peanuts"... I'm afraid I missed the original article which apparently asked about peanuts (guess I wasn't quick enough). At any rate, on the album `December' by George Winston, there is an acknowledgement "There is a great wealth of traditional and contemporary music to draw from in making an album for the winter season. These four albums have been most inspirational to me in conceiving of this album..." One of the four is `A Charlie Brown Christmas', by Vince Guaraldi. The `December' album, by the way, is an excellent mood album for this time of the year (and any other). If you want some excellent and/or mellow piano music to listen to, get this album. Mark E. Mallett decvax!sii!mem