Tag Archives: Vince Guaraldi

Winston to Release Second Guaraldi Tribute Love Will Come – The Music of Vince Guaraldi, Vol. 2 September 2009

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While I was researching the Charlie Brown’s Holiday Hits part of the last In The Bins, I was exchanging e-mails with Derrick Bang who among other things is an uber-collector of Peanuts and is part-time curator of the fivecentsplease.org website that is essential to Peanuts collectors with its wealth of information. Derrick pointed out that George Winston— who himself is a collector of Vince Guaraldi— is going to release a second volume to his critically-acclaimed 1996 release Linus & Lucy – The Music of Vince Guaraldi titled Love Will Come – The Music of Vince Guaraldi, Vol. 2 and is slated for release in September. This isn’t exactly timely information as this release has been announced since before Winston’s summer tour, but I hadn’t seen much mention of it prior to my conversation with Bang.

Linus & Lucy has the distinction of being the first place some of Guaraldi’s compositions would be heard outside of the TV Series. Tracks like the beautiful “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” (aka “Thanksgiving Theme”) would have languished in vaults if it wasn’t for that release. Winston provides very detailed liner notes about each which shows the care and consideration he gave to this tribute to Guaraldi.

Since 1996, we have seen a number of notable releases as it applies to Guaraldi’s television work. The aforementioned Holiday Hits, and Guaraldi’s son David has curated two releases of  Vince Guaraldi and the Lost Cues from the Charlie Brown Television Specials. Both of these are available on cdbaby.com, and well worth the $15 if you are a fan of this music.

According to the programs used for Winston’s summer and winter tours Love Will Come will include the following tracks (with supporting information from Bang’s Cues List:

  • “Air Music” aka “Surfin’ Snoopy” from “A Charlie Brown Christmas” (1966) among other shows included on Holiday Hits.
  • “Rain, Rain Go Away” from “Charlie Brown’s All-Stars” (1966)
  • “It Was A Short Summer Charlie Brown” from “It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown” (1969)
  • “Woodstock” (I’m not sure which song this would be since there aren’t any songs just titled “Woodstock” but there are a few that have “Woodstock”in the title including “Snoopy and Woodstock” and “Woodstock’s Dream”)
  • “There’s No Time For Love” from “There’s No Time for Love, Charlie Brown” (1973) included on Lost Cues Volume 1
  • “Be My Valentine” aka “Heartburn Waltz” from “Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown” included on Holiday Hits and Lost Cues vol 2 (1975)
  • “Love Will Come”from “You’re in Love, Charlie Brown” (1967)
  • “You’re Not Elected Charlie Brown” from “You’re Not Elected, Charlie Brown” (1972)
  • “Little Birdie” from “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” (1973) among other shows included on Lost Cues Volume 1 and 2.

While this list is impressively only a list of rare Guaraldi TV cues, I’m sure we can expect some tracks from Guaraldi’s non-Charlie Brown releases on here, as Linus & Lucy did (notably “Cast Your Fate to The Wind” which was Guaraldi’s first big hit).

B-Sides in the Bins #39 – What I Got For Christmas! (12/24 & 12/25)

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Stevie Nicks - Crystal Visions 180g 2 LP

2008 was the year of new vinyl for me. Between my 40th birthday and Christmas I ended up with some cool pieces for the collection. Likely, my family is breathing a collective sigh of relief as I think I was a bit difficult to buy for when someone would get my name from the gift exchange drawing. Since I don’t really buy that much new vinyl for myself– I tend to stick to used– pretty much any title that they would like, I would probably like, too. I got a couple of CD’s as well. I keep my Amazon wish list up-to-date which is pretty helpful for gift selection as well.

Jurassic 5 – J5 Deluxe Re-Issue (2 CD, 1 DVD, Decon DCN65, 2008) (gift) My daughter got me this from my Amazon Wish List. I totally forgot about this release, so this was a nice surprise! The J5 Deluxe Re-Issue is a reissue of the first Jurassic 5 album from 1997. The original album was released on Interscope and had apparently been out-of-print since 2004 and held up due to contractural disputes. The original album is here along with a second CD full of hard-to-find and previously unreleased stuff. The DVD has a movie from J5’s first world tour, some concert footage from Brixton Academy and the “Concrete Schoolyard” music video. Nice to get back to this– I stopped listening to J5 after Cut Chemist left and they released Feedback, which was not great. When the hell is 2na going to release his solo joint?

Vince Guaraldi – A Charlie Brown Christmas (3 CD Collector’s Edition Tin, Madacy Entertainment TC2 53161) (gift) This was a stocking-stuffer. A festive metal tin holding two Fantasy CD’s– The 2006 remaster of A Charlie Brown Christmas with the bonus tracks, and Charlie Brown’s Holiday Hits which has some of the songs from Christmas, but has songs from A Boy Named Charlie Brown, the wonderful “Thanksgiving Theme” from the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special, “Great Pumpkin Waltz” from “It’s The Great Pumpkin,” and others. The third disc is the David Benoit Jazz tribute  40 Years – A Charlie Brown Christmas with some notable assistance from The Rippingtons, Chaka Khan, Dave Koz, Brian McKnight, Toni Braxton and Vanessa Williams. A neat collection in a tin that shares the artwork with the 2006 Christmas release, which used the original 1965 artwork. Unfortunately, the liner notes for Holiday Hits don’t do a good job of explaining where the songs that aren’t from Christmas and A Boy Named Charlie Brown came from. A little digging turned some information up. Special thanks to Vince Guaraldi’s Peanuts Song Library at fivecentsplease.org which is the insanely comprehensive Peanuts site.

Tracklisting for Charlie Brown’s Holiday Hits:

1. Joe Cool (2:03) apparently not the version from “He’s Your Dog Charlie Brown.”
2. Surfin’ Snoopy (1:09) from “A Charlie Brown Christmas” where Snoopy is decorating his doghouse (1965)
3. Heartburn Waltz (2:36) from “Be My Valentine Charlie Brown” (1975)
4. Track Meet (2:37) from ? (this song and the next one don’t seem to be in the TV cue list but seem to have been recorded at the same time.)
5. Camptown Races (2:22) from ?
6. Oh, Good Grief (1:56) actually “Schroeder” with Lee Mendelson’s son Glenn’s sixth-grade class singing.
7. Charlie Brown Theme (4:19) on A Boy Named Charlie Brown, but included in a bunch of the specials.
8. Schroeder (1:50) on A Boy Named Charlie Brown
9. Charlie’s Blues (1:20) from “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” (1973)
10. Great Pumpkin Waltz (2:26) from “It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” (1966)
11. Thanksgiving Theme (1:59) from “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” (1973)
12. Linus and Lucy (3:03) from A Charlie Brown Christmas
13. Christmas Time Is Here (vocal) from A Charlie Brown Christmas
14. Christmas Time Is Here (inst.) from A Charlie Brown Christmas

Mudcrutch – Extended Play Live! (12″ EP & CD,  Reprise 516850, 2008) (gift) In a similar fashion to the Mudcrutch LP, this EP came with a “full dynamic range” CD. This means that the CD isn’t suffering from the compression that a lot of releases have today. Mudcrutch was the band that Petty along with Heartbreakers Tom Leadon, Benmont Tench and Mike Campbell were in before Tom formed the Heartbreakers in 1976. Rather than succumb to fans requests for releasing Mudcrutch’s “lost album” Tom brought the band back together and recorded a new album which used some of the original tracks recorded for Shelter records. This live EP is made up of songs recorded over three shows in April and May of 2008. I need to go get the Mudcrutch album, too.

Various artists – Music from the Motion Picture Pulp Fiction (LP, MCA 0008811110314, 1994) (gift) This is the first of the new “Back to Black” pressings I have– at least the first with that identified on it. Looking at the Back to Black website, it would appear that the new Police Live album is a Back to Black as well. 180g vinyl in the original packaging– which doesn’t mean a lot since it wasn’t a gatefold cover or anything exciting like that. I wasn’t aware that this soundtrack had been on vinyl originally. One of my favorite movies and certainly soundtrack with its fun blend of surf tunes and 60’s songs. Mastered by Steve Hau at Future Disc Systems.

Stevie Nicks – Crystal Visions… the Very Best of Stevie Nicks (2 LP, Reprise 100363-2, 2007) (gift) All I can say about this is… “wow!” Everything about this release is an audiophile’s dream: 2 180g LP’s in lined paper sleeves housed in a gatefold with beautiful artwork and very flattering photos of Stevie at various points in her career. In addition, there is a 1-page sheet with the credits that is in the pocket with the first LP which also includes Stevie’s notes on each song! The compilation draws mostly from her very successful solo career, but also has some choice Fleetwood Mac tracks. Again we get “Silver Springs” which was rescued from certain obscurity during the Dance tour and album and has been restored to every pressing of Rumours since. We get a recent live version of “Rhiannon” and the 2005 clubby remix of “Dreams” (which apparently has new vocals). We get a couple of live tracks performed with the Melbourne Symphony including “Landslide” and a nine-minute “Edge of Seventeen.” The album is bookended by two versions of “Seventeen”– it opens with the original album version from Bella Donna, and closes with the live version. Although the live version is longer and involves the symphony, it really isn’t dramatically different than the orignal song since it has drums and electric guitars. Half-Speed Mastered by Stan Ricker, Plating and Pressing at R.T.I.