A kinder, gentler Election

It has been a busy summer.

Hot on the heels of Guaraldi’s never-before-released score for It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown, the similarly never-before-released score for the eighth prime-time Peanuts TV special, You’re Not Elected, Charlie Brown, will debut on September 6 on CD, 12-inch BioVinyl and via digital download. Pre-orders are available now, at the usual outlets. 

 

A Woodstock Yellow BioVinyl variant will be available as a Record Store Day Exclusive.

 

Check out the Lee Mendelson Film Productions press release here.

 

Guaraldi — on keyboards, vocals and guitar — is joined by Tom Harrell, trumpet; Pat O’Hara, trombone; Mel Martin, clarinet, soprano sax and piccolo; Seward McCain, bass and flute; and Glenn Cronkhite, drums. John Scott Trotter was music supervisor. This album is produced by Sean Mendelson and Jason Mendelson; remixed at Bones and Knives by Terry Carleton; and restored and re-mastered by Vinson Hudson.

 

The album features the 16 studio recordings which became the TV special’s score, along with nine bonus/alternative tracks.

Show score:

1. "Incumbent Waltz"

2. "You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown"

3. "Oh, Good Grief!"

4. "Cookin' Snoopy (Fast Piano Jazz)"

5. "Blue Charlie Brown"

6. "Incumbent Waltz (Reprise)"

7. "Linus and Lucy"/"Poor Charlie Brown"

8. "Joe Cool (Vocal)"

9. "Incumbent Waltz (Second Reprise)"

10. "Elect Linus (Dilemma)"/"Woodstock's Wake Up"

11. "Joe Cool (Unused Reprise)"

12. "Oh, Good Grief! (Reprise)"

13. "Deserted Charlie Brown"

14. "You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown (Reprise)"

15. "Linus and Lucy (Reprise)"

16. "You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown (Second Reprise: End Credits)"

Bonus Content

17. "Joe Cool (Alternate Take 1)"

18. "Joe Cool (Alternate Rehearsal Take)"

19. "Blue Charlie Brown (Alternate Take 1)"

20. "African Sleigh Ride (Bonus Track)"

21. "Cookin' Snoopy (Fast Piano Jazz; Alternate Takes 1, 2 and 3)"

22. "Incumbent Waltz (Second Reprise, Alternate Take 1)"

23. "Incumbent Waltz (Second Reprise, Alternate Take 3)"

24. "Incumbent Waltz (Unused Cue)"

25. "Linus and Lucy (Acoustic Piano Mix)"

Four tracks can be previewed here.

 

Music highlights include a terrific arrangement of "Joe Cool” — much longer than what is heard in the special — which boasts nifty flute and guitar touches. Other tasty treats include an unexpectedly peppy handling of “Blue Charlie Brown,” two delightful variations on “Linus and Lucy,” and McCain’s deft bass work on “Oh, Good Grief (Reprise).”

 

The LPs and CDs are eco-conscious. The LPs are made with BioVinyl, a new product that replaces petroleum in S-PVC by recycling used cooking oil or industrial waste, resulting in considerable CO₂ savings compared to traditional PVC. Each record also comes in a reusable, compostable PLA bag made of 99% renewable material. The jacket, label and liner notes are made from sustainably forested trees, for minimum ecological harm. (None of these modifications sacrifices acoustic or optical quality.) The CDs also are made of recycled material, and their paper content comes from sustainably forested trees.

 

All physical copies feature extensive liner notes by my very own self, along with similarly detailed notes by Sean Mendelson, son of Peanuts producer Lee Mendelson. The LP release also includes rare photographs and images from the original tape boxes: recent re-discoveries that led to this release.

 

Remember: The ongoing wave of these "new" soundtracks depends upon the sales generated by each release ... so buy one for yourself, and a second copy as a gift for a friend! 

Setting the record straight ... again!

The argument was driving me into sputtering incoherence.

Many fans and I were overjoyed, back in late summer 1998, with the unexpected arrival of Fantasy’s Charlie Brown’s Holiday Hits: the first collection of (mostly) new Vince Guaraldi Peanuts themes in 30 years. And, like many of those same fans, I was puzzled by the CD’s first track: a cue titled “Joe Cool,” which most assuredly was not the iconic tune that boasted Vince’s richly expressive vocal. This new disc’s so-called “Joe Cool” wasn’t even close to the actual item: clearly, a mistake. One of two unfortunate things had happened: Either somebody had put the wrong track on the disc, intending to lead off with the actual “Joe Cool,” or the existing track had been mis-labeled. The former seemed unlikely, because the disc’s entire purpose was to present previously unreleased tracks (aside from the final three, lifted from A Charlie Brown Christmas). But the latter hypothesis also didn’t feel right, because the mysterious Track #1 didn’t sound like Guaraldi. A close approximation, perhaps, but not the real deal.

But that was 1998, years before I even considered writing Guaraldi’s biography, and therefore years before I established contacts, colleagues and friends at Fantasy/Concord. I filed the matter as a vexing conundrum, and forgot about it.

Now, however, it was early 2010; I had just been hired by Fantasy/Concord to write liner notes for the impending release of a new Guaraldi anthology, the character-themed Peanuts Portraits. A few days earlier, I had been sent the track list and corresponding music files. There were ... issues.

Three biggies, to be precise:

1) One Guaraldi track, “Jennie L,” was lifted from the 1975 prime-time special Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown. It’s a lovely little tune, but the Peanuts neighborhood never featured a character named Jennie, with or without the “L.” Guaraldi frequently gave his cues unusual, whimsical and even puzzling names, and I’ve never been able to source the reason behind this particular title.

2) Charlie Brown’s sister Sally was represented by a track titled “Sally’s Blues” ... but the corresponding music file was not the cue of that title found within the 1974 prime-time special It’s a Mystery, Charlie Brown. Frankly, the track didn’t even sound like Guaraldi.

3) To my horror, they also lifted the same bogus “Joe Cool” track from Charlie Brown’s Holiday Hits.

Additionally, I spotted some lesser issues concerning the cue titles “Charlie’s Blues” and “Blue Charlie Brown,” but Guaraldi himself bears some of the blame there, because of the numerous variant cues he delivered with different combinations of the words “Charlie” and “Blue” in the title. (For a more detailed explanation of those two tracks, see my Guaraldi discography.)

A rose by any other name ... is mis-identified

The Internet giveth, and it also taketh away.

I've previous ranted about Wikipedia's pernicious role in the publication and subsequent spread of misinformation, and the sad fact that such bogus data becomes, well, permanent. All those countless little Internet spiders race about the Web, scraping up and distributing facts and figures, with no means of separating the well-researched thesis of an Einstein from the rants of a Flat-Earther.

But I'm not here to grouse anew about Wikipedia; that topic has been covered.

No, this post concerns a highly disturbing incident that points to yet another means by which bad information is becoming eternal.

The story starts with the 2011 CD An Afternoon with the Vince Guaraldi Quartet, which cherry-picked some of the best tracks from numerous live recordings Guaraldi made himself, during a two-week gig in October 1967, at the Old Town Mall in Los Gatos, California. I was consulted briefly about the various options, which included a "mystery track" that I've never been able to identify; it sounds familiar, like a pop tune from the day, but that nagging sense of possible recognition could simply point to Guaraldi's facility for accessible original compositions: You think you've heard them before, even when you haven't.

Anyway, I advised against using that track, for obvious reasons; it would look a bit silly to label a song "We don't know what this cue is, but we included it anyway, because we really like it." No matter how good the track is.

Well, due to a production slip-up, the mystery track was mixed up with a dynamite cover of "Autumn Leaves," and the former wound up on the CD ... mis-identified as the latter.

Okay, so I initially rolled my eyes, but then realized that this error had an upside: Now it's easy to share this mystery track with avid Guaraldi fans and mainstream music buffs, in the hopes of one day identifying the silly thing.

Well, that was three years ago ... and I'm still sharing. Most recently, I gave the disc to journalist, music scholar and local radio host Bill Buchanan, who has interviewed me several times on KDRT; you can check out his weekly shows here. I supplied the usual explanation, and he promised to listen carefully and do his best.

I saw him again just last week, and he related what initially seemed an amusing little anecdote ... until its implications sank in. He had faithfully played the mystery track, repeatedly, with much the reaction I've had; the tune sounded familiar to him, but not familiar enough that he could place it. During this process, his daughter wandered into the room; she asked what he was doing, and he explained. She whipped out her smart phone and, before he could stop her, found and activated the Shazam song ID app.

"That's easy," she told him, after just a few seconds. "It's 'Autumn Leaves.' "

Bill paused, awaiting my reaction. I must confess, I initially smiled and shook my head ... but then the smile evaporated.

"Oh, no," I said. 

Bill nodded, and he wasn't smiling either.

I came home, snatched up my wife's iPod Touch and repeated the experiment, also with Shazam. Same result. I switched over to Soundhound, another song ID app. After less than 15 seconds, I again had the same result: "Autumn Leaves."

Which isn't true, of course.

But how are the Shazam and Soundhound services to know? Or any other, similar, apps that spring up? Their aggregate data is supplied by CD producers and distributors, who are responsible for such mistakes in the first place. And even if we assume that such tasks fall to interns or other lower-echelon employees, such citizens can't be blamed for passing along bad data; in many cases, they likely wouldn't know the music well enough to perceive the error in the first place.

But you can see the result: Every new generation, moving forward from this early 21st century moment, will have access to "authoritative" sources that claim "Autumn Leaves" is something that it isn't. At best, their numbers will equal the music buffs who know darn well what the actual jazz standard sounds like.

It gets worse, because this situation isn't confined to this one CD. Liner notes errors aren't common, thank goodness, but they do occur. Indeed, other examples can be found in Guaraldi's own discography. The 1998 Fantasy release, Charlie Brown's Holiday Hits, opens with a track that is identified as "Joe Cool" ... but it isn't. Peanuts fans and the Guaraldi faithful are very familiar with Dr. Funk's growling vocal on the song written for Snoopy's sunglass-wearing alter ego, and it absolutely ain't the first track on this album.

But both Shazam and Soundhound immediately identify it as "Joe Cool." Ye gods...

(For the record, the track in question is something else I've yet to identify; my latest working theory is that it may not even be Guaraldi's work, but instead an underscore track from an episode of The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show, produced several years after he died. I've yet to test that possibility by carefully listening to all 18 episodes.)

Even if subsequent re-issues of these two CDs correct the liner notes info, it's highly unlikely that the updated information will make it to these Internet-based song ID apps. No, these errors are forever, along with similar errors resulting from incorrect liner note information on who knows how many other albums Out There, and the misinformation will continue to spread. Long after I'm gone, and no longer able to make these woefully inadequate attempts to set the record straight, people will wonder why Guaraldi quite oddly assigned the same song title to two entirely different tunes.

And jazz fans will find themselves in frustrating arguments with less-informed friends and colleagues, who'll hold up their gadget of the moment, saying, "But of course this is 'Autumn Leaves' ... I just identified it as such!"

Good grief!