Bits & bobs

Followers of this blog will recall that the various special releases promised for last year's Record Store Day — on Saturday, June 12 — included Guaraldi's “Baseball Theme,” pressed for the very first time as a stand-alone, 7-inch single. Alas, supply-chain issues and the ongoing vinyl shortage resulted in numerous titles being postponed or canceled; the Guaraldi single was one of the casualties.

Good news, folks: It now has been promised for Record Store Day 2022: Saturday, April 23. Mark your calendar!

By way of a reminder, the A-side features 1964's original soundtrack version of the song, while the B-side is an alternative studio take never before available on vinyl (although it is included on the album's 2014 CD re-release). 

“Baseball Theme” was one of many tunes Guaraldi wrote for the never-released 1964 documentary, A Boy Named Charlie Brown: to be used in a sequence devoted to Charlie Brown’s ill-fated efforts on the ball field. Guaraldi deftly leads his trio through the up-tempo instrumental track, accompanied by bassist Monty Budwig and drummer Colin Bailey. 

The limited-edition single is pressed on white vinyl and housed in a colorful jacket, featuring whimsical, baseball-themed images of Charlie Brown and Snoopy. Visit recordstoreday.com for a list of participating indie retailers. 

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The San Francisco Chronicle recently published an excellent article concerning an honor bestowed to the famous Hyde Street Studios: a bronze plaque recognizing it as a legacy business in San Francisco, for its contributions to the history and identity of the neighborhood, and to the pantheon of pop music.

Way back in the day, when it was known as the Wally Heider Studios (and following his breakup with Fantasy), Guaraldi recorded many of his scores for Peanuts specials within its walls, starting with You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown, and concluding — on February 6, the day he later died — with It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown. 

On February 6, 1974, Guaraldi and his trio were in that studio to record a live concert broadcast by KPFA and KPFB, much later released as the CD Live on the Air.

Guaraldi also spent several studio sessions, over the course of his final few years, recording tracks for a never-completed album: among them "Autumn Leaves," "Billie's Bounce," "No. 1 Snoopy Place," "Special Song" and "Your Song."

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This isn't fresh news, but it was new to me.

Back in 2009, Fantasy released the two-disc Definitive Vince Guaraldi, which is a marvelous 31-song collection of Guaraldi's best work for that label, from early tunes such as "Calling Dr. Funk" to later Peanuts efforts, such as the title theme to A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. The package also included two previously unreleased tracks: "Blues for Peanuts" and an alternate take of "Autumn Leaves."

I somehow missed the fact that, in July 2019, Hal Leonard released a massive 216-page book in its "Artist Transcription" series, devoted to the music in this two-disc set, and bearing the same title.

It contains all 31 songs.

Let me assure you, these are not trivial arrangements; as promised by the series, they are "authentic, note-for-note transcriptions." Many of them — I'm looking at "On Green Dolphin Street" and "Manha de Carnaval" — are impressively dense; you'll need serious piano chops to play these puppies.

(But everybody loves a challenge, right?)

This is, without question, the most impressive Guaraldi song book released thus far. Better work on those finger exercises!

Contest time!

The Peanuts comic strip celebrated its 65th anniversary on October 2, and A Charlie Brown Christmas will mark its 50th anniversary on December 9. On top of which, we've got this modest big-screen movie debuting November 6.

Add the impending proximity of the holiday season, and you know what that means: plenty of new and "freshened" merchandise, in a variety of formats.

Guaraldi fans whose taste crosses over to pianist David Benoit — and it absolutely should — won't want to miss Believe, his new album collaboration with jazz chanteuse Jane Monheit. It includes plenty of material from A Charlie Brown Christmas, and the instrumental highlight is a lengthy trio medley — with bassist David Hughes and drummer Jamey Tate — that features "Surfin' Snoopy" (aka "Air Music"), "Christmas Is Coming," "Greensleeves" and "O Christmas Tree." On the gentler side, Monheit's poignant handling of "Christmas Time Is Here" is backed by the All-American Boys Chorus (standing in for the young members of the St. Paul's Church Choir, who supplied Charlie Brown and the gang's singing voices in the TV special). The arrangement is pure Guaraldi, as is the case with an equally charming cover of "My Little Drum." The album also features Monheit's touching reading of "Just Like Me," the 2005 Benoit/Lee Mendelson original that serves as an emotional bookend to "Christmas Time Is Here."

Speaking of the aforementioned new 3D film from the talented folks at Blue Sky (the geniuses behind the Ice Age franchise and several other CGI hits), its soundtrack hit retail shelves on October 23. Although most of the original underscore comes from veteran film composer Christoph Beck, the album also includes three classic Vince Guaraldi Trio recordings: "Linus and Lucy," "Skating" and "Christmas Time Is Here."

Moving to the pure Guaraldi front, today (November 1) marks the debut of Concord Records' Charlie Brown Christmas 50th Anniversary Gift Pack, which includes the following:

• The original 11-track Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack
• Peanuts Portraits
• A reproduction of the children's book version of A Charlie Brown Christmas
• Four double-sided postcards featuring various members of the Peanuts gang

This item is a Walmart exclusive.

(Sharp-eyed fans will recognize the postcard images as smaller versions of the mini-posters originally packaged with Fantasy Records' first-run LP pressings of Jazz Impressions of A Boy Named Charlie Brown.)

But wait; there's more! Today also marks the debut of three colored vinyl, retailer-exclusive editions of the Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack:

• Red and green vinyl, available only at F.Y.E. stores
• Red vinyl, available only at Urban Outfitters
• Red and white vinyl, available only at Newbury Comics

And, of course, the existing green vinyl version remains available to all via Amazon.

So ... how many of those LPs will you scramble to find?

Looking a little further forward, November 20 is the release date of Concord's four-LP box set version of The Definitive Vince Guaraldi. The 31 songs from 2009's double-CD have been pressed onto four LPs, each housed in a different art sleeve. The package also includes a 12-by-24-inch poster of Guaraldi, original liner notes by noted jazz historian Doug Ramsey, a reproduction of the promotional cardboard "Vince mustache" that was handed out to patrons of his 1960s club gigs, and a 16-page booklet laden with vintage photos, club ads, newspaper articles and other ephemera from back in the day. (Many of the latter items come from the extensive library of archival materials I assembled, while researching my Guaraldi bio.) Not to be missed!

But wait, I hear you cry ... isn't this post headlined Contest Time?

Indeed yes, and I have not one, but two contests for you. 

Concord Records and JazzTimes magazine are running a sweepstakes that gives everybody a chance to win the four-LP Definitive Vince Guaraldi box set. That's right, just one winner ... so the question is, Are ya feelin' lucky? Check it out here.

Be advised: You'll need to establish a free JazzTimes user account, and then log into that account, in order to enter online. (All other forms of entry are void.)

This sweepstakes ended November 15, 2015.

But hey: You don't need to do anything special to enter our exclusive Impressions of Vince contest. Two lucky winners will be sent copies of Concord's Charlie Brown Christmas 50th Anniversary Gift Pack.

(This contest also concluded on November 15, and the answers now have been supplied below.)

All you need to is correctly answer the following questions:

1. Because A Charlie Brown Christmas debuted in 1965, it featured many characters who soon faded into obscurity and then weren't seen for decades thereafter. Name one. [Many possible answers here: Violet, the original Patty, 5 and his twin sisters 3 and 4]

2. Similarly, Charles M. Schulz hadn't yet introduced some of the strip's most popular characters when this show was made. Name one popular Peanuts character not seen in A Charlie Brown Christmas. [Again, several possible answers: Marcie, Peppermint Patty, Franklin, Woodstock and Rerun, among others]

3. Lucy never eats December snowflakes, even though Linus insists "They look ripe to me." Lucy tells us that she waits until which month? [January]

4. What will Linus do with his blanket when he grows up? [Make it into a sport coat]

5. What does Lucy want for Christmas? [Real estate]

6. In the school stage dance scene, what instrument does Pig-Pen play? [Bass]

7. Snoopy is called upon to imitate several animals for the school play. Which of the following is not one of them? a) sheep; b) goat; c) penguin; d) cow. [Goat]

8. How many tufts of green growth does the little tree have when Charlie Brown and Linus first spot it? [Three]

9. How many different ways does Schroeder play "Jingle Bells" for Lucy? [Three]

10. What color is the one ornament that Charlie Brown puts on his tree, which causes it to flop over? [Red]

Email your entries to derrickbang@gmail.com. Please, one entry per person. Winners will be selected randomly from entries with perfect scores. In the event nobody gets 100%, winners will be selected from entries with the most correct answers. 

Congratulations to our two winners: Doug and Bill. You know who you are...!

And the Hits just keep on coming!

As Guaraldi fans know, this is a big year for Dr. Funk — being the 50th anniversary of both his Grace Cathedral Jazz Mass, and the television debut of his Peanuts themes in A Charlie Brown Christmas — and Fantasy Records isn’t missing the opportunity to acknowledge these milestones.

The first treat arrives today, with the CD release of Peanuts Greatest Hits, a fresh assortment of Guaraldi’s most iconic themes for Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the rest of the gang. (A brand-new vinyl version will follow in September.) You’ll find the usual suspects, most notably “Linus and Lucy” (of course!), “Charlie Brown Theme,” “Oh, Good Grief” and his three compositions from A Charlie Brown Christmas. But the collection also includes a track that is relatively new to Fantasy: Guaraldi’s vocal rendition of the droll “Little Birdie,” previously available only on Peanuts Portraits.

Fantasy once again was gracious enough to let me write some new liner notes, and I wove that essay around a tantalizing “what if” that might have taken place in an alternate universe. In our real world, the first Guaraldi Peanuts tune most of us heard was “Christmas Time Is Here,” which plays over the opening scene in A Charlie Brown Christmas. But what if director/producer Lee Mendelson had been able to sell his earlier documentary, A Boy Named Charlie Brown, to a television network? How would that have affected the sequence in which we initially heard the 12 tracks on this new collection?

(Hey, I needed a fresh “hook” with which to approach these liner notes, and that seemed as good as any!)

Fantasy has additional plans between now and the end of the year. The 1998 CD release, Charlie Brown’s Holiday Hits, will be re-issued on vinyl. Much more ambitiously, 2009’s double-CD set, The Definitive Vince Guaraldi, will be re-released as a 4-LP, 180-gram vinyl box set: a lovely package that will include a poster of Schroeder and Guaraldi, enhanced liner notes with lots of 1960s-era Guaraldi photos and ephemera from my personal collection. Finally, perennial favorite A Charlie Brown Christmas will celebrate its golden anniversary in multiple formats (final details not yet set; stay tuned).

Those of us who still prefer the “warmth” of vinyl clearly have ample reason to celebrate.

But wait, there’s more!

Fantasy and the Concord Music Group have generously agreed to offer a few free CD copies of Peanuts Greatest Hits to my faithful blog followers. Merely handing them out would be too easy, so I’ve decided to turn it into a contest. Discs will be sent to the first five people who correctly answer this question:

Name two non-Peanuts Guaraldi compositions that he recorded on more than one Fantasy (vinyl) LP, back in the day (prior to 1970). Do not include 1964’s Jazz Impressions in your search, as its entire contents are drawn from earlier albums. And remember: Fantasy only. Don’t send me titles that popped up on Warner Bros., Crown or any other label.

Send your answers to the e-mail address at right ("Email Derrick"). Please do not send them as comments, because I'll simply delete them. (Besides which, I'll need your e-mail address.)

Good luck!

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August 1 Addendum:

The contest is over, and many thanks to all of you who participated. Frankly, I'm quite surprised; I wasn't aware my readership was this large, or this gracious. Many of you wrote very nice comments about this blog, and my book, which I greatly appreciate. Makes all the supplementary research efforts even more rewarding.

That said, the correct answers are:

"Ginza," also known as "Ginza Samba," appears on three albums: Modern Music from San Francisco, Cal Tjader/Stan Getz Sextet and From All Sides.

"Star Song" appears on Vince Guaraldi, Bola Sete & Friends and The Latin Side of Vince Guaraldi.

And our five winners are:

Brad Adams
Damon Carmona
Dylan DeFeo
Scott McGuire
Michael Shirey

CDs will be on their way to you soon!