Hey, Mom! The Explanation.

Here's the permanent dedicated link to my first Hey, Mom! post and the explanation of the feature it contains.

Tuesday, December 19, 2023

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3227 - Why Charlie Brown Christmas is a Masterpiece - Vince Guaraldi Trio


A Sense of Doubt blog post #3227 - Why Charlie Brown Christmas is a Masterpiece - Vince Guaraldi Trio

Lately, I have been talking with a friend about the top ten albums to take to a desert island for listening the remainder of our lives. This album would be on that list, 100000%.

This music has been part of the soundtrack of my whole life.

I didn't have a recording of it until about 1985. Before then, I would just hear it in the annual viewing of A Charlie Brown Christmas and in stores when it was played over the sound system.

"Linus and Lucy," the signature "dance" tune, was the exit music (recessional) at our wedding.

I adore this music and sometimes listen to it at times of year not near Christmas but mostly (and  A LOT) during the Christmas season.

I am so grateful for Vince Guaraldi Trio.

And to Sparky, Charles M Schultz, for some of the best comics in the history of comics.

So, that's why this post is also filed with the "gratitude" label.

This music means family to me; it means love; it means happiness.

After all, "Happiness is a warm puppy," as Schultz reminded us.

As I type these words, I have a warm puppy next to me, snoring.

Life is good.

Thanks for tuning in.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.


https://www.openculture.com/2023/12/an-introduction-to-vince-guaraldi-the-jazz-composer-who-created-the-best-christmas-album-ever-a-charlie-brown-christmas.html


An Introduction to Vince Guaraldi, the Jazz Composer Who Created the Best Christmas Album Ever, A Charlie Brown Christmas





Matt Draper
Dec 7, 2017
A look at the musical career of jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi and how he created the unforgettable music of the Peanuts and Charlie Brown television specials.

When A Charlie Brown Christmas first aired 58 years ago, few had any confidence that it would be a hit. Its story and animation, bare-bones even by the standards of mid-nineteen-sixties television, made a positive impression on neither CBS’ executives nor on many of the special’s own creators. They didn’t expect that this very simplicity would turn it into a perennial holiday favorite — nor, presumably, that its soundtrack by the Vince Guaraldi Trio would become one of the most beloved Christmas albums in existence. Now that we’re well into the season when the music from A Charlie Brown Christmas is heard every day in homes, cafés, and shopping malls all around the world, why not get an introduction to Guaraldi, the man and his music, from pop culture video essayist Matt Draper?

“Born in San Francisco in 1928, Guaraldi credited his two uncles with sparking his interest in jazz as a child, with the future musician already learning the piano by age seven,” says Draper. After serving in the Korean War and returning home to study music at San Francisco State University, Guaraldi began to “pursue his love of jazz in local clubs.”

He soon formed his trio, and recording their first albums in the mid-nineteen-fifties, he “expanded his use of Latin jazz and bossa nova.” In 1962 Guaraldi scored his first hit with “Cast Your Fate to the Wind,” a single from an album inspired by Marcel Camus’ Black Orpheus. It was a radio broadcast of that song, so the story goes, that caught the ear of Lee Mendelson, who would produce A Charlie Brown Christmas, as he crossed the Golden Gate Bridge in a taxicab.





Vince Guaraldi

Premiered Dec 1, 2023  #charliebrownchristmas #vinyl #christmas
Gather 'round the fireplace and celebrate the season with the classic A Charlie Brown Christmas album in its entirety!

With timeless selections “Christmas Time Is Here” and “Linus and Lucy,”  A Charlie Brown Christmas continues to be America’s most popular holiday album, with a 5x platinum certification making it the joint best-selling Jazz album of all-time and an annual family tradition since 1965.  Press play on our special Yule Log video and let the album spin (and fireplace burn) all day long!

The beloved album is also available on vinyl and for streaming on all platforms. Details and links here: https://found.ee/cbxmas-2023

Shop the Craft Recordings store for all Vince Guaraldi vinyl and more: https://found.ee/CraftVinceGuaraldi
Subscribe to Vince Guaraldi on YouTube: https://found.ee/VinceGuaraldiYouTube

#christmas #vinyl #charliebrownchristmas


Mendelson initially commissioned Guaraldi to compose the music for A Boy Named Charlie Brown, a television documentary that ultimately never aired. But its recording sessions brought forth “Linus and Lucy,” which became Peanuts’ de facto theme song, and when Coca-Cola agreed to sponsor Peanuts Christmas special in 1965 — a scant six months before Christmas itself — Guaraldi was called back to score it. “A Charlie Brown Christmas is a rather melancholic story centering on Charlie’s search for meaning and worth in the holiday season,” says Draper, “so it’s fitting that a large portion of Guaraldi’s score is tinged with sadness.” Yet “Guaraldi’s melancholy isn’t overwrought or forced; rather, it’s minor and subtle,” unlike the average film score that tries to “beat its listeners over the head with emotion.”




Charles Cornell


The soundtrack album, which you can hear (and see accompanied by a Yule fireplace) on the official Vince Guaraldi Youtube channel, offers musical variety from the “ton of swinging style” in its version of “O Tanenbaum” to the “waltz brimming with energy” of “Skating” to “Christmas Is Coming,” with its “hints of rock-and-roll.” In the video just above, composer-Youtuber Charles Cornell explains what makes it “without a doubt, the best Christmas album ever” (a title held along with that of the best-selling jazz album in history after Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue), not least its being less “in-your-face Christmas” than other similarly themed recordings. Yet he also acknowledges that Guaraldi’s most beautiful composition for a Peanuts special isn’t in A Charlie Brown Christmas, but It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, from 1966. When next fall fall rolls around, do make “Great Pumpkin Waltz” the first song you hear.

Related Content:

How Innovative Jazz Pianist Vince Guaraldi Became the Composer of Beloved Charlie Brown Music

Stream 22 Hours of Funky, Rocking & Swinging Christmas Albums: From James Brown and Johnny Cash to Christopher Lee & The Ventures

Enjoy Classic Songs from A Charlie Brown Christmas, Performed by Vince Guaraldi Trio Drummer Jerry Granelli

Why “White Christmas,” “Here Comes Santa Claus,” “Let It Snow,” and Other Classic Christmas Songs Come from the 1940s

Charles Schulz Draws Charlie Brown in 45 Seconds and Exorcises His Demons

The Enduring Appeal of Schulz’s Peanuts — Pretty Much Pop: A Culture Podcast #116

Based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities, language, and culture. His projects include the Substack newsletter Books on Cities, the book The Stateless City: a Walk through 21st-Century Los Angeles and the video series The City in Cinema. Follow him on Twitter at @colinmarshall or on Facebook.


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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2312.19 - 10:10

- Days ago = 3091 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.

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