Vince Guaraldi Trio - A Charlie Brown Christmas

Fantasy issues a 2012 LP pressing of the classic Christmas special album on green vinyl. When Guaraldi's Charlie Brown Christmas album was inducted into the Library of Congress, the Library's media release noted, "A Charlie Brown Christmas introduced jazz to millions of listeners." According to annotator and Guaraldi biographer Bang, "The importance of [that] sentence can not be overstated." Children all over the world who had resisted jazz as the music of their parents were given an introduction.

Berkeley-based Fantasy Records wisely released a soundtrack LP of the San Franciscan pianist's work on the show. (Completing the Northern California scenario, Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz built his final studio in Santa Rosa, and it's there where the Charles M. Schulz Museum was established as a permanent home to Snoopy and the gang. So too the sweet voices heard on "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" are from San Rafael's St. Paul's Church Children's Choir.)

Just as Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life became part of the American Christmas experience, CBS Television achieved the same result with A Charlie Brown Christmas. At the same time, any jazz-resisting viewers found themselves thoroughly absorbed.

For this new edition of the soundtrack for A Charlie Brown Christmas, reissue producer Nick Phillips and remastering impresario Joe Tarantino resurrected the original stereo analog master tapes along with the original stereo mixes.The album's centerpiece track, today as it was in 1965, is "Christmas Time Is Here," particularly the long, soulful instrumental version that clocks in at just over six minutes.

 

 

 

Side 1

O Tannenbaum

What Child Is This

My Little Drum

Linus and Lucy

Christmas Time Is Here (instrumental)

Side 2

Christmas Time Is Here

Skating

Hark, The Herald Angels Sing

Christmas Is Coming

Fur Elise

The Christmas Song

Greensleeves

Customer Reviews (3.00 Stars) 1 person(s) rated this product.

Great recording. Noisy vinyl. posted on 10/06/2021 3 Stars Reviewer: green_shag_rug As soon as I put the stylus down, I was shocked by the static/surface noise at the beginning of the record. I tried my electrostatic gun, my Boundless brush, a gentle cleaning, but no luck.So I just cranked it up to drown out the surface noise. I do have a brand new VM540 cartridge, and everything else I've been spinning sounds great. It's sad. The recording is excellent. And I believe this is one of the most important jazz albums of all time, because it was my first exposure to jazz as a little kid and probably one reason why I eventually became a jazz lover. Noise did get a little better further into side A. And side B isn't as bad. Also, to be clear, this recording does have some hiss-like sound and drum brushing. The surface noise I hear is not that. So it gets a 5 for the recording and a 1 for the pressing.

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