Vince Guaraldi - A Charlie Brown Christmas: You cannot fuck with this album.

^^^Upstanding citizen.

Oddly listening to it right now, over a glass of cheap red wine with the Missus. Agreed. Unfuckwithable (as I wrote here back in 2005.

"in person" has a nice mix of standards like "On Green Dolphin Street" and "Jitterbug Waltz" with some Brazilian numbers, but I haven't really listened to it enough.

(missed chance to make cheap joke about honoring the yule log fire)

teh charlie brown easter soundtrack is awesome - guaraldi fuzz-bass acid rock

jamz kick in @ 1:49

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8qbXoeaOOE

snoopy-san

古い録音テープから、Windowsムービーメーカーを使って復元しました。

"Christmas is Coming" = BEST EVAR

as much as i want to be the first contrarian on this thread, i cant. totally, 100% unfuckwitable. best bargain-bin find i've ever had at princeton record exchange.

Listening to this now and lord but I love this record. Never much paid attention to it before, but the sequencing is so terrific!

i.e., the way "Hark the Herald Angel Sings" transitions into the relatively (for this album) hard running jazz of "Christmas is Coming" is so great to me.

is all of his stuff like this? i saw a used record yesterday that was hella cheap but i didn't know if it was all official awesome stuff like this

-- M@tt He1ges0n, Friday, December 7, 2007 4:24 PM (56 minutes ago)

definitely search the albums he did with Bola Sete. not really "like this" (more bossa nova inflected) but pretty awesome.

-- Stormy Davis, Friday, December 7, 2007 5:30 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus is great and features his big hit "Cast Your Fate to the Wind," always the most rocking song on the Muzak playlist.

-- James Redd and the Blecchs, Friday, December 7, 2007 7:10 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

seconding Jazz Impressions... and highly recommending From All sides w/ Bola Sete.

apparently they did fuck with it though; that remaster has the wrong take of Linus and Lucy as well as some other weird problems.

-- akm, Friday, December 7, 2007 11:00 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Link

What???

yeah how could you fuck up THAT ONE out of all the tracks?

i dunno, you can read the amazon comments about it as well as other places on the internet. the earlier version (for instance, the same version you can buy at starbucks) has the correct takes, and apparently some boxed version you can find at costco and best buy on a candian label have correct songs; but the remaster (which has 'greensleeves' added) is all messed up

Never noticed it being different before. There's an alternate take of "Linus and Lucy" as a bonus track that's markedly different, but it's a bonus, not a substitution.

okay, it's this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Charlie-Brown-Christmas-Vince-Guaraldi/dp/B000ICLSMY/r

not the one pictured uptop that is messed up.

Since the thread title begs, I will fuck with this album.
"Hark the Herald Angels Sing". It's cute, but can also be a mood killer.

i duno man that intro is haunting and the singy part reminds me of the cartoon

What mood does it kill, exactly?

The light jazzy mellow mood. I like the intro a lot, but when they start belting it out... sometimes I skip.

chaki you are so right, it's impossible to have this album on and be sad.

only thing it's missing is that awesome little "snoopy" theme that plays when he's decorating the doghouse.

... sometimes I skip.
http://www.animateit.net/data/thumbnails/105/6fc43d4c.gif

I love this album.

Yeah, I think i'm gonna bring it to the office tomorrow.

'christmas time is here' is the saddest song ever, how can you put it on and NOT be sad?

The funny thing is of course how the lyrics are anything but that -- it's a gentle celebration when read, and even sung. I wouldn't call it flat out sad as a result, but it's certainly wistful, and in a 1966 context almost seems like it was meant to function in the same nostalgic headspace as "I'll Be Home For Christmas" did a generation earlier. Now that it's become part of all our collective memories, the function has transformed away from being part of a welcoming thought of 'what Christmas is like' -- it, along with the ice-skating part, was the first thing that anyone saw/heard of the special upon first broadcast -- to something else entirely.

Yep, unfuckwithable. And who could forget this:

http://the-op.com/images/episode/204/gm-snoopy_sm.jpg

This is in my top 10 ever, so I'm not hating. But, has anyone else felt jarred by the Hark the Herald Angels number? I feel like it's at a different volume than the rest of the record.

LP on sale for $7!
http://www.turntablelab.com/vinyl/147/434/2635.html

It truly is one of the very few albums I can listen to in seemingly endless rotations (so long as it's December, that is).

"Hark the Herald Angels Sing". It's cute, but can also be a mood killer.

It's grown on me, but it's taken a long while. I agree, though -- it does act as a mood killer. If not killer, then certainly a mood maimer.

Guaraldi hits a few clinkers during his Charlie Parkerish take on "O Tannenbaum," but I could care less. The epitome of a cool yule.
I had the earlier version of the album and the sound quality of the reissue is dramatically improved.

So unfuckwithable. This shit just rules.

Most of the Peanuts TV specials did get screened in Britain but I don't recall ever seeing the Christmas one.

Nonetheless I did go out and buy this album last weekend on the basis of the above recommendations and it is indeed a lovely and wistful thing, sort of a missing link between Bill Evans' Conversations With Myself and Low's Christmas. The vocal version of "Christmas Time Is Here" would have caused a sensation if Brian Wilson had come up with it, except that the absence of harmonies - the kids all sing the topline of the melody - makes it even more poignant. Not sure that "Hark The Herald Angels" acappella quite works in this context, though.

Also, "Skating" has one of the loveliest chord sequences ever. It's a real tragedy that Guaraldi died so young.

I'm a year late but it's that gruesome time again.This reminds me of proper Xmas. Those that don't happen anymore. Cry.
Got this at the weekend and came on here just knowing there would be a thread.

You're all so otfm.
'Skating' is indeed beautiful, 'Linus and Lucy' is as great as ever but 'Christmas Is Coming' is also so good, eventhough the jazz breakdown pushes it slightly too much for these ears.

So where do I turn next Guaraldi wise? Or anybody in a similar vein

Appreciated

Oh and Merry Fucking Christmas

Aw Fk _I missed 'Christmas Time is Here'...

Oh and Merry Fucking Christmas
― Fer Ark (13 minutes ago)

Aw Fk _I missed 'Christmas Time is Here'...
― Fer Ark (1 minute ago)

Yer one contradictory dude! :)

O and Merry Fookin Xmas to ya too, then!

Sorry, I was wrapping presents and lost the end of the sellotape - lost my temper too ;-)

A remarkably early wrapper, you.

I wish I could talk more 'bout Vince Guaraldi but, eh, I've only heard a couple of tunes by him.

Hah - I played this last friday night to some random drunken chixorz

so, uh, BEST ALBUM EVER!

So true, on my pod all year round...

Last night I saw my son dancing to this album and oh, it was total happiness...

:-D And how is that good little dude?

very well indeed! - but the news is that he will be joined by 2 (TWO!) little brothers next March...next Christmas will be busy around here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhTBykWo0mg

Jerry Granelli is still going strong, loving his Plays The Music Of Vince Guaraldi & Mose Allison album.

― calzino, Tuesday, May 19, 2020 7:17 AM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

Jerry Granelli unfortunately passed away in July. Absolutely incredible and inspiring musician.

i do truly love this record but this year my inner voice keeps dolefully singing “omicron is here”

;_;

All time LP.

At some point since this thread began, I think the meaning of "fuck with" kind of got reversed. Nowadays if someone says they "fuck with" an album that probably means they like it, no?

looooooooooooool estela

Crowds are rapt in fear
Sniffles coughs
Your breathing stops
The loss of all held dear

A+

yes, thank you forks

love this stuff, also recommend the modern jazz quartet album "on tour" which hits a similar vibe as this

― mr. que, covering up the vital parts, lest he embarrass the ladi (M@tt He1ges0n), Wednesday, November 18, 2009 4:47 PM (twelve years ago)

belated thanks for this recommendation btw! i‘ve got it on now and it does have a similar mood, espec “skating in central park”

Modern Jazz Quartet and John Lewis absolutely rule. In some strange way that I won't expand on they remind me more of Kraftwerk than Vince Guaralidi! The two European Concert volume albums are ace.

Never knowingly undersoloed

Still accurate. This, though...is a bit insane.

https://craftrecordings.com/collections/vince-guaraldi/products/vince-guaraldi-trio-a-charlie-brown-christmas-super-deluxe-edition-4-cd-blu-ray

(But I still want it.)

And with the season nigh and with in fact three total reissues this fall on Craft (including Great Pumpkin and Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus), I had occasion for some thoughts

https://www.patreon.com/posts/some-weekly-73870968

best album of all time, perfect wistful melancholy without being morose, as well as having a couple all time uptempo jams. And deep cuts! My Little Drum is amazing.

Played this morning as my wife and myself were opening presents, I vetoed her suggestion of Sufjan Stevens, it's always so sad sounding to me.

Amazing album. No you cannot fuck with it, except for “Linus and Lucy” which is crap. Every time that comes on, my dinner party guests are like, “That was some nice mellow Christmas music we had there, Mr. Snrub. Why did you kill it and put on the fucking Charlie Brown theme song?”

you need better dinner party guests imo

the correct response is to do this dance

https://media.tenor.com/QQPHo0TcWmcAAAAC/charlie-brown-christmas-dance.gif

for real tho

except for “Linus and Lucy” which is crap.

Sorry but no. Iconic for a reason!

That is just silly. If there's a jarring moment, it's the bad kid singing on Hark the Herald Angels Sing, but that has its charms.
'Skating' is the best cut

"Linus and Lucy" haters are defective.

Why yes I got that complete sessions box set I linked above. I regret absolutely nothing.

"Linus and Lucy" makes as much sense on a Xmas playlist as Thurl Ravenscroft reading an unpopular recluse to filth for 5 solid minutes

🤨

Why you're a mean one, Mr. H.

(To be clear, I think “Linus and Lucy” does belong on Xmas playlists)

so you're saying that Mr. Snrub's soul is an appalling dump heap

“Linus and Lucy”is Christmas in my house.

A Charlie Brown Christmasis perhaps not as iconic in the UK compared to the US but it truly is this planet's best Christmas music.

"christmas is coming" goes so hard

it’s a perfect record. I finally bought a shitty overpriced green vinyl reissue because I felt I had to own it, I play it every couple of days every december. the movie is perfect too

Great new piece from Nate Chinen on another Guaraldi landmark, his Charlie Brown Thanksgiving songs, now available properly standalone for the first time:

https://www.wrti.org/arts-desk/2023-11-20/after-50-years-the-hip-soundtrack-for-a-charlie-brown-thanksgiving-is-available-as-a-full-musical-feast