“Happiness is a Warm Gun” isn’t the only connection between The Beatles and Peanuts. Both groups exemplified the optimism of the 1960s era. Charles M. Schulz’s Charlie Brown was so assured of positive outcomes he repeatedly tried to kick a field-goal-placed football held by the town’s resident five-cents-a-session psychiatrist, Lucy, in spite of the knowledge she would pull it out from under him at the last moment. He faced defeat and realized “the world didn’t come to an end.”
When Schulz’s comic strip moved into animated TV specials, much of that expectant wonder was expressed through the music. Jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi joined the Peanuts’ creative gang in 1964, when he was hired to score a TV documentary about Schulz, A Boy Named Charlie Brown. The documentary never aired, but jazz label Fantasy Records released the Vince Guaraldi Trio’s soundtrack, Jazz Impressions of A Boy...
When Schulz’s comic strip moved into animated TV specials, much of that expectant wonder was expressed through the music. Jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi joined the Peanuts’ creative gang in 1964, when he was hired to score a TV documentary about Schulz, A Boy Named Charlie Brown. The documentary never aired, but jazz label Fantasy Records released the Vince Guaraldi Trio’s soundtrack, Jazz Impressions of A Boy...
- 3/11/2023
- by Mike Cecchini
- Den of Geek
The Score of ‘It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown’ Was Lost — Now It’s Found, and Better Than Ever
Halloween has a soundtrack. It’s the shrieks, howls, and moans of a spooky sounds cassette. It’s the novelty songs from the era of late, late shows mingling with more straight-faced pop that dips a toe into the macabre and the supernatural. It’s the instrumentals that set the tone for the hauntings, possessions, and/or slashings of a favorite horror movie.
Yet, for decades, this seasonal backdrop was incomplete. The Halloween canon lacked one of its most vital recordings, its esprit de fall confined to annual television airings, home video releases, and one hard to find read-along storybook and record. You couldn’t add it to a costume party mixtape, couldn’t load it onto a playlist for a drive to the pumpkin patch. Which is a shame, because unlike so many of the pop hits retroactively adopted as Halloween standards, jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi’s score for...
Yet, for decades, this seasonal backdrop was incomplete. The Halloween canon lacked one of its most vital recordings, its esprit de fall confined to annual television airings, home video releases, and one hard to find read-along storybook and record. You couldn’t add it to a costume party mixtape, couldn’t load it onto a playlist for a drive to the pumpkin patch. Which is a shame, because unlike so many of the pop hits retroactively adopted as Halloween standards, jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi’s score for...
- 10/31/2022
- by Erik Adams
- Indiewire
The 1966 animated television special It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown has become a perennial Halloween standard. Starring the Peanuts gang created by Charles M. Schulz, it is not, however, a horror classic. “It’s not even on the scale,” says film analyst and Peanuts historian Derrick Bang. “It’s too sweet and gentle. The only thing mildly spooky is the title credit sequence.” What the special lacked in fear it made up for in wonder. Much of that magic came from the music.
While Lucy, Linus, and even Snoopy come home with sacks of candy, Charlie Brown’s trick or treat bag is filled with rocks. That’s not how Halloween is supposed to roll. Lee Mendelson, co-creator of the Peanuts animated specials, brought in someone who could make it swing.
San Francisco Bay area jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi had been part of the Peanuts’ creative gang for two...
While Lucy, Linus, and even Snoopy come home with sacks of candy, Charlie Brown’s trick or treat bag is filled with rocks. That’s not how Halloween is supposed to roll. Lee Mendelson, co-creator of the Peanuts animated specials, brought in someone who could make it swing.
San Francisco Bay area jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi had been part of the Peanuts’ creative gang for two...
- 10/27/2022
- by Mike Cecchini
- Den of Geek
"Those Sensational Swing Scores: Or How I Journeyed from 1949’s Martin Kane, Private Eye to 2018’s King of Thieves in Four Years, Two Months, 17 Days, Six Hours and 43 Minutes"
By Derrick Bang, author of "Crime and Spy Jazz 1950-1970" and "Crime and Spy Jazz Since 1971" (McFarland)
I initially wanted to write the ultimate guide to television’s Peter Gunn. But some quick research revealed that it would be hard to improve upon Joe Manning’s excellent two-part feature story in the June and July 2007 issues of Film Score Monthly magazine; and Mike Quigley’s impressively thorough website guide to that iconic 1958-61 TV series (at www.petergunn.tv). That said, Mike’s meticulously thorough analysis of the show’s music planted a larger seed: perhaps a book about classic TV action jazz? Even there, though, a few existing books — such as Kristopher Spencer’s Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979 — had...
By Derrick Bang, author of "Crime and Spy Jazz 1950-1970" and "Crime and Spy Jazz Since 1971" (McFarland)
I initially wanted to write the ultimate guide to television’s Peter Gunn. But some quick research revealed that it would be hard to improve upon Joe Manning’s excellent two-part feature story in the June and July 2007 issues of Film Score Monthly magazine; and Mike Quigley’s impressively thorough website guide to that iconic 1958-61 TV series (at www.petergunn.tv). That said, Mike’s meticulously thorough analysis of the show’s music planted a larger seed: perhaps a book about classic TV action jazz? Even there, though, a few existing books — such as Kristopher Spencer’s Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979 — had...
- 5/7/2020
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
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