| Product Summary | | UPC: 00013431853428 | | Release Date: 10/4/2005 | | Buy.com Sku: 64004119 | | Item#: M2JRYQ | | Buy.com Sales Rank: 25079 | Format:  CD |
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(P) 2005 Peacon LLC
(C) 2005 Peacon LLC
| | A Charlie Brown Christmas, an enduring holiday tradition enjoyed by television audiences around the world, this year celebrates its 40th anniversary. To mark the landmark event, Peak Records is releasing 40 Years--A Charlie Brown Christmas, a collection of newly recorded versions of holiday favorites and Vince Guaraldi-penned Peanuts classics, such as the instantly recognizable "Linus and Lucy." The album also includes two Peanuts songs not featured on Vince Guaraldi's multiplatinum-selling A Charlie Brown Christmas, "Red Baron" and "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year."
40 Years--A Charlie Brown Christmas showcases the talents of Gerald Albright, Toni Braxton, Norman Brown, Chaka Khan, Dave Koz, Brian McKnight, Eric Marienthal, and the Rippingtons. Also featured is Vanessa Williams on "Just Like Me," a new track written by David Benoit, who both performed on and produced the CD, and Lee Mendelson, longtime producer of the holiday television specials.
40 Years--A Charlie Brown Christmas was the brainchild of five-time GRAMMY-nominated musician, composer, and arranger David Benoit, who has been composing music for Peanuts television specials for over ten years, including the 2000 recording Here's to You, Charlie Brown.
A Charlie Brown Christmas debuted debuted on network television in 1965. Written by Charles M. Schulz, with Bill Melendez directing and Mendelson as executive producer, the show won an Emmy for Oustanding Children's Program, despite initial concerns about the show's leisurely-paced jazz soundtrack, religious theme, and use of children's voices. In December 2004, A Charlie Brown Christmas was named Best Christmas Special by TV Guide and drew an audience of over 13 million viewers, the special's best numbers ever on ABC.
| | Album Notes and Credits |
Notes & Personnel Info |  | Personnel: Toni Braxton, Brian McKnight, Chaka Khan (vocals); Russ Freeman (guitar, keyboards); Tyrone Chase, Tony Maiden (guitar); Grant Geissman (electric guitar); John Wittenberg, Laurence Greenfield, Ruth Bruegger, Julian Hallmark, Norman Hughes, Robert Peterson, Haim Shtrum (violin); Carole Mukogawa, Karen Van Sant, Denyse Buffum (viola); Dan Tobin Smith, Larry Corbett, Rudolph Stein (cello); Eric Marienthal (saxophone); Dave Koz (alto saxophone); Gerald Albright (tenor saxophone); Rick Baptist, Wayne Bergeron (trumpet); Rick Braun (flugelhorn); Stephen Holtman (trombone); David Benoit (piano, Fender Rhodes piano, synthesizer, string synthesizer, bells); David Nathan, Bill Heller (keyboards); Dave Carpenter (acoustic bass); Alex Al (electric bass); John "4 Daddman" Robinson, Peter Erskine, Prescott Ellison, Vinnie Colaiuta (drums); Luis Conte (percussion). | | Audio Mixers: Clark Germain; Steve Sykes. | | Recording information: Backroom Studios, Glendale, CA; Castle Oaks Studios, Calabasas, CA; Oceanway Recording Studios, Hollywood, CA; Paramount Encore Studios, Hollywood, CA; Surfboard Studios, Boca Raton, FL; Tree Sound Studios, Atlanta, GA; WonderWorld Studio, Los Angeles, CA. | | Arrangers: David Benoit; Russ Freeman ; Vince Guaraldi; Brian McKnight. | | With its sentimental tie-in to the beloved television special and its all-star roster, this curious project has all the trappings of a holiday-driven commercial venture. Musician/composer/arranger David Benoit organized a cast of adult contemporary musicians to interpret songs associated with A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS to commemorate the show's 40th anniversary. Vince Guaraldi's joyous solo piano pieces are sorely missed, but the performances by Toni Braxton, the Rippingtons, Vanessa Williams, and others, have an accessibility and charm that will appeal to children and adults alike. | | If someone had told Vince Guaraldi in 1965 that his scores for the Charlie Brown specials for children would have been the first exposure to jazz for several generations of impressionable children, chances are the composer would have either shrugged off the statement and paid it no mind or he would have laughed heartily at such a notion. But his score for A Charlie Brown Christmas has remained a cornerstone for jazz orientation and an essential holiday remedy for the run-of-the-mill-predictable contemporary favorites. So it's fitting that, 40 years on, a tribute album paying homage to the landmark soundtrack would hit the market just in time for the holiday season. Producer and smooth-jazz juggernaut David Benoit assembled a veritable who's who of adult contemporary and jazz performers for this 12-song session, including good pal Russ Freeman and his Rippingtons band, Dave Koz, Chaka Khan, Brian McKnight and Toni Braxton. It's a very warm sounding, heavily polished, well-played tribute album full of reverence for the original material, and it's suitable for the generation that were children when Guaraldi's original scores first hit the television airwaves. There's also material that strays ever so slightly from the original soundtrack, but it's a welcome bonus. And while no tribute album could even come close to harnessing the magic of its inspiration, this certainly does the trick in making the word "tribute" appropriate in a world where tribute albums run a dime a dozen. ~ Rob Theakston |
Producer: David Benoit; Russ Freeman; Brian McKnight; David Benoit (Compilation) |
Engineer: Chris Wood; George Gumbs; Brian Vibberts; Jeff Wakolbinger; Steve Sykes; Joshua Blanchard |
Musical Guests | | Russ Freeman |
| | Technical Info | | Release Date : 10/04/2005 | | Original Release Date : 2005 | | Catalog ID : 8534 | | Label : Peak Records | | Number of Discs : 1 | | Studio/Live : Studio | | Mono/Stereo : Stereo | | SPAR Code : n/a | | UPC : 00013431853428 |
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