[PREORDER] Vince Guaraldi - It's A Mystery, Charlie Brown: Original Soundtrack Recording (Extended Edition CD)

Extended Edition Compact Disc

The first release of Vince Guaraldi's score for It's a Mystery, Charlie Brown, the eleventh Peanuts television special, which aired on CBS on February 1, 1974. No soundtrack album existed until now; the music comes out of the Lee Mendelson vault, restored and mastered in stereo by Vinson Hudson from the original session tapes.

Guaraldi recorded it at Wally Heider Studios in San Francisco across sessions in October and December 1973 and January 1974. He plays piano, electric piano, clavinet, guitar and whistles, with Seward McCain on bass and Mike Clark and Eliot Zigmund on drums; Ron McClure plays bass on the two jazz standards that close the disc. Sean Mendelson and Jason Mendelson produced the release, and Terry Carleton mixed it at Bones and Knives. Guaraldi died in 1976, about two years after these sessions.

Twenty-one tracks run roughly forty-two minutes. Fifteen are the score as heard in the special; the last six are bonus material, including an alternate take, the unused cue "Snoopy Holmes," mix variations that leave the studio banter in, and readings of Joseph Kosma's "Autumn Leaves" and Charlie Parker's "Billie's Bounce."

The booklet carries a track-by-track commentary by Sean Mendelson, a historical essay by Guaraldi's biographer Derrick Bang, and further notes by Jason Mendelson. The label packages it as a Digipack Lite in FSC-certified paper with a compostable sleeve, and every physical copy includes a collectible magnifying-glass sheet. The label frames the release as a seventy-fifth-anniversary edition, marking seventy-five years since Guaraldi began recording professionally.

Tracklist

1. Little Birdie
2. Mystery Theme / Mystery Theme (Reprise)
3. It's a Mystery, Charlie Brown
4. Sassy Sally / It's a Mystery, Charlie Brown (Reprise)
5. Mystery Theme (2nd Reprise)
6. Cops and Robbers
7. It's a Mystery, Charlie Brown (2nd Reprise)
8. Mystery Theme (3rd Reprise)
9. It's a Mystery, Charlie Brown (3rd Reprise)
10. Sally's Blues
11. Mystery Interlude #1
12. Joe Cool
13. It's a Mystery, Charlie Brown (4th Reprise)
14. Mystery Theme (4th Reprise)
15. Mystery Theme (5th Reprise)
16. It's a Mystery, Charlie Brown (2nd Reprise Alternate Take)
17. Snoopy Holmes
18. Mystery Theme (Vibraslap Mix) / (Studio Banter) / Little Birdie (Alternate Vince Whistle) / Cops and Robbers (Rhythm Section Mix)
19. Joe Cool (Just Vince Mix)
20. Autumn Leaves
21. Billie's Bounce

Complete the Collection

Five Vince Guaraldi titles at Evergreen Vinyl, this one included: A Charlie Brown Christmas, It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.