Jazzing up Thanksgiving
November 26, 2014 10:02 AM Subscribe
Vince Guaraldi's A Charlie Brown Christmas gets a whole lot of love, but for sheer musical enjoyment it shouldn't overshadow his work on A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. Here for your cooking-soundtrack pleasure are Thanksgiving Theme, Play it Again Charlie Brown (aka Charlie Brown Blues), Peppermint Patty, and Little Birdie (incidentally, Guaraldi's own vocal, and the first time any adult voice appeared on a Charlie Brown show).
Some other notes on Thanksgiving's few music traditions.
Another bonus: all the verses to the song the kids sing in the way-back of the station wagon, Over the River and Through the Woods, by abolitionist author Lydia Marie Child.
Some other notes on Thanksgiving's few music traditions.
Another bonus: all the verses to the song the kids sing in the way-back of the station wagon, Over the River and Through the Woods, by abolitionist author Lydia Marie Child.
the first time any adult voice appeared on a Charlie Brown show
That can't be right. According to Wikipedia, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving aired on November 20, 1973, more than a year after Snoopy, Come Home! (August 9, 1972), which contained the song "No Dogs Allowed," with vocals by the great Thurl Ravenscroft.
posted by Faint of Butt at 10:24 AM on November 26, 2014 [4 favorites]
That can't be right. According to Wikipedia, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving aired on November 20, 1973, more than a year after Snoopy, Come Home! (August 9, 1972), which contained the song "No Dogs Allowed," with vocals by the great Thurl Ravenscroft.
posted by Faint of Butt at 10:24 AM on November 26, 2014 [4 favorites]
That can't be right.
Oh well, I didn't run down the source, I believed a listicle. Sorry.
posted by Miko at 11:27 AM on November 26, 2014
Oh well, I didn't run down the source, I believed a listicle. Sorry.
posted by Miko at 11:27 AM on November 26, 2014
Faint of Butt: Snoopy, Come Home! was a film released to theaters. I assume "Charlie Brown show" refers specifically to TV productions.
posted by Atom Eyes at 11:28 AM on November 26, 2014
posted by Atom Eyes at 11:28 AM on November 26, 2014
Holy shit, Charlie Brown happily rocking out on guitar brings me so much joy.
posted by KingEdRa at 11:42 AM on November 26, 2014
posted by KingEdRa at 11:42 AM on November 26, 2014
That can't be right.
Slow down. The article indicates that Guaraldi's voice singing "Little Birdie" in 1973 was the first adult human voice to be featured in the series of Peanuts Specials. Meaning, the TV specials.
"Snoopy, Come Home!" featured multiple adult voices in its soundtrack in 1972, but it was a 77-minute feature film, not a TV special. It originally showed in theaters in the summer of 1972. It wasn't shown on TV until 1976.
posted by azaner at 12:01 PM on November 26, 2014 [3 favorites]
Slow down. The article indicates that Guaraldi's voice singing "Little Birdie" in 1973 was the first adult human voice to be featured in the series of Peanuts Specials. Meaning, the TV specials.
"Snoopy, Come Home!" featured multiple adult voices in its soundtrack in 1972, but it was a 77-minute feature film, not a TV special. It originally showed in theaters in the summer of 1972. It wasn't shown on TV until 1976.
posted by azaner at 12:01 PM on November 26, 2014 [3 favorites]
Ah, well. Still, Thurl Ravenscroft.
posted by Faint of Butt at 12:30 PM on November 26, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Faint of Butt at 12:30 PM on November 26, 2014 [1 favorite]
Any Vince Guaraldi is gold.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 1:00 PM on November 26, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 1:00 PM on November 26, 2014 [1 favorite]
Ah, well. Still, Thurl Ravenscroft.
Yes. He was grrrrrrreatttt!!
posted by Atom Eyes at 1:01 PM on November 26, 2014 [3 favorites]
Yes. He was grrrrrrreatttt!!
posted by Atom Eyes at 1:01 PM on November 26, 2014 [3 favorites]
Listening to that Thanksgiving Theme makes me hungry for buttered toast, jelly beans, pretzel sticks, and popcorn.
posted by dnash at 1:10 PM on November 26, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by dnash at 1:10 PM on November 26, 2014 [3 favorites]
Listening to that Thanksgiving Theme makes me hungry for buttered toast, jelly beans, pretzel sticks, and popcorn.
My sister and I brought the whole Charlie Brown spread to Thanksgiving dinner a few years back; sadly nobody in the extended family got the reference and just looked at us like weirdos. Still... well worth the time spent making all that toast in tribute.
posted by cammimmac at 3:24 PM on November 26, 2014 [7 favorites]
My sister and I brought the whole Charlie Brown spread to Thanksgiving dinner a few years back; sadly nobody in the extended family got the reference and just looked at us like weirdos. Still... well worth the time spent making all that toast in tribute.
posted by cammimmac at 3:24 PM on November 26, 2014 [7 favorites]
Still... well worth the time spent making all that toast in tribute.
Clearly you do not own enough toasters.
"Well, I, uh..."
posted by Huffy Puffy at 5:05 PM on November 26, 2014
Clearly you do not own enough toasters.
"Well, I, uh..."
posted by Huffy Puffy at 5:05 PM on November 26, 2014
Is Thanksgiving the consensus #3 Peanuts holiday special after Christmas and the Great Pumpkin? Curious whether there are any dark horses to consider.
posted by chimpsonfilm at 6:29 PM on November 26, 2014
posted by chimpsonfilm at 6:29 PM on November 26, 2014
For me, Thanksgiving special is #2 after Christmas. I can take or leave Halloween, but Thanksgiving, for me, has the most panache and hilarity. The sequence with Snoopy and Woodstock wrestling with the deck chairs and cursing...I mean, weeping laughter. Peppermint Patty's self-entitled outrage. Much more laughter than "I got a rock," cool as that is. I can't really touch Christmas for sincerity and beauty plus the classic pageant theatre jam dancing, but Thanksgiving, to me, is second, not third.
posted by Miko at 9:17 PM on November 26, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by Miko at 9:17 PM on November 26, 2014 [2 favorites]
My sister and I brought the whole Charlie Brown spread to Thanksgiving dinner a few years back; sadly nobody in the extended family got the reference and just looked at us like weirdos. Still... well worth the time spent making all that toast in tribute.
By cousin is hosting her first Thanksgiving dinner in her new house this year. Because of the size of our family she is setting up some card tables in her sunroom and depending on the number of people who show up, she may have to resort to a few lawn chairs. So in addition to a casserole, my mother is bringing a bowl of popcorn and a platter of toast. We're a family of weirdos, so I fully suspect that everyone will get the reference.
posted by dances with hamsters at 5:59 AM on November 27, 2014
By cousin is hosting her first Thanksgiving dinner in her new house this year. Because of the size of our family she is setting up some card tables in her sunroom and depending on the number of people who show up, she may have to resort to a few lawn chairs. So in addition to a casserole, my mother is bringing a bowl of popcorn and a platter of toast. We're a family of weirdos, so I fully suspect that everyone will get the reference.
posted by dances with hamsters at 5:59 AM on November 27, 2014
My Mom taught piano, and I never played more than chopsticks. After I heard "Linus and Lucy" on the TV special, I asked my Mom to teach me to play just that ONE song. She had to gently explain to me that Vince Guaraldi's style was inimitable, except by maybe a very few brilliant jazz pianists, and that it would take me years and years to learn to play like that (if ever). As an adult jazz fan, I now realize the off-base syncopation, the left hand and the right hand playing in different time signatures, and more techniques I may
never understand, make him one of my all-time favorite pianists.
posted by wackyd at 2:50 PM on November 28, 2014 [1 favorite]
never understand, make him one of my all-time favorite pianists.
posted by wackyd at 2:50 PM on November 28, 2014 [1 favorite]
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The museum itself is spectacularly appointed, even and especially the luxurious bathrooms that are much nicer than my living quarters. They "spared no expense".
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 10:17 AM on November 26, 2014 [2 favorites]