Vince Guaraldi and the Lost Cues from the Charlie Brown Television Specials


Vince Guaraldi and the Lost Cues from the Charlie Brown Television Specials is a compilation soundtrack album by Vince Guaraldi released by D&D Records in 2007. The album consists of select music cues featured on several Peanuts television specials produced between 1972 and 1975.

Background

In the mid-2000s, recording studio master tapes for seven 1970s-era Peanuts television specials scored by Vince Guaraldi were discovered by his son, Dave Guaraldi. Dave chose a handful of the better individual songs to compile what would be the first of two volumes containing unreleased music cues.
Dave Guaraldi then worked to restore the master tapes with audio archivist Michael Graves at his Atlanta, Georgia-based Osiris Studio.
The songs chosen for this volume were featured in the following Peanuts television specials:
Sound Insights author Doug Payne noted that the release of Vince Guaraldi and the Lost Cues from the Charlie Brown Television Specials was notable due to the fact that almost none of Guaraldi's Peanuts soundtrack work was made available for public consumption. Despite scoring 16 Peanuts television specials and one feature film, only two official soundtracks were released during Guaraldi's lifetime: Jazz Impressions of A Boy Named Charlie Brown and A Charlie Brown Christmas. Vince Guaraldi and the Lost Cues from the Charlie Brown Television Specials did much to fill a significant gap in this respect.
Chris Holmes of the nostalgia-themed website grayflannelsuit.net commented that "although some songs are quite brief, they paint a good picture of Guaraldi’s music near the end of his life; whimsical, funky, and always impeccably performed."
T. Ballard Lesemann of the Charleston City Paper called "Little Birdie" the "best Thanksgiving theme," commenting the "anti-worry/positive sentiment and snuffy singing style somehow matches the vibe of the season. Guaraldi sings lead, just barely in front of a great-sounding brass section and some funky electric piano."

Track listing

All songs composed by Vince Guaraldi.
The vocal version of "Joe Cool" is a composite of three separate recordings from different specials.

Personnel

The Vince Guaraldi Sextet