{"id":12016,"date":"2015-08-19T03:10:27","date_gmt":"2015-08-19T07:10:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=12016"},"modified":"2015-08-19T03:10:27","modified_gmt":"2015-08-19T07:10:27","slug":"cd-boy-named-charlie-brown-a-1969","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=12016","title":{"rendered":"CD: Boy Named Charlie Brown, A (1969)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\"BoyNamedCharlieBrown_McKuen\"<\/a>Score<\/strong>: Good<\/p>\n

Label<\/strong>:\u00a0Varese Sarabande<\/a><\/p>\n

Released:<\/strong> \u00a0June 23, 2015<\/span><\/p>\n

Tracks \/ Album Length:<\/strong> \u00a012 tracks \/ 31 mins.<\/p>\n

Composer:<\/strong> Rod McKuen<\/p>\n

Special Notes:<\/strong>\u00a0 n\/a<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

Review:<\/strong><\/p>\n

After seven TV specials, it seemed inevitable that Charles Schulz\u2019s Peanuts characters would make the leap to the big screen, and their theatrical debut came with Vince Guaraldi\u2019s jazz themes plus new songs performed and co-written by Rod McKuen, an occasional film composer, songwriter, poet, and author.<\/p>\n

McKuen\u2019s songs are light and airy, with catchy melodies and folksy lyrics supported by a small orchestra, and the first track, \u201cChampion Charlie Brown\u201d features McKuen\u2019s inimitable raspy voice, some whistling, and the composer\u2019s affinity for the Ondes Martinot, an early electronc instrument similar to a Theremin that emits eerie \u2018woo-woo\u2019 sounds. (The album\u2019s closing track features McKuen overbdubbing himself with a lower gravely voice set to a shuffling rhythm.)<\/p>\n

A more tender tone with wistful melody make up the title track, with McKuen\u2019s flowing lyrics accompanied by a slow and steady ostinato on piano, while \u201cFailure Face\u201d is a hysterical put-down tune with insults crooned in a pleasantly agreeable tone, a perky rhythm, and instrumentation that includes a gilded harpsichord and a cheerful Ondes Martinot that closes the ode to stupidity. The album\u2019s instrumental tracks include \u201cSomething for Snoopy\u201d with vibes, drums, piano, and strings locked to a jazzy rhythm, a piano version of \u201cFailure Face.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because McKuen\u2019s score contributions weren\u2019t enough to fill out a full soundtrack album \u2013 at the time of the film\u2019s release, Guaraldi\u2019s themes appeared on a separate LP featuring his trio, plus a French LP with the film\u2019s tunes sung by Serge Gainsbourg – the composer added new re-recordings of other themes from his more popular film scores, including an upbeat pop orchestral version of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie<\/b> (1969), and a medley from Joanna<\/b> (1968) featuring a Dixieland jazz band and lounge orchestra.<\/p>\n

McKuen\u2019s vocals in the Henry Mancini authored Me, Natalie<\/b> (1969) title track is a perfect fit, with the singer\u2019s raspy voice supported by Mancini\u2019s gentle strings and a swift light rhythm. Vibes and a soft Bossa Nova rhythm dominate \u201cI\u2019ll Catch the Sun\u201d while McKen\u2019s voice is again paired with piano in the light romantic tune \u201cWe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally released in 1970 by McKuen\u2019s own label Stanyan Records, Varese Sarabande\u2019s CD features clean sound but it\u2019s a very timid recording, in which the original album master has all the frequencies in a safe zone, free from heavy bass or sharp highs. The instrumental details are nice and sharp, but their impact is slightly muted by a rather plain stereo mastering.<\/p>\n

With the exception of the Joanna medley, the rest of the tracks run around 3 mins., making them ideal for radio play, but fans wanting longer versions featuring some solos matching the light jazz of some cues might be a little disappointed. Somewhere in the album is a performance by Chet Baker, but he makes barely an impact in this decent but rather minimalist music-from-plus-other-great-themes release.<\/p>\n

McKuen\u2019s modest film score C.V. includes Joanna<\/b> (1968), The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie<\/b> (1969), Scandalous John<\/b> (1971), Emily<\/b> (1976), and the 1973 Hallmark Hall of Fame <\/b>TV movies Lisa, Bright and Dark<\/b> and The Borrowers<\/b>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 2015 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Additional Links:<\/strong>
\nEditor’s Blog<\/a> — Composer on IMDB<\/a> \u00a0— \u00a0Composer Filmography<\/a> —\u00a0 Soundtrack Album<\/a>
\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Select Merchants:<\/strong>
\nAmazon.ca<\/a>\"\" —<\/span> Amazon.com<\/a>\"\" —<\/span> Amazon.co.uk<\/a>\"\" —\u00a0BSX<\/a> —\u00a0Intrada<\/a> —\u00a0Screen Archives Entertainment<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After seven TV specials, it seemed inevitable that Charles Schulz\u2019s Peanuts characters would make the leap to the big screen, and their theatrical debut came with Vince Guaraldi\u2019s jazz themes plus new songs performed and co-written by Rod McKuen, an occasional film composer, songwriter, poet, and author…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[3867,3869,3868,3461,3464],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-37O","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12016"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12016"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12028,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12016\/revisions\/12028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}