Listen To New Stereo Mix Of ‘O Tannenbaum’ From ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ Deluxe Edition
Vince Guaraldi’s timeless score for 1965’s animated ‘Peanuts’ special has remained a holiday staple for almost 60 years.
Craft Recordings have shared the new stereo mix of Vince Guaraldi’s enchanting recording of “O Tannenbaum”, from the upcoming A Charlie Brown Christmas: Super Deluxe Edition. You can check it out below.
The timeless score originally accompanied the beloved, 1965 animated Peanuts special, A Charlie Brown Christmas, from Charles Schulz, Lee Mendelson and Bill Melendez.
The album has remained a holiday staple for nearly 60 years (not to mention the best-selling jazz album of all time, alongside Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue, after earning 5x platinum certification by the RIAA in May), but this latest edition showcases Guaraldi’s creative process like never before, thanks to hours of newly unearthed session tapes from Fantasy Records’ vaults. Now, fans can experience cues like “Christmas Time Is Here,” “O Tannenbaum,” and “Skating” as they take shape in the studio through dozens of previously unreleased alternate tracks.
The A Charlie Brown Christmas album opens with “O Tannenbaum,” and though it may be a simple Christmas carol, Guaraldi’s improvisations imbue it with an enchanting freshness.
Listeners will also hear Guaraldi putting his own touch on other traditional fare, like “Greensleeves”. The latter song’s outtakes actually appeared in the animated special, “immediately after Linus tells us ‘what Christmas is all about,’ as Charlie Brown exits the school theater carrying his forlorn little tree.”
In addition, the original 11-track album has been upgraded with a new stereo mix from the original two- and three-track sources by the Grammy Award-winning engineer, Paul Blakemore. Both the new mix and original mix can be found along with hours of unreleased material on the Super Deluxe Edition (available as a 4-CD/1-Blu-ray Audio collection box set or as an 80-track digital release).
The new stereo mix will also be available alongside a selection of thirteen studio outtakes on a Deluxe Edition 2-LP or CD. For those who prefer the classic mix, the perennial 1965 version of the album will come housed in a striking, embossed gold foil jacket for 2022, while a variety of collectible colored vinyl variants can be found exclusively at select retailers. Plus, a limited-edition LP (750 copies), pressed on “Skating Pond” wax, will be available exclusively at Craft Recordings’ official website.
A Charlie Brown Christmas: Super Deluxe Edition (available as 5-disc box set featuring 4-CDs + Blu-ray audio disc or as an 80-track digital collection) will be out on December 2, though the equivalent digital collection will be available on October 14. Meanwhile, the 2-LP and digital editions will be out on October 14, while the CD edition is now out on November 4.
