A Charlie Brown Christmas Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy A Charlie Brown Christmas? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on A Charlie Brown Christmas. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

A Charlie Brown Christmas ReviewNo, this is not your father's A Charlie Brown Christmas album. As has been pointed out here already, there's a different mix and alternate takes. But some points should be brought to a prospective buyer's attention so as to truly appreciate what's been done here.
The remix by Stephen Hart serves 1 purpose - to clean up a poorly recorded (even by mid-sixties standards)soundtrack. Noise reduction was used to remove excessive hiss, and the new mix was re-eq'd to accomodate listening by today's standards. It had been suggested that some left hand work by Vince is lost in this mix, but that is highly unlikely since, although probably recorded on a 4-track machine, the trio appeared to have had each of their instruments recorded in mono. Stephen merely places each instrument slightly to the left,center, or right in order to give a "live club" spaciousness to the sound, rather than the typical studio panned mixes we hear today.
In my opinion, people who are disgruntled with the actual sound of this disc have just been used to the original mix for so long that this appears foreign to them. They're just not used to it. If they long for a 60's sounding disc - they should simply convert their vinyl album to cd-r!
As for the replaced takes...that's another story altogether. Regarding the "wrong take" of "Linus & Lucy": the one presented on this reissue is actually the one that was used in the film (and this marks the first time this take was made commercially available). All previous issues of this soundtrack album used the version from the A Boy Named Charlie Brown documentary soundtrack.
We've NEVER had a commercially available version of the take of "Christmas Time is Here" (either the vocal or instrumental version) from the film, and this reissue is no exception, it is as the initial Fantasy release had it. The excerpt from "Christmas is Coming" in the film is to short to determine what take was finally used in it. The version on the new disc is NOT the one on the original issue, nor is the alternate bonus track.
Also, the take of "O Tannenbaum" is not an alternate version, but rather offers an arpeggiated chord introduction that apparently was overdubbed as an afterthought and was later cut out from the initial release. The version of "The Christmas Song" is the same as the original, not another take which was previously reported.
On a last note, there's a pleasant surprise at the end of "Skating," which is the same take as the original issue, but dosen't fade out and we're able to hear Vince's trio finish the song outright. Ditto for the instrumental track of "Christmas Time is Here" (though the effect is less dramatic). Jazz tunes were not meant to fade out!!
Should more care have been taken in letting the consumer know about these changes? Absolutely! But in spite of their...um... carelessness, this new reissue is a must have for all Vince & Charlie Brown Christmas fans.A Charlie Brown Christmas Overview

Want to learn more information about A Charlie Brown Christmas?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now