The Complete Warner Bros.–Seven Arts Recordings is a double CD compilation of songs by American jazz pianist/composer Vince Guaraldi released by Omnivore Recordings on July 6, 2018. It contains 30 tracks, containing remastered versions of Guaraldi's complete recorded output for Warner Bros.-Seven Arts (Oh Good Grief!, The Eclectic Vince Guaraldi, Alma-Ville), plus four bonus tracks.
Background Vince Guaraldi's final three albums released during his lifetime were recorded for Warner Bros.-Seven Arts after spending considerable time struggling to extricate himself from Fantasy Records. Warner signed Guaraldi to a three-record deal, and insisted that his inaugural release consist of his Peanuts songs. This was done in part to help fill the void left by a lack of soundtrack albums to accompany the successful television specials, Charlie Brown's All Stars!, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, You're in Love, Charlie Brown and He's Your Dog, Charlie Brown. Guaraldi responded with new renditions of eight of his most popular scores from those programs on his first release, Oh Good Grief!.
Guaraldi was then given complete artistic control over his sophomore, self-produced Warner effort, The Eclectic Vince Guaraldi, resulting in an unfocused and overindulgent album that was not well received by both critics and consumers. At Warner's insistence, arranger Shorty Rogers was recruited to produce Guaraldi's final album, Alma-Ville. Though deemed a focused improvement over the previous album, Warner lost interest in Guaraldi and did not promote the album. Both The Eclectic Vince Guaraldi and Alma-Ville fell into obscurity, with Oh Good Grief! remaining in print and a steady seller due to the perpetual popularity of the Peanuts franchise.
Production The Complete Warner Bros.–Seven Arts Recordings was compiled by prestige label Omnivore Recordings and produced by Grammy Award-winning Cheryl Pawelski. Pawelski recruited audio archivist Michael Graves (who worked on previous Guaraldi remastering efforts) to perform a high-definition 24-bit mix.
In addition to a double-CD release, Oh, Good Grief! was issued on translucent red vinyl.
Track listings All tracks written by Vince Guaraldi, except where noted.
Disc One
Disc Two
Personnel Credits adapted from CD liner notes. Oh, Good Grief Vince Guaraldi – piano, electric harpsichord Eddie Duran – guitar Stanley Gilbert – double bass Carl Burnett – drums
The Eclectic Vince Guaraldi Vince Guaraldi – piano, electric harpsichord, guitar, lead vocals Eddie Duran, Robert Addison – guitars Bob Maize, Jim McCabe – electric bass Peter Marshall – bass Gerald Granelli, Al Coster – drums Gloria Strassner, Jesse Ehrlich – cello
Alma-Ville Vince Guaraldi – piano, guitar Herb Ellis – guitar Eddie Duran – guitar Monty Budwig – bass Kelly Bryan – bass Sebastião Neto – electric bass Dom Um Romão – drums Colin Bailey – drums Al Coster – drums Rubens Bassini – percussion
Bonus tracks Vince Guaraldi – piano Eddie Duran – guitar Peter Marshall – bass Bob Belanski – drums Additional musicians for Disc 2, Tracks 1 and 2 are unknown.
See also Vince Guaraldi discography List of songs recorded by Vince Guaraldi List of cover versions of Vince Guaraldi songs Lee Mendelson Film Productions
References