Track Listing

1. Christmas Is Coming (2:53)David Benoit
2. Just Like Me (4:11)Vanessa Williams
3. Linus and Lucy (4:02)Dave Koz
4. It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year (4:16)Toni Braxton
5. My Little Drum (3:27)Rick Braun
6. Skating (3:60)Norman Brown
7. Christmas Time Is Here (4:24)Brian McNight
8. O Tannenbaum (3:52)Gerald Albright
9. Red Baron (4:08)The Rippingtons featuring Russ Freeman
10. The Christmas Song (4:02)Chaka Khan
11. Für Elise (1:06)David Benoit
12. Christmas Time Is Here (reprise) (3:13)Eric Marienthal

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31494 in Music
• Brand: Monster
• Released on: 2007-08-02
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: .50" h x 5.50" w x 7.50" l, 3.00 pounds

Features

• High definition surround sound with "Orchestral" and "In the Room" surround feature experiences
• Digital music files encoded with Dolby® music files that simulate surround sound through any pair of headphones
• Each track has been remixed and audiophile mastered for a "live" experience

Album Description
Celebrate the 40th Anniversary of A Charlie Brown Christmas with David Benoit’s reprisal of the original Christmas classic. We are presenting two unique mixes in High Definition Surround Sound: The "Orchestral" mix is engineered to recreate the experience of being in a Concert Hall. The mix is lush and reverberating. It resembles the natural acoustics of a beautiful theater with a large, expansive sound. The "In The Room" mix is more intimate allowing you "inside" the music. You hear the instruments all around you. "When I heard the "In The Room" Monster mix," Says Benoit, "I felt like I was right there with the band, right at the rehearsal, like we were just rehearsing in our living room. There’s the drummer and bass player here, the piano right in the middle, and I’m just part of this and it was just like it was happening in real time." This SuperDisc also includes the original stereo recording for your CD player.

From the Artist
More About Monster Superdiscs
SuperDisc plays music in High Definition Surround™ (HDS™) and works with any DVD player. Every SuperDisc recording has been carefully remixed and remastered to bring out the best performance possible from today’s home theater and car stereo systems. You’ll hear more clarity, punch, dynamics and vocal presence than the regular CD. SuperDisc also includes high definition digital music files. Encoded directly from the master recordings at the highest resolution possible these digital music files will sound better than if you "ripped" the music from the CD yourself.

Monster Music Delivers A Surround Experience Even When You Don't Have A Surround Sound System.
Also included on your SuperDisc are digital music files specially encoded in Dolby® Headphone surround. This new technology makes it possible to get a virtual surround sound experience from ANY pair of headphones on any portable music player, including Apple® iPod®.

THX™ Certified
Audio quality, multiple surround mixes—even the digital music files have been THX certifed for high-quality sound.

What Else is on the Disc?
• Home Theater Performance Tips: Get the best performance possible.
• THX Optimizer: Easy calibration for your system.

Tech Notes
• Superdiscs are not DVD Audio discs, they are compatible with any DVD player.
• Surround audio encoded in Dolby Digital(448kbps) and DTS 96/24 (1.5Mbps)
• Digital Music Files: WMA (192Kbps), AAC (320Kbps),

About the Artist
About David Benoit

The five-time Grammy nominee David Benoit is one of the most accomplished pianists in the world. He is also a conductor of considerable renown, with many of the world’s greatest orchestras to his credit. His command performance of the "Peanuts Piano Concerto" garnered worldwide acclaim and earned him a reputation as the torchbearer of Charlie Brown.

It’s been forty years since Vince Guarladi Trio recorded the classic holiday album, A Charlie Brown Christmas. Working with some of the biggest names in blues and R&B, David Benoit produced and arranged this fortieth anniversary special as a tribute to Vince Guaraldi and Charles Schulz. Working with the likes of Vanessa Williams and Chaka Khan, Benoit revisits the holiday classic with a fresh approach. "We took the original A Charlie Brown Christmas and wanted to recreate songs with different interpretations," he says, "We didn’t want to update it and make it "hip". We wanted to take what was already there and lightly expand upon it.’

Customer Reviews

A welcome addition to our Christmas Festivities
After reading the other reviews for this box-set I decided to jot down my own opinions of this product and hopefully clear the air.

This collectors set is a tin box with three separate albums:
* A Charlie Brown Christmas - Soundtrack to the CBS Special
* Charlie Brown's Holiday Hits - A myriad collection of Vince Guaraldi Trio from the various TV specials including "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown", "A Charlie Brown Christmas", "You're Not Elected Charlie Brown" and "A Boy Named Charlie Brown"
* 40 Years: A Charlie Brown Christmas - A compilation of remixes performed by the likes of David Benoit, Vanessa Williams, Brian McKnight and Dave Koz

A Charlie Brown Christmas is a staple of Christmas in our house. The other CDs are fun and whimsical and hardly negate from the value of the package. All of these albums can be purchased separately, but the box case is attractive and makes an excellent addition to the CD shelf.

I picked mine up on a whim at Bed, Bath and Beyond, and have not been disappointed.

This product page describes Monster Superdiscs that contain digital copies of the music with supposedly superior sound. This collection does NOT contain any Monster Superdiscs, although those can be found elsewhere.

Note: This version of A Charlie Brown Christmas is the Concord 2006 remaster that garnered criticism a few years back due to poor editing. Concord has since cleaned up the reverb and equalization; and it does sound just like you remember.

David Benoit, 40th Year Anniversary Charlie Brown Christmas
This HD CD which really works fine. Even the MP3's and AAC's are high quality files.

THE SOUND IS WONDEROUS -- THE SOUNDS ARE SPURIOUS
I FIND AGREEMENT WITH SOME OF THE COMMENTS OF THE EARLIER REVIEWERS IN THAT A RE-DO OF THE CLASSIC PEANUTS SCORE (WHICH WAS FANTASTIC AND ALSO AVAILABLE AS A MONSTER DISC) WAS NOT ONE OF RECORDED MUSICS GREATEST NEEDS. ALSO, THE VOCALS BY MS. WILLIAMS AND MS. KHAN ARE SADLY PATHETIC AND COULD BE READILY SHAMED BY ANY OF THE KIDS IN THE HIGH SCHOOL CHOIR. MS. BRAXTON'S EFFORT COULD EASILY BE THE MOST HIDEOUS NOISE I HAVE EVER HEARD. AS I WAS PLAYING THE DISC SOMEWHAT LOUDLY TO APPRECIATE THE SPECTACULAR SURROUND IMAGERY, HER VOCAL TORTURES DROVE MY CAT TO SEEK SOLACE AND REFUGE UNDER THE SOFA. SHE MAY STILL BE THERE. BUT THE SOUND,THE FANTASTIC SOUND. THIS IS WHAT 5.1 SURROUND IS ALL ABOUT. ASIDE FROM SOME IMPRESSIVE FILM AUDIO TRACKS, I HAVE NEVER HEARD A DISC SO SKILLFULLY UTILIZING THE SURROUND TECHNOLOGY. THE MONSTER ENGINEERS HAVE CREATED A SONIC MASTERPIECE EQUAL TO TWO OF MY FAVORITE 5.1 RECORDINGS: MIKE OLDFIELD'S TUBULAR BELLS UPDATE AND A JEAN MICHEL JARRE IMPORT TITLED AERO. I EAGERLY AWAIT WHATEVER THE MONSTERS PUT THEIR HANDS TO NEXT. I ORDERED THE RAY CHARLES MONSTER DISC TODAY. AT LEAST THERE THEY HAVE GREAT SOUNDS TO EVOLVE INTO GREAT SONICS. WITH THIS CHARLIE BROWN DISC, THE WRAPPING SOUND SURROUNDS SOME MUNDANE SOUNDS.