Valentine's Day is upon us again, so let's give some love to love-centric items. Falling in and out of love and showing some love for tomatoes are in the mix on a mixed-bag release put together by a musical married couple. And then we turn to the instrumental score that accompanied the "Peanuts" cartoon characters in the old TV special Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown; to quote a phrase from the song "My Funny Valentine," it's quite literally a "sweet comic Valentine."

STEVIE HOLLAND
TALK TO YOUR TOMATOES
150 Music
CD | Digital

"I know it's not the perfect time to make a perfect valentine when yours belongs to someone else," sings Stevie Holland in "When These Two Hearts Collide" on her latest album, Talk to Your Tomatoes, the title song of which is contrastingly lighthearted. Both feature her own lyrics paired to music composed by Gary William Friedman, who is her own live-in valentine (aka husband) as well as the man who arranged and orchestrated the release and co-produced it with her. His music, with a lyric by the late Will Holt, is also heard in "How I Feel," a selection from their score to the 1970 musical The Me Nobody Knows and its sensitive, vulnerable treatment is a definite highlight of the varied collection.

There are unassuming, low-key, and sometimes serene qualities to the persona projected in the warm singing. While that's all attractive to hear, it can work against the potential power of persuasion or drama that would make some pieces even more involving. The title song from the musical On a Clear Day You Can See Forever and "Pure Imagination" could use some more awe and wide-eyed wonder. Still, you can be pulled into "You Pull Through" (another Holland/Friedman original) because its soothing message about coping with struggles is neither pat nor a platitude. A pensive "Help Me," with music and lyric by Joni Mitchell, benefits from a more relaxed pace than in the songwriter's hit version. Its points in exploring the attractions of the freedom of living single and the emotions of "falling in love again" really come through.

Consisting of just 10 tracks, Talk to Your Tomatoes feels a bit short, but it isn't short on polish and variety. There are effective touches, such as the striking a cappella beginning of the sorrowful classic "'Round Midnight," nifty solo moments from the musicians that burst with energy, and cute use of alliteration on that title song, with recommendations to also "banter with your basil" and "gossip with your garlic," plus the punny "lend some corn your ear." The album ends with "East of the Sun (and West of the Moon)," the portrait of an idyllic romantic life ("Love will not die/We'll keep it that way") that first appeared in a college musical in 1934 at Princeton. In other news, Stevie Holland and Gary William Friedman continue as collaborators on new and reworked musicals.

BE MY VALENTINE, CHARLIE BROWN
TV SOUNDTRACK
Lee Mendelson Film Productions
Picture Disc Vinyl | Red Vinyl 45rpm (Selections) | CD | Vinyl | Digital

Now released in a multitude of formats and lengths is the charming instrumental score for Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown. It's a fondly remembered 1975 animated television special populated by the "Peanuts" gang who cavorted for decades: beginning in 1950 in newspaper comic strips by cartoonist Charles Schulz; stage musicals; and animated delights for the big and small screen. The valentine-centric project was the 13th prime time TV event. To revisit the visuals, home video versions of the valentine tale have been available for years, but not separate audio-only recordings. The belated releases of the soundtrack don't include any dialogue by actors voicing the cute valentine card-carrying kid characters and they don't burst into song as other cast members did in the musicals You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown and Snoopy!!!. The music stirs memories of the merry and melancholy moods of childhood crushes, mostly unrequited.

Vince Guaraldi, who passed away a year after this project, was the go-to composer for original music for the "Peanuts" TV scores, and he also played the keyboards (plus the synthesizer here), and he was joined here by Seward McCain on electric bass and Vince Lateano on drums. Composed to accompany specific action, many of the pieces are very, very short.

New issues and special packagings with some of the music have popped up recently, timed to Record Store Day (limited editions) and others issued late last month in anticipation of Valentine's Day. Those who value the look of vinyl variations have a dizzying number of options–a picture disc, a heart-shaped record, pink or red vinyl, one package that includes a Valentine's Day card, different cover pictures, two editions which can be purchased only from Barnes & Noble–but they just have 10 representative tracks, labeled "Selections from..." and totalling 13 minutes and 40 seconds. Its samplings feature jaunty and gentle items, with four of the treatments of the main theme, "Heartburn Waltz" (there are five more in the whole enchilada), one classical sample choosing Chopin, the plucky "Paw Pet Overture," and the mellow "There's Been a Change."

For the complete and expanded soundtrack, including eight recordings not used in the broadcast itself, stick with the digital and compact disc "extended versions" released last year. These have playing time of 41 minutes and 37 seconds, spread over 30 tracks, half of which last for 60 seconds or less. Stylings include mambo, bossa nova, and other ingratiating tempi, some feeling more incidental than monumental, due to the requirements of "background" music that must be subtle enough not to upstage the dialogue or activity. Borrowed classical pieces filled out the score–one each by Beethoven, Brahms, and Chopin. In the story, a puppet show is accompanied by the playing of a warped, scratched record of the latter's "Nocturne in E Flat Major," so we hear it in all its wounded, wobbly "wonder" and an undistorted treatment is added to the big set which ends with the musicians' lengthy jam session as one of eight bonus tracks. The CD version with all the material comes with lengthy, detailed (and affectionate) liner notes about the composer's career and style, as well as observations about this particular score. There is commentary by brothers Sean and Jason Mendelson, who are the album's producers; they are sons of the late producer of many "Peanuts" presentations, Lee Mendelson. Several stills from the TV special adorn the CD package which is itself a valentine to Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown.