The man who pitted Snoopy against the Red Baron

Coming in March is Phil Gernhard, Record Man, a biography written by Bill DeYoung.  Gernhard, a record producer who (according to the promo blurb) had a life filled with addictions, wives, and demons that ended in suicide in 2008, has a very specific place in Peanuts history: he’s the guy who took the song that Dick Holler had written about the Red Baron and decided to add Snoopy to it, taking advantage of the popular ongoing gags in Peanuts about the beagle dogfighting the baron. The result was, of course, both a huge 1966 hit for the band the Royal Guardsmen and a legal mess, as Gernhard hadn’t actually bothered to get permission to use the Snoopy character. This wasn’t the only hit in Gernhard’s career, and the book certainly isn’t going to be about just that, but if you want it, there you go!

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