VIA PRESS RELEASE | On the eve of Vince Guaraldi being honored with the American Eagle Award by the National Music Council, Craft Recordings is celebrating Guaraldi’s 91st birthday by announcing the first-ever vinyl release of his iconic music for It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.
The debut vinyl release for this time-honored soundtrack will be available August 30th via Craft Recordings. Featuring music by GRAMMY®-winning composer/performer Vince Guaraldi, the package includes the iconic pumpkin as an etching on side B. The album also includes an introduction from the TV special’s executive producer Lee Mendelson and insightful liner notes by Derrick Bang, Peanuts historian and author of Vince Guaraldi at the Piano. A special limited edition (500 copies only) — pressed on a glow-in-the-dark vinyl — will be available exclusively at the Craft Recordings Store.
It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (Music from the Soundtrack) features some of the most iconic tracks in pop culture, including the instantly recognizable “Linus and Lucy,” as well as the languid, lyrical “Great Pumpkin Waltz.” The music was recorded on October 4, 1966 at Desilu’s Gower Street Studio in Hollywood, California by Guaraldi (piano) and his longtime friends and trio sidemen — bassist Monty Budwig and drummer Colin Bailey — joined by Emanuel Klein (trumpet), John Gray (guitar), and Ronald Lang (woodwinds). The entire scoring process was overseen by composer, arranger and conductor John Scott Trotter, well known for a three-decade run as Bing Crosby’s music director and close friend.
Following the astounding popularity of Charles M. Schulz’s Peanuts comic strip and the first two successful Peanuts television specials — A Charlie Brown Christmas and Charlie Brown’s All-Stars — It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown debuted October 27, 1966 with a phenomenal 49 percent audience share, meaning 49 percent of the people watching television during those 25 minutes had tuned in to see Charlie Brown.
“This is the quintessential Vince Guaraldi for our Peanuts’ specials…some of his best atmospheric jazz,” Mendelson shares. “Vince’s score carries the gang with the autumn leaves, through the scary and cold Halloween night. This music comforts the indomitable faith of Linus, still waiting for his hero since 1966 — forever in our ears, hearts and memories.”
“Guaraldi had a strong sense of how music could — and should — be employed to maximize the viewing audience’s emotional response,” writes Bang. “[He] emphatically established the Peanuts ‘musical personality’ with this third outing, and all subsequent prime-time specials owed much to the groovin’ atmosphere that is so prevalent in Great Pumpkin. Guaraldi had a gig for life…and his legacy lives on, expand[ing] by the year, thanks in great part to the jazz swagger given to an insecure blockhead and his lovably crazy beagle.”
This announcement comes on the anniversary of Vince Guaraldi’s birthday (b. July 17, 1928). This week, we honor a real-life Schroeder, who through his music introduced generation after generation to the beauty of a distinctly American artform — jazz. On July 18th, the American Eagle Award is being given to Guaraldi in recognition of his long-term contributions to American musical culture, the ideal of music education for all children, and the need to protect creators’ rights, both locally and internationally.
TRACKLIST:
Side A
1. Linus and Lucy
2. Graveyard Theme
3. Snoopy and the Leaf/Frieda (With the Naturally Curly Hair)
4. The Great Pumpkin Waltz
5. Linus and Lucy (Reprise)
6. Charlie Brown Theme/Happy Linus
7. The Great Pumpkin Waltz (Reprise)
8. The Red Baron/Military Drum March
9. The Great Pumpkin Waltz (2nd Reprise)
10. Trick or Treat
11. Fanfare/Breathless/Trick or Treat (Reprise)
12. Charlie Brown Theme (Reprise)
13. Breathless
14. It’s a Long Way to Tipperary/There’s a Long, Long Trail A-Winding/Pack up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag/Roses of Picardy
15. Trick or Treat (2nd Reprise)
16. Linus and Lucy (2nd Reprise)
17. Charlie Brown Theme (2nd Reprise)
Side B
1. Pumpkin etching
