A Charlie Brown Christmas (soundtrack)


A Charlie Brown Christmas is the eighth studio album by American jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi. The album was released in December 1965 in the U.S. by Fantasy Records and was Guaraldi's final studio album for the label. It is the soundtrack to the Christmas television special of the same name.
Guaraldi was contacted by television producer Lee Mendelson to compose music for a documentary on the comic strip Peanuts and its creator, Charles M. Schulz. Although the special went unaired, these selections were released in 1964 as Jazz Impressions of A Boy Named Charlie Brown. Coca-Cola commissioned a Christmas special based on Peanuts in 1965 and Guaraldi returned to score the special.
Guaraldi composed most of the music, though he included versions of traditional carols such as "O Tannenbaum". He recorded some of the score at Whitney Studio in Glendale, California, then re-recorded some of it at Fantasy Records Studios in San Francisco with a children's choir from St. Paul's Episcopal Church in nearby San Rafael. The sessions ran late into the night, with the children rewarded with ice cream afterward.
Bassist Fred Marshall and drummer Jerry Granelli were credited as performing on the album. It was voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and added to the National Recording Registry of the Library Congress.
On August 19, 2016, the Recording Industry Association of America certified the album quadruple platinum for sales of four million copies. In November 2014, it was the 10th best-selling Christmas/holiday album in the United States during the SoundScan era.

Background

By the early 1960s, Charles M. Schulz's comic strip Peanuts had become a sensation worldwide. Television producer Lee Mendelson acknowledged the strip's cultural impression and produced a documentary on the subject, titled A Boy Named Charlie Brown. Mendelson, a fan of jazz, heard Vince Guaraldi's song "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" on the radio not long after completion of his documentary, and contacted the musician to produce music for the special. Guaraldi composed the music for the project, creating an entire piece, "Linus and Lucy", to serve as the theme. Despite the popularity of the strip and acclaim from advertisers, networks were not interested in the special.
By April 1965, Time featured the Peanuts gang on its magazine cover, and plans for an animated half-hour Peanuts Christmas special were commissioned by The Coca-Cola Company. When Coca-Cola commissioned A Charlie Brown Christmas in spring 1965, Guaraldi returned to write the music, having just recorded the live album At Grace Cathedral at San Francisco's famed cathedral with St. Paul's Church of San Rafael 68-voice choir.

Recording and production

The first instrumentals for the special were recorded by Guaraldi at Glendale, California's Whitney Studio with bassist Monty Budwig and drummer Colin Bailey in September 1965. Recycling "Linus and Lucy" from the earlier special and the album Jazz Impressions of A Boy Named Charlie Brown, Guaraldi completed two new originals, "Skating", and "Christmas Time Is Here". In the weeks preceding the premiere, Mendelson encountered trouble finding a lyricist for Guaraldi's instrumental intro and wrote "Christmas Time Is Here" in "about 15 minutes" on the backside of an envelope.
The special begins and ends with a children's choir from St. Paul's Episcopal Church in San Rafael performing "Christmas Time Is Here" and "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing", whom Guaraldi had performed with at his May 1965 "jazz mass" performance at Grace Cathedral. One of the singers, Candace Hackett Shively, became an elementary school teacher and sent a letter of gratitude to Schulz after he announced his retirement in 2000. In the letter, she recalls recording the choir at Fantasy Studios and going out for ice cream afterwards, while noting that she tells the story to her students every holiday season. The recording sessions were conducted in late autumn 1965 in three sessions over two weeks. They often ran late into the night, resulting in angry parents, some who forbade their children from returning; as a result, numerous new children were present at each session. The children were directed by Barry Mineah, who demanded perfection from the choir. Mendelson and Guaraldi disagreed, wanting "kids to sound like kids"; they used a slightly off-key version of "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing" in the final cut. Children were paid five dollars for their participation. In addition, the children recorded dialogue for the special's final scene in which the crowd of kids shout "Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!".
Guaraldi brought in bassist Fred Marshall and drummer Jerry Granelli and re-recorded tracks such as "The Christmas Song" and "Greensleeves". The album credited Guaraldi solely, neglecting to mention the other musicians; Guaraldi was notorious for never keeping records of his session players. Nearly three decades later, in an effort to correct the matter, Fantasy surmised that the recordings with Budwig and Bailey were employed in the television special while Marshall and Granelli recorded the album. Despite this, other musicians have claimed to have recorded the special's music: bassists Eugene Firth and Al Obidinski and drummers Paul Distel and Benny Barth. Firth and Distil are noted as performers on a studio-session report Guaraldi filed for the American Federation of Musicians.
Not all music featured in the holiday special was released on the soundtrack. For example, "Surfin' Snoopy" did not make the cut, but was belatedly released in 1998 on Charlie Brown's Holiday Hits. Additionally, tracks "What Child Is This" and "The Christmas Song" are on this recording but were not featured in the special.

Reception

Commercial performance

On August 19, 2016, the Recording Industry Association of America certified the album quadruple platinum for sales of four million copies.
A Charlie Brown Christmas first appeared on a Billboard magazine music sales chart on the week of December 19, 1987, when it debuted and peaked at No. 13 on the Billboard Christmas Albums sales chart. The album charted on the Billboard Christmas Albums chart every Christmas/holiday season from 1988 through 2003, peaking as high as No. 8 in both 2001 and 2002. The album also charted on the Billboard Top Pop Catalog Albums chart during the Christmas/holiday season every year from 1991 through 2003, peaking as high as No. 6 in 2001.
In November 2014, it was the tenth best-selling Christmas/holiday album in the United States during the SoundScan era.
A Charlie Brown Christmas was also the tenth best-selling holiday album of 2011, a year that marked the sixth time since 2001 that the album had ranked among the year's top 10 Christmas albums. It was also the ninth best-selling album of 2013.

Critical reception

reviewer Shawn M. Haney called it "joyous and festive meditation for the holiday season" writing, "Guaraldi strings together elegant, enticing arrangements that reflect the spirit and mood of Schulz's work." Dominique Leone at Pitchfork called the songs "small, observant miracles...If there's a muted quality to a lot of this music, it's smiling nonetheless."
The soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas has been considered "one of the most beloved holiday albums recorded." Chris Barton of the Los Angeles Times asserts that the soundtrack introduced jazz to an entirely new generation, having been heard by more individuals than the work of the genre's most influential players, including Miles Davis and John Coltrane. The score influenced dozens of young aspiring musicians, among them David Benoit and George Winston. Haney wrote that the record "introduce contemporary jazz to youngsters with grace, charm, and creativity."
A Charlie Brown Christmas was voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2007. In 2012 the album was added to the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry list of "culturally, historically, or aesthetically important" American sound recordings.

Track listing

Side one
  1. "O Tannenbaum" – 5:08
  2. "What Child Is This" – 2:25
  3. "My Little Drum" – 3:12
  4. "Linus and Lucy" – 3:06
  5. "Christmas Time Is Here" – 6:05
Side two
  1. "Christmas Time Is Here" – 2:47
  2. "Skating" – 2:27
  3. "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" – 1:55
  4. "Christmas Is Coming" – 3:25
  5. "Fur Elise" – 1:06
  6. "The Christmas Song" – 3:17
Bonus tracks, 1988 CD
  2. "What Child Is This" – 5:25
Bonus tracks, 2006 CD
  2. "What Child Is This" – 5:25
  3. "Christmas Is Coming" – 4:37
  4. "The Christmas Song" – 3:53
  5. "Greensleeves" – 5:05
  6. "Christmas Time Is Here" – 1:34
Bonus tracks, 2012 CD
  2. "What Child Is This" – 5:25
  3. "Great Pumpkin Waltz" – 2:29
  4. "Thanksgiving Theme" – 2:00
A Charlie Brown Christmas was first released on CD in 1986. An additional release in 1988 featured a longer, alternate take of "What Child Is This" as a bonus track. The 2006 remaster also contained the longer, alternate take of "What Child Is This" as well as several alternate takes of previously released songs. The second remastered edition was released in 2012, which replaced the 2006 bonus tracks with other holiday-related songs composed by Guaraldi.

Personnel

The Vince Guaraldi Trio
Additional musicians
Children's chorus for the songs "Christmas Time Is Here", "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" and when the kids all shout "Merry Christmas Charlie Brown" were performed by members of the choir of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in San Rafael, California. Several months before the making of Charlie Brown Christmas this choir was featured on the recording Vince Guaraldi at Grace Cathedral.
Original production
Production
ChartPeak
US Billboard 20013
US Billboard 200 Year End175
US Top Pop Catalog Albums1
US Digital Albums1
US Holiday Albums2
US Top Soundtracks3
US Tastemaker Albums10