It’s hard to resist this song. It automatically makes me happy when I hear it. I see the Peanuts gang doing their thing.
This song I can hear anytime of the year and be happy. It’s associated with Christmas also…whichever… I never get tired of it.
I was reminded of this song this year in Hanspostcard’s song draft when run-sew-read’s pick was this song.
Ironically, just about everyone would call this “the Charlie Brown song” even though it’s actually titled after Linus and Lucy Van Pelt, brother and sister in Charles Schulz’s Peanuts comic strip universe.
The song is most famous for its use in the yearly favorite A Charlie Brown Christmas, which first aired in 1965, but it was written two years earlier for a documentary about Schulz and the Peanuts gang called A Boy Named Charlie Brown, which never aired.
Producer Lee Mendelson was in charge of the documentary and asked Vince Guaraldi to compose music for it
Guaraldi was huge in the jazz world and won the 1962 Grammy for Best Original Jazz Composition for “Cast Your Fate To The Wind” for his group, the Vince Guaraldi Trio. Mendelson was searching for what kind of music to play for the documentary when he took a taxi cab and “Cast Your Fate To The Wind” was playing as he crossed the Golden Gate bridge. He loved it and his decision was made.
Guaraldi wrote a series of songs for the project, including “Linus and Lucy,” that he recorded with his group, the Vince Guaraldi Trio. Even though A Boy Named Charlie Brown was shelved, the soundtrack was released in 1964, which is where “Linus and Lucy” first appeared.
In 1965, Mendelson put together the first Peanuts TV special, A Charlie Brown Christmas, using many of the same people who worked on the documentary. “Linus and Lucy” formed the score, and a song he wrote with Guaraldi called “Christmas Time Is Here” was included in a key scene.
When A Charlie Brown Christmas debuted in 1965, it quickly turned the Peanuts franchise into a television institution. That first special also shot Guaraldi to greater fame, and he became connected to all subsequent Peanuts shows.
Guaraldi would continue to work on Peanuts films until his death in 1976.
No words…just enjoy
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The tune makes me smile, even in the summer. Guaraldi put out some good music that is heard all through the Peanuts shows.
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The jazz music really fit the peanuts and yea….this is instant good mood whenever I hear it…even now in these times.
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What a classic song. I cannot help but smile when I hear it.
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It’s like a free and good for you happy pill. Always makes me happy.
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Guaraldi is just amazing. I think he’s made a lot of jazz fans. I know he got me.
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Pig Pen on the cello is just the best isn’t it?
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Pigpen I loved man…I could find dirt as a kid anywhere….at least my mom said that.
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Ha. It’s a fine art finding dirt as a kid..
Pig Pen was the best man he just did what he did lol
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Nice piano riff.
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agree with all the above… a fine piece of music to begin with but made fantastic by its use in the Charlie Brown Christmas… it’s funny how a piece with nothing to do with Christmas per se is as representative of the time of year and good tidings as anything with “Christmas” in the lyrics.
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It does remind people of Christmas but yea…it’s not really a Christmas song…you know It’s A Wonderful Life is kinda like that also…it’s not really a Christmas movie….it just had Christmas IN it.
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This is one of my all time favourites.
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Love this tune. This was on the radio and my daughter was going to turn the station as she isn’t in to instrumentals, by I made her listen and I want to think she ended up enjoying it. She saw how much I did at least.
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It automatically makes me happy…sometimes that is not easy lol.
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I’m one of the twins in purple, bobbing my head back and forth. Tee-hee…
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Lol… I love those dances
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Snoopy tickles me, too. He is into that guitar!
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The dances are classic – if they were real people
You would think they look ridiculous but with the Peanuts gang it’s perfect
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I watch The Office from time to time…I don’t know if you are familiar but Pam and Jim I swear were doing one of the dances in one cold opening.
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Yes I think you are right!
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Reblogged this on blackwings666 and commented:
Merry Christmas!
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Thank you and Merry Christmas to you and your family!
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