Vince Guaraldi Trio – Linus and Lucy

It’s hard to resist this song. It automatically makes me happy when I hear it. I see the Peanuts gang doing their thing.

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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.

Here is another post of the song in Hanspostcard’s song draft a few years ago 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,” which 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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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

26 thoughts on “Vince Guaraldi Trio – Linus and Lucy”

  1. I‘ve gotten a bit lukewarm about many songs you keep hearing around the holidays each year. This is NOT one of them!

    In fact, I can hear this tune any day. It truly is a timeless classic that nicely swings and just makes you happy.

    I mean how can you not be happy listening to this upbeat music and watching these lovable Peanuts cartoon characters dance to it?

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  3. it’s actually a very cool piece of music in its own right , but with the context of the Peanuts special, it’s really a big part of our shared Christmas culture. I just watched it for the first time this year two nights back, still love it. And everytime this comes on in it, I debate over which the coolest dancers are … usually a toss-up between the one seemingly just walking in place and the other who’s head bobs back and forth, shoulder to shoulder!

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  9. I found a CD of his greatest hits at Half Price Books, now I can listen to this song all year long. It always puts a grin on my face and takes me back to those years when we had only 3 TV channels and no internet.

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