Posted in: Music, Pop Culture, Soundtrack, Vinyl | Tagged: charlie brown, Vince Guaraldi

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is Coming To Vinyl

The complete soundtrack for It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown has been released digitally and is getting an official vinyl release

Craft Recordings has revealed a new vinyl release is on the way, as they are putting It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown to a few special pieces of wax. The soundtrack has already been made available digitally, but now, if you want to own a physical copy and listen to it on vinyl as if it came out in the '70s, this is your chance. The company is going all out on this anniversary reissue, as they've made the main version on a 45 RPM zoetrope LP, featuring memorable scenes from the special made to play out as the record spins, set to be released on August 7.

What's more, they're making special retail single versions in an Orange 4-inch Tiny Vinyl for Target, featuring "The Great Pumpkin Waltz" on Side A and "Graveyard Theme" on Side B. As well as Pumpkin-shaped pressings starting on August 21, with special colorways that include the Electric Pumpkin Patch (Barnes & Noble), Pumpkin Spice (Walmart), Ghost White (Target), and Candy Corn (Craft Recordings). We have the finer details from the label and images of them all below, as you can find various pre-order options in the link above.

It's a Great Soundtrack, Charlie Brown

In 1966, Vince Guaraldi was in the early years of a long-running, highly successful creative partnership with Lee Mendelson, a Bay Area TV producer who initially sought out the local jazz musician to score a documentary about Charles M. Schulz, creator of the popular Peanuts comic strip. While the film A Boy Named Charlie Brown never aired, the duo reconvened a year later for A Charlie Brown Christmas. The 1965 animated special, written by Charles Schulz, animated by Bill Melendez, and produced by Mendelson, was an instant hit—as was its best-selling soundtrack. The following year, Mendelson tapped Guaraldi to score two more specials: Charlie Brown's All-Stars!, which aired in June, and October's It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

Recorded just weeks ahead of its airdate at Desilu's Gower Street Studio in Hollywood, the Halloween special marked a new era in Peanuts scores, with the addition of seasoned composer, arranger, and conductor John Scott Trotter. While music for the first two specials was managed entirely by Guaraldi, Trotter—who was best known for his three-decade run as Bing Crosby's music director—brought a sense of order to the sessions, helping the jazz musician better tailor his music into short, TV-friendly cues. Joining Guaraldi were his trio members (bassist Monty Budwig and drummer Colin Bailey), plus Emmanuel "Mannie" Klein (trumpet), John Gray (guitar), and Ronald Lang (woodwinds), who added warm textures to the autumnal score.

What didn't change was the striking quality of Guaraldi's cues. At the core of the special is the sophisticated and evocative "Great Pumpkin Waltz" theme, inspired by Linus' steadfast belief in the mysterious gourd. Other standout tracks include the eerie "Breathless" as well as more whimsical selections, like "The Red Baron." Additionally, evergreen favorites "Charlie Brown Theme" and the instantly recognizable "Linus and Lucy" are also soundtrack highlights.

In liner notes for a previous edition of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, Peanuts historian Derrick Bang wrote, "By this point, Guaraldi had a strong sense of how music could—and should—be employed to maximize the viewing audience's emotional response." He continued, "Guaraldi 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." Lee Mendelson also contributed an introductory note written before his passing in 2019.

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