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It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!  The Emmy-nominated 1966 television special was the third overall for Charles M. Schulz’s Peanuts series and the second to be holiday-themed, after A Charlie Brown Christmas.  It earned a whopping 49 share in the ratings and was so successful that CBS re-aired it every year through 2000, with ABC picking up the tradition after that.  Yet despite a beloved score by Vince Guaraldi (who else?), a soundtrack album to Great Pumpkin has never been released in any audio format – until now.

On October 5, Craft Recordings will issue It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown on CD in a deluxe edition with a new introduction from executive producer Lee Mendelson and liner notes by Guaraldi historian Derrick Bang.  Featuring a reprise of the famous “Linus and Lucy” as well as the “Great Pumpkin Waltz,” Guaraldi’s score was recorded on October 4, 1966 at Desilu’s Gower Street Studio in Hollywood by Guaraldi (piano) and his longtime trio members Monty Budwig on bass and Colin Bailey on drums.  Emanuel Klein (trumpet), John Gray (guitar), and Ronald Lang (woodwinds) rounded out the sextet for the sessions.  The recordings were overseen by composer, arranger and conductor John Scott Trotter, best-known for his long tenure as Bing Crosby’s musical director.  This release has been derived from these original recordings as heard on the special; the music was never re-recorded for album release.

Mendelson writes in his introduction that “this is the quintessential Vince Guaraldi for our Peanuts specials…some of his best atmospheric jazz.  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.”  Bang adds, “Guaraldi had a strong sense of how music could – and should – be employed to maximize the viewing audience’s emotional response.  [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 soundtrack debut arrives on October 5.  You’ll find pre-order links and the full track listing below!

Vince Guaraldi, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown: Music from the Soundtrack (Craft Recordings, 2018) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

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 Waltz
9. The Great Pumpkin Waltz (Reprise 2)
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 (Reprise 2)
16. Linus and Lucy (Reprise 2)
17. Charlie Brown Theme (Reprise 2)