More than 60 years after its release, Vince Guaraldi Trio’s A Charlie Brown Christmas has reached a new milestone. The beloved 1965 soundtrack is now certified 6X Platinum by the RIAA, representing six million album sales and streaming equivalents in the U.S. and making it the best-selling jazz album of all time.
Craft Recordings is marking the occasion with a colorful lineup of limited-edition vinyl throughout the holiday season. The collection includes Silver Emerald vinyl at Walmart, a new picture disc at Barnes & Noble, Iridescent Snow vinyl with an exclusive poster at Target, and Sapphire vinyl at Urban Outfitters.
Then there’s the ultimate snow day: on November 6, Craft will release a liquid-filled Snow Globe LP with floating snowflakes, limited to just 300 copies.
Audiophiles can also look to the Original Jazz Classics edition, arriving October 9 on 180-gram vinyl with lacquers cut AAA from the original master tapes by Matthew Lutthans and pressed at QRP. Plus, the previously sold-out zoetrope LP is back at CraftRecordings.com.
→ EXPLORE ALL EDITIONS OF A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS
HOW JAZZ CAME TO PEANUTS
The musical story of A Charlie Brown Christmas actually began before the holiday special existed.
In 1964, producer Lee Mendelson was working on A Boy Named Charlie Brown, a television documentary about PEANUTS creator Charles M. Schulz. Looking for a composer, he approached Bay Area pianist Vince Guaraldi, who was fresh off the success of his GRAMMY®-winning “Cast Your Fate to the Wind.”
The documentary never aired, but Guaraldi’s music stuck with Mendelson. When A Charlie Brown Christmas was greenlit the following year, he brought Guaraldi back, beginning a musical relationship with PEANUTS that continued until the pianist’s death in 1976.
CHRISTMAS, GUARALDI STYLE
With bassist Fred Marshall and drummer Jerry Granelli joining him, Guaraldi gave Charlie Brown and the gang a musical identity all their own.
Originals like “Linus and Lucy,” “Skating” and the bossa nova-tinged “Christmas Is Coming” sit comfortably alongside Guaraldi’s jazz interpretations of “O Tannenbaum,” “What Child Is This” and “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.”
Then there’s “Christmas Time Is Here.” Appearing in both instrumental and vocal versions, Guaraldi’s wistful original became something even bigger than a soundtrack cue: a holiday standard in its own right.
It was jazz sophisticated enough for adults without ever forgetting that Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy and Snoopy were the ones onscreen.
LISTENING NOTES
“O Tannenbaum”
A familiar carol becomes something unmistakably Guaraldi. Stick around after the melody settles in and hear the trio turn Christmas tradition into a relaxed jazz conversation.
“Linus and Lucy”
You barely need the title. That opening piano figure is enough to put the whole PEANUTS gang in your head, blanket, doghouse and all.
“Christmas Time Is Here”
Few holiday songs sound quite this wistful. Try the instrumental and vocal versions back-to-back to hear how differently that melody lands with and without words.
“Skating”
Guaraldi somehow makes a piano sound like falling snow and kids gliding across ice. It’s less than three minutes of pure winter atmosphere.
“Christmas Is Coming”
For the swinging side of Christmas. The bossa nova pulse gives the album one of its breeziest moments and shows how far Guaraldi could stretch the idea of holiday music.
SIX MILLION AND COUNTING
When A Charlie Brown Christmas first aired on December 9, 1965, nearly half of the television-watching public tuned in. The special went on to earn Emmy® and Peabody® Awards, while Guaraldi continued providing music for PEANUTS specials for the next decade.
The soundtrack built a legacy of its own. It has been inducted into the GRAMMY® Hall of Fame and added to the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry. Now, its 6X Platinum certification adds another distinction: the best-selling jazz album of all time.
Not bad for a little Christmas record featuring a jazz trio and a kid worried about the meaning of the holidays.
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