Charlie Brown's Holiday Hits

Charlie Brown's Holiday Hits is a compilation album by jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi (credited to the Vince Guaraldi Trio) released by Fantasy Records in 1998. The album was the first of several posthumous releases containing a mix of previously released material in addition to nine previously unavailable songs featured in prime-time animated television specials based on the Peanuts comic strip by Charles M. Schulz.

Charlie Brown's Holiday Hits
Compilation album by Vince Guaraldi
Released	September 8, 1998 (1998-09-08)
Recorded	October 1964–December 1974, 1983, 1998
Genre	Jazz pop soundtrack
Length	37:07
Label	Fantasy
Vince Guaraldi chronology
Greatest Hits (1980) Charlie Brown's Holiday Hits (1998) Jazz Casual: Paul Winter/Bola Sete and Vince Guaraldi (2001)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
All About Jazz
Five Cents Please

Background

Vince Guaraldi died of a sudden heart attack on February 6, 1976, at age 47, having composed music scores for 16 Peanuts television specials and the feature film A Boy Named Charlie Brown. Despite the wealth of material Guaraldi recorded for these specials, only three album's worth of Peanuts songs were released during his lifetime: Jazz Impressions of A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1964), A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) and Oh Good Grief! (1968).

After the 1996 tribute album Linus and Lucy: The Music of Vince Guaraldi by New Age pianist George Winston sparked renewed interest in Guaraldi's music, Fantasy Records assembled a compilation album in 1998, 22 years after Guaraldi's final Peanuts project (It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown (1976)).

Charlie Brown's Holiday Hits contains a mix of previously released material featured on the Fantasy releases Jazz Impressions of A Boy Named Charlie Brown and A Charlie Brown Christmas plus unreleased music cues from the latter as well as It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966), A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (1973) and Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown (1975). Several music cues were sourced directly from the television audio tracks and were licensed for inclusion from Lee Mendelson Film Productions.

Fantasy also inadvertently included one non-Guaraldi track ("Joe Cool"), a composite of two music cues composed by Ed Bogas and Desirée Goyette for The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show (CBS, 1983-85). The title bears no relation to the multiple renditions of "Joe Cool" composed by Guaraldi during his lifetime.

Critical reception

Guaraldi historian Derrick Bang commented that the newly released material "is a joy, although some of these cuts are a bit 'muddy', and they lack the polish and studio perfection of Fantasy's earlier releases; they have an unsweetened quality, and display the uneven volume, jump starts and slow fades that betray their probable origins from television audio tracks." AllMusic critic Cub Koda said the wealth of unreleased material was a "true goldmine" for fans.

Track listing

All songs written by Vince Guaraldi except where noted. Proper titles appear with mistitled tracks in parentheses.

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Original album	Length
1.	"Joe Cool[a][tv]"	Ed Bogas Desirée Goyette		2:07
2.	"Air Music[b][tv]" (aka "Surfin' Snoopy")			1:11
3.	"Heartburn Waltz[c][tv]"			2:38
4.	"Track Meet[d][e]"			2:40
5.	"Camptown Races[d]"	Stephen Foster; arranged by Vince Guaraldi		2:25
6.	"Oh, Good Grief[f]" (aka "Schroeder")			2:00
7.	"Charlie Brown Theme"	Vince Guaraldi Lee Mendelson	Jazz Impressions of A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1964)	2:00
8.	"Schroeder"		Jazz Impressions of A Boy Named Charlie Brown	1:54
9.	"Charlie's Blues[g][tv]" (aka "Charlie Brown Blues/"Play It Again, Charlie Brown")			1:22
10.	"Great Pumpkin Waltz[h][tv]"			2:29
11.	"Thanksgiving Theme[g][i][tv]"			2:02
12.	"Linus and Lucy"		Jazz Impressions of A Boy Named Charlie Brown A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)	3:07
13.	"Christmas Time Is Here" (vocal)	Vince Guaraldi Lee Mendelson	A Charlie Brown Christmas	2:46
14.	"Christmas Time Is Here" (instrumental)		A Charlie Brown Christmas	6:03
Total length:				37:07[tv]

Notes
^{^[a]} non-Guaraldi track; song is a composite of two untitled music cues composed by Ed Bogas and Desirée Goyette for The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show
^{^[b]} sourced from television soundtrack of Charlie Brown's All Stars! (1966)
^{^[c]} sourced from television soundtrack of Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown (1975)
^{^[d]} recorded July 29, 1965
^{^[e]} re-recorded for A Charlie Brown Christmas as "Christmas Is Coming"
^{^[f]} vocal number sung by members of Glenn Mendelson's (son of Lee Mendelson) sixth-grade class; song is titled "Oh, Good Grief" but melody is taken from "Schroeder"
^{^[g]} sourced from television soundtrack of A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (1973)
^{^[h]} composite edit of versions 2 and 3
^{^[i]} sourced from television soundtrack of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966)
^{^[tv]} Tracks 1−3 and 9−11 are sourced directly from their respective television soundtracks and appear in mono.

Personnel

• Vince Guaraldi – piano, electric keyboards
• Monty Budwig – double bass ("Charlie Brown Theme", "Great Pumpkin Waltz", "Linus and Lucy")
• Fred Marshall – double bass ("Christmas Time Is Here")
• Puzzy Firth – double bass ("Air Music")
• Seward McCain – electric bass ("Heartburn Waltz", "Charlie's Blues", "Thanksgiving Theme")
• Colin Bailey – drums ("Charlie Brown Theme", "Great Pumpkin Waltz", "Linus and Lucy")
• Jerry Granelli – drums ("Christmas Time Is Here")
• Mike Clark – drums ("Thanksgiving Theme")
• Vince Lateano – drums ("Heartburn Waltz")
• Eddie Duran – guitar ("Air Music")
• John Gray – guitar ("Great Pumpkin Waltz")
• Tom Harrell – trumpet ("Thanksgiving Theme")
• Emanuel Klein – trumpet ("Great Pumpkin Waltz")
• Chuck Bennett – trombone ("Thanksgiving Theme")
• Ronnie Lang – woodwinds ("Great Pumpkin Waltz")
• Bill Fitch – congas ("Camptown Races")
• Benny Velarde – timbales ("Camptown Races")

External links

• Charlie Brown's Holiday Hits at Discogs (list of releases)