Three children’s TV shows stand out for their strong commitment to jazz: Sesame Street, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and the Charlie Brown holiday specials, of which there were 13 classic ones out of 53 created over the decades.
Vince Guaraldi scored or composed original music for five of the Peanuts specials during his lifetime (he died in 1976). The one that stands out, of course, is A Charlie Brown Christmas Special (1965). Often overlooked and certainly on par with the latter is It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966).
As Ted Nesi pointed out last week in an email…
“Ever since the lost soundtrack for It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown was released in 2022, the music is everywhere on social media this time of year. Even my wife pointed out that every other Halloween-themed Instagram post seems to use music from the album.
“Everyone associates the songs with Vince Guaraldi, but the soundtrack was orchestrated by John Scott Trotter. He was Bing Crosby’s arranger for years, including on the 1942 and 1947 Decca recordings of White Christmas, the preeminent Christmas song. [Photo above of John Scott Trotter]
“When he took on the Halloween project, Trotter probably never imagined he’d wind up the orchestrator of music that would rival White Christmas in popularity.
“By the way, that’s a great jazz sextet on the Great Pumpkin soundtrack—Guaraldi on piano with Monty Budwig on bass, Colin Bailey on drums, John Gray on guitar, Ronnie Lang on woodwinds and Mannie Klein on trumpet.” [Photo above of Vince Guaraldi]
So, in celebration of Halloween two days early and the 60th anniversary of this album, here’s the entire jazz soundtrack with incidental music for It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown…