What's Your 'Nut Jam?

[Edgy MD]

Charles Shulz wanted to use classical music for A Charlie Brown Christmas — the first of the wildly successful TV specials based on his beloved Peanuts comic strip. It took some arm-twisting for director Bill Menendez to convince him that a small jazz combo would better capture the tone of his tale of midwestern mid-century childhood and the noble and decent sucker at the center of it, plodding through life to his own beat, both lively and melancholy.

Time has proven few people so correct. Even looking back at the strip's golden age, it's the tone and not the hit-and-miss gags that make Peanuts Peanuts. And The Vince Guaraldi Trio's music soon became synonymous with Schulz's creation, even though his contributions would quickly wane over the next few productions before Guaraldi's early death in 1976. All composers and performers used since are just referencing him.

Since the original special's soundtrack's re-release in 1988, the music has had a life of its own, even as the Peanuts strip, associated films and TV specials, and brand would decline with the aging its creator, who died in 2000. The soundtrack is somehow both universally overplayed and universally beloved. If you meet someone who is all, "I outright hate this shit," there's a good chance you are talking to an extraterrestrial.

Your job is to identify the true gem in this treasure chest of a collection. Tracks are listed in broadcast order, but songs that appear more than once are combined so as to not compete against each other. So the vocal and instrumental versions "Christmas Time Is Here," for instance, are in the running together.

Vid clips don't necessarily match the corresponding visuals from the special. In fact, they generally don't.

1) "Christmas Time Is Here"

This Guaraldi original opens the program with the vocal version sung by a children's choir. The dragging brushes on the snare drum and the key sliding between F major and Bb minor quickly told viewers they were in for some emotionally complex stuff. The instrumental version of the song returns a few minutes later as Chuck and Linus plod through the snow.





2) "Skating"

While this swinging waltz so well invokes the activity it's named for, we forget that it's introduced not during the ice-skating sequence but during the snowflake-catching scene. Also a Guaraldi original.



3) "Christmas Is Coming"

Charlie Brown shows up all over-prepared with his director's notes, and the 'Nuts gang keeps subverting his best efforts by breaking out into a dance party set to this track. The three-musician band depicted somehow features a piano/stand-up bass/remote-amplified electric bass combo, and with all that extra bass, Shroeder's left hand is doing all the lower register work, laying down a sweet hook throughout.

Dances effected during this sequence:

　　a) Shermy — The Sleepwalk
　　b) Frieda — The Watusi
　　c) Violet — Apparently The Jerk, but with a little Batusi
　　d) Linus — The Stomp
　　e) Sally — possibly The Twist, though maybe emulating Linus' Stomp badly
　　f) Three and Four — The Pony
　　g) Five — The animators seem to be going for The Mashed Potato with his lower half
　　　　but the top half seems to be enacting some forward-thinking, way-ahead-of-its-
　　　　time nu wave/hip-hop shit — good for him



4) "Linus and Lucy"

More music created by Guaraldi for panning across the dancing sequences, with Shroeder's piano fills so wicked that the song quickly became associated with the characters to the degree that it is now broadly thought of as "The Charlie Brown Theme" or "The Peanuts Theme" when it was actually a theme meant to invoke the two discordant Van Pelt siblings.



5) "My Little Drum"

Guaraldi's adaptation of what was then the most beloved modern pop Christmas song, with the kids chorus initially asked to emulate the drum part instead of being given the melody, but a minute in, the pianist starts improvising off, so he lets the kids "ooh" the tune.



6) "Für Elise"

Schulz may have been talked out of using classical music, but Shroeder will be damned if he's going to get on TV and not bang out some of his beloved Beethoven, so he sits at his piano for a quiet run-through of this popular rondo before Lucy starts fucking with him.



7) "O Tannenbaum"

There's only one song for Christmas tree shopping, but Guaralid's improvisations take it so far afield that you can be forgiven for not recognizing the song if you come in a minute late.



8) "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing"

The closing track forced Guaraldi to fight the children's choir director, who demanded tonal perfection, resulting in this beautifully sloppy, somewhat off-key closing song. The kids, who got $5 apiece (which stinks of exploitation — where was the union?!) also provide the closing "Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!" dialogue.

The organ accompaniment gives the track a very Shulz-y skating rink feel.



9) "Greensleeves (What Child Is This?)"

This bonus track (not appearing in the special) was, by some sources, composed by King Henry VIII. My wife calls bullshit most emphatically to this claim. The eight-bar intro, I think, is original Guaraldi.



10) "The Christmas Song"

A second non-special track is one that the trio probably already had their own arrangement of, as the Mel Torme composition was pretty much a December staple in every jazz outfit's set during this era.

[whippoorwill]

When my daughter was in college, in the middle of the summer, she burned me a ‘Charlie Brown Music’
CD which I still play all the time.

I have always loved ‘Skating’. It reminds me of my cousin Linda and me when we were little girls for some reason.

[Edgy MD]

Unsurprisingly, the first four votes go in four different directions, even with nobody choosing either of the non-broadcast tracks.

[kcmets]

#4 is OMG so great!

[DocTee]

If only they added "Snoopy and the Red Baron" by the Royal Guardsmen.

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

I like how "Christmastime is Here" has become a staple for artists recording Christmas albums. I remember finding a version on an alt-rock Christmas compilation in the early 1990s, and thought, "Cool, they are covering a Charlie Brown song." And then within a few years it seemed like everyone was covering it.

[cal sharpie]

Vince Guaraldi spoke at my high school graduation.

[Edgy MD]

wOw!