Vince Guaraldi Leads a Jazzy Trio in A Charlie Brown Christmas

Last night, I arrived home from work just in time to catch A Charlie Brown Christmas on ABC. We have the special on DVD, but there’s something extra special about watching it at a time when you know millions of other people are watching it too. I sat down on the couch and let the refreshing simplicity of the special wash over me. With that fresh in my mind, I decided it was past time to listen to the Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack I borrowed from the library a while back. Listening to the soothing melodies of the Vince Guaraldi Trio - with composer Guaraldi on the piano, Monty Budwig on the bass and Colin Bailey on the drums - is a perfect way to spend 40 minutes on a dreary winter day.

O Tannenbaum begins as a fairly straightforward reading of the traditional carol on the piano, but then the bass and drums join in and the piano takes on a jazzy quality before going off on a melodic tangent that only occasionally seems to have any direct similarity to the tune. Gradually, the loud brightness of the midsection fades into a much softer tone, recalling Charlie Brown and Linus bypassing all the flashy trees for the humble little bent-over pine.

What Child is This takes a moment to become recognizable, but once it does, it is more straightforward than the previous track, with just the occasional change to the rhythm and little alteration to the melody until the song nears the two-minute mark. At that point, it goes off in a different direction, ending the song in rather unfamiliar territory.

Hark, the Herald Angels Sing features so-soft-it’s-barely-audible organ music as the children hum the melody. Then the accompaniment grows louder as the children switch over to singing, concluding the track with a nice bit of high harmony.

Fur Elise, the shortest track, is the Beethoven song so readily associated with piano prodigy Schroeder. Just the piano here, and no fancy flourishes. Though it doesn’t quite fit with the style of most of the tracks, as a musical representation of Schroeder, it’s perfect.

The Christmas Song allows Guaraldi more opportunity to have fun with the piano. Though he doesn’t stray far from the basic tune, he plays it with a jazzy flair, with a bit of soft help now and then from the bass and a big dramatic finish.

Greensleeves is the final track on the album and the longest of the “traditional” tracks. Just before the two-minute mark, it ceases to sound much like Greensleeves and becomes an opportunity for Guaraldi to play around on the piano, though hints of the tune return from time to time, as well as possible nods to other songs. Around the three and a half minute mark, the basic melody returns, for the most part, for the remainder of the song.

My Little Drum gives credit to Guaraldi instead of merely noting that he did the arrangement, but this song, which also features some very soft background vocals by children, is quite obviously a riff on The Little Drummer Boy.

Christmas Time Is Here appears in two forms. The first is purely instrumental, while the second features the voices of young children. This song is one of the two most recognized songs from the special. It evokes innocence and simple childhood pleasures, like a line of children skating across a frozen pond. The instrumental version is twice as long as the other, but I think I prefer it to the vocal version. I’ve always found something slightly creepy about all those high voices singing this together. Also, I love how at the end of the instrumental version, the piano imitates the mandolin. “Christmas time is here / Happiness and cheer / Fun for all, what children call the greatest time of year.”

Skating captures the whimsy of Snoopy and the children as they glide, sometimes gracefully, sometimes not. Toward the middle the track gets an almost country flavor to it, while the melody reminds me a bit of Pure Imagination from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Christmas Is Coming is a bit louder than most of the tracks, focusing on the energy of anticipation. It’s the last of the original Guaraldi compositions on the album, and it shifts tone a couple of times to encompass different reactions to the holiday.

By far the most iconic track on the album is Linus and Lucy, which is synonymous not only with A Charlie Brown Christmas but with Charlie Brown, period. I hear the lively piano tune in my head when I read Peanuts comic books or even just the strip in the Sunday paper. Poor Charlie Brown gets cheated out of his own theme song, with the supporting Van Pelts stealing the limelight from him; somehow, that seems very fitting! Like most of the tracks here, it deviates from the main melody a couple of times, but that just makes me appreciate it all the more when it comes back. I like the tune so much that it’s the only ringtone I’ve ever had on my cell phone. It’s a lucky thing my phone doesn’t ring much, since listening to Schroeder pound away on that piano makes me want to get up and dance like Snoopy.

That’s the kind of reaction Ralph J. Gleason describes in his liner notes when he talks about the difficulty of paying homage to someone else’s artistic expression with art of one’s own. “He took his inspiration from the creations of Charles Schulz and made music that reflects that inspiration, is empathetic with the image and is still solidly and unmistakably Vince Guaraldi,” Gleason writes. How very true. I can’t hear this music without thinking of Charlie Brown, and I can’t think of Charlie Brown without hearing this music.

Will Mom Get In the Way When Rerun Wants a Dog for Christmas?

It's been more than 40 years since a droopy little tree and a recitation from the Gospel of Luke first charmed television audiences in A Charlie Brown Christmas. Since then, it has become a cherished tradition. I don't think any Peanuts special since has quite captured the majesty of that first one, but whenever one of them is aired on television, I look forward to sitting down and watching it. Because Christmas is such a popular subject, it's not too surprising that the Peanuts gang starred in more than one Christmas special.

Several years ago I watched It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown, a fun but rather scattered special involving, among other things, Sally's determination to remember her big line in the upcoming play and her insistence that Harold Angel was going to be singing in the program. More recently, I watched I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown, a Peanuts special produced after the death of Charles Schulz but taken from his strips, many of which can be found in the book It's a Dog's Life, Snoopy.

While It's Christmastime Again is largely a series of vignettes, I Want a Dog for Christmas has a pretty strong plot thread. Its main focus is Rerun (Jimmy Bennett), Linus's (Corey Patnos) little look-alike brother, who is always showing up on Charlie Brown's (Adam Taylor Gordon) doorstep asking if Snoopy (Bill Melendez) can come out and play. Usually his idea of playing involves Snoopy catching a ball and bringing it back or Snoopy puling Rerun on a sled - strenuous activities requiring a very tolerant pooch. Snoopy is only occasionally accommodating; more often, he's sitting inside laughing hysterically at the audacity of this pipsqueak.

Naturally, Rerun wouldn't have to be constantly trying to borrow Charlie Brown's dog if the Van Pelt residence had a dog as well. So Rerun, undeterred by older sister Lucy's (Ashley Rose) protests that their mother will never let him keep a dog, sets out to ask Santa for his heart's desire. Eventually, though, it's Snoopy who provides what seems like the perfect opportunity; it seems his desert-dwelling brother Spike has been lonesome of late and might just be amenable to a new living arrangement...

While Linus has always been my favorite of the Van Pelts - and probably my favorite human character in the strip - Rerun is pretty fun to observe. He's a very quirky kid who's not at all afraid to speak his mind. His conversations with a kindergarten classmate (Kaitlyn Maggio) are illuminating, and his lack of tact as he complains, in the presence of Linus and Lucy, about his family situation reminds me of my own little brother. It's not always easy being the youngest - though as the (hopefully less crabby) Lucy of my family, I contend that the youngest sometimes don't know how easy they have it!

Though Spike has a fairly minor role in the special, it's always fun to see Snoopy's relatives, and Spike's bland personality seems well suited to a lad who wants a dog he can control; Snoopy is much too independent for that. The first time I watched this, I had my doubts about it, since I hadn't been particularly impressed with Lucy Must Be Traded, Charlie Brown, a special which was released earlier that same year. I was pleased to find the story engaging and humorous, with plenty of Snoopy to keep things fun. I also appreciated that the characters all sounded fairly similar to those in A Charlie Brown Christmas; there have been specials in which the voices have sounded decidedly off to me. Compared to that classic, I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown feels like a bit of a lightweight, but standing on its own it is a perfectly solid special, and one of the better Peanuts adventures I've seen.

Snoopy and His Rival Bury the Hatchet for Christmas

When it comes to cartoon characters, no group of two-dimensional pals holds a dearer place in my heart than Winnie-the-Pooh and his fellow Hundred Acre Woodlanders. But the Peanuts gang comes close. This time of year, I'm especially fond of Snoopy and the gang as I put out Hallmark decorations and plush Snoopys and Woodstocks in Santa hats, watch A Charlie Brown Christmas and go to work sporting a wide variety of festive shirts featuring the Browns, the Van Pelts and all their friends. It's certainly no surprise that I would embrace Schulz-inspired Christmas music; the only surprise is that it took me so long to discover Snoopy's Christmas, a heartening ballad by the Royal Guardsmen, who seem to have developed a bit of a corner on the Snoopy music market.

Snoopy's Christmas is not the first of their songs to draw upon the daydreaming beagle's fabled rivalry with the "bloody" Red Baron, a ruthless World War I-era German aviator. He breaks out of character in this peppy narrative, which seems to be a throwback to the remarkable Christmas Truce of 1914, in which German and British troops celebrated the holiday together, singing carols, giving gifts and playing games with their previous and future enemies. It's so strange to think that those soldiers could continue to kill one another after sharing such an experience; sometimes, I suppose, one must settle for a temporary miracle...

The feud between Snoopy and the Red Baron doesn't end with this song. But there is most definitely an aura of respect about their relationship now that they have taken a moment to toast one another, refusing to destroy each other on such a holy night. The chorus doesn't mention either of the main characters. Rather, it focuses on the Christmas bells ringing throughout the land, encouraging peace and goodwill. These bells seem to serve as the inspiration for the Red Baron's surprising gesture of friendship and Snoopy's acceptance, though their reaction may be subconscious.

I love the gusto-filled vocals and the instrumentals, which are strewn with sound effects. The bells, of course, have a starring role, and there's some fantastic percussion and several instances of zooming aircraft. The bounciness of the bulk of the song is enhanced by the somber opening, which features a chorus singing O Tanenbaum as bombs explode in the background. I suppose this is generally classified as a novelty song, but its message of peace and forgiveness puts it right up there with altruistic favorites like Happy XMas and Someday at Christmas.

It's hard to go wrong with Snoopy. The Royal Guardsmen realized that, and I salute them for it. Merry Christmas to all, from musicians to flying aces. May the goodwill that strikes the heart with the pealing of those bells remain throughout the year.