Craft Recordings proudly announces a definitive, bonus-filled edition of Vince Guaraldi’s timeless score from the beloved, 1965 animated PEANUTS® special, A Charlie Brown Christmas, from Charles Schulz and Lee Mendelson and Bill Melendez. While the album has remained a holiday staple for nearly 60 years (not to mention the best-selling jazz album of all time, alongside Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue, after earning 5x platinum certification by the RIAA in May), this latest edition showcases Guaraldi’s creative process like never before, thanks to hours of newly unearthed session tapes from Fantasy Records’ vaults. Now, fans can experience cues like “Christmas Time Is Here,” “O Tannenbaum,” and “Skating” as they take shape in the studio through dozens of previously unreleased alternate tracks.

Condensed liner notes are included in the CD Deluxe Edition, which features the 2022 stereo mix of the album, plus 13 highlights from the outtakes.

When A Charlie Brown Christmas first aired on December 9, 1965, no one expected just how monumental the half-hour animated special would be. While based on Charles M. Schulz’s immensely popular PEANUTS® comic strip, TV executives were wary of the unconventional format, which featured the voices of child actors, a jazz score, and no laugh track—all unprecedented for the era. Their worries, however, proved to be unfounded. Not only did the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning special capture nearly half of America’s TV audience that night, but it would quickly become an essential holiday classic and launch one of the 20th century’s most popular franchises.

It all began in 1964, when producer Lee Mendelson set out to make a TV documentary titled A Boy Named Charlie Brown about Charles Schulz and his beloved comic strip. To score the film, he hired Vince Guaraldi—a fast-rising Bay Area jazz artist—best known at the time for his GRAMMY®-winning instrumental crossover hit, “Cast Your Fate to the Wind.” Although the documentary never made it to the airwaves, Mendelson was struck by Guaraldi’s sophisticated work. When A Charlie Brown Christmas was greenlit one year later, he sought out the musician once again, marking the beginning of a long and successful creative partnership.

Yet, while many fans of Guaraldi and PEANUTS® are well acquainted with the history of the special, the story of how the music was actually made has never been told, until now. Thanks to the dialogue captured on these session tapes, Guaraldi’s creative process—as he worked alongside Mendelson and director Bill Melendez to craft the festive score—finally comes to light.

1. O Tannenbaum
2. What Child Is This
3. My Little Drum
4. Linus & Lucy
5. Christmas Time Is Here (Instrumental)
6. Christmas Time Is Here (Vocal)
7. Skating
8. Hark, The Herald Angels Sing
9. Christmas Is Coming
10. Für Elise
11. The Christmas Song
12. O Tannenbaum (Take 2/Recorded September 21, 1965)
13. O Tannenbaum (Take 3/Recorded September 21, 1965)
14. Greensleeves (Take 6/Recorded October 28, 1965)
15. Linus And Lucy (Take 1/Recorded September 17, 1965)
16. Christmas Time Is Here (Take 1/Recorded September 17, 1965)
17. Christmas Time Is Here (Vocal) (Rehearsal/Recording Date Unknown)
18. Christmas Time Is Here (Take 4/Recording Date Unknown)
19. Skating (Take 1/Recorded September 22, 1965)
20. Jingle Bells (Takes 1–4/Recorded September 21, 1965)
21. Christmas Is Coming (Take 3/Recorded September 17, 1965)
22. Christmas Is Coming (Take 3/Recorded September 21, 1965)
23. Für Elise (Takes 1–2/Recording Date Unknown)
24. The Christmas Song (Take 8/Recorded October 28, 1965)