Charlie Brown's Holiday Hits

Vince Guaraldi died of a sudden heart attack on February 6, 1976, 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)).[3]

Charlie Brown's Holiday Hits contains a mix of previously released material featured on 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). 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).[3][1] The title bears no relation to the multiple renditions of "Joe Cool" composed by Guaraldi during his lifetime.[3]

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."[3] AllMusic critic Cub Koda said the wealth of unreleased material was a "true goldmine" for fans.[1]

All songs written by Vince Guaraldi except where noted. Incorrectly titled tracks appear along with their proper titles.[1][3]

• Vince Guaraldi – piano, electric keyboards
• Seward McCain, Pat Firth, Monty Budwig, Fred Marshall – bass
• Eddie Duran, John Gray – guitar
• Tom Harrell, John Copolla, Frank Snow, Emanuel Klein – trumpet
• Chuck Bennett – trombone
• Glen Cronkite, Lee Charlton, John Pompeo, Jerry Granelli, Mike Clark, Colin Bailey – drums
• Bill Fitch – congas
• Benny Velarde – timbales[3]