It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (soundtrack)

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown: Original Soundtrack Recording is a soundtrack album by American jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi released on October 12, 2018 in the U.S. by Craft Recordings. A reissue containing original recordings and alternate takes sourced from the master reels was released on August 26, 2022.
It is the soundtrack to the Halloween-themed Peanuts television special of the same name that was first broadcast on October 27, 1966.
In mid-2018, Concord Music revealed plans to release a long-anticipated soundtrack album, reportedly containing original recordings from the television special, timed for the Halloween season. At the time, it was assumed that studio master tapes, licensed from Lee Mendelson Film Productions, had been recovered. However, the release confirmed that Concord Music did not possess these master recordings. Instead, the album featured tracks sourced from the television soundtrack, stripped of dialogue but retaining all other elements, including prominent sound effects.
Following the passing of producer Lee Mendelson in December 2019, his children embarked on a comprehensive search of archival materials with the aim of locating original music score recordings from the Peanuts television specials. During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, they discovered a significant collection of analog session tapes recorded by Guaraldi for several of the specials, including the original master reels from the October 4, 1966, recording session for It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. These tapes, long presumed lost, contained not only Guaraldi’s complete music cues but also arrangements by John Scott Trotter, along with several alternate takes. Music cues recorded after the October 4 session ("Snoopy and the Leaf", "Military Drum March", "Fanfare", "Breathless", "Graveyard Theme (Trick or Treat)" and "Linus and Lucy (third reprise)") remain missing and were ultimately sourced directly from the television soundtrack, this time without intrusive sound effects that marred the 2018 release.
The original session tapes comprise complete, unedited recordings, initially captured and mixed in monaural sound. These recordings were meticulously digitized in high-resolution format (192 kHz/24-bit) from the 1/4-inch master tapes. The session reels preserve the full versions of the tracks, untouched by the edits or premature fades later applied to synchronize with the on-screen action of the television special.
The recording sessions for It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown took place at Desilu's Gower Street Studio in Hollywood on October 4, 1966. Guaraldi, the primary composer, led the sessions with a sextet that included Monty Budwig (bass), Colin Bailey (drums), Emmanuel Klein (trumpet), John Gray (guitar), and Ronald Lang (woodwinds). Guaraldi reunited with Budwig and Bailey, who had previously collaborated with him on the scores for A Charlie Brown Christmas and the unreleased A Boy Named Charlie Brown documentary.
The session was supervised by composer, arranger, and conductor John Scott Trotter, who had served as music director for Bing Crosby. Trotter brought an orchestral sensibility to the recording process, introducing more structured arrangements and refining Guaraldi’s jazz compositions to fit the on-screen action. This was a marked shift from Guaraldi’s earlier approach, which involved recording extended takes that often exceeded the length needed for the corresponding scenes. Trotter's influence helped organize and streamline the music, ensuring a more disciplined final product.
In addition to established songs "Linus and Lucy", "Charlie Brown Theme" and "Frieda (With the Naturally Curly Hair)", Guaraldi composed several new cues for the special, including "The Great Pumpkin Waltz", "Red Baron" and "Graveyard Theme." The latter was based on a composition Guaraldi had first developed during a private recording session in 1958. The recording process also involved multiple takes of certain cues, allowing Guaraldi and Trotter to experiment with different instrumental arrangements and refine the themes to match the tone of the Halloween special. For example, alternate takes of "Linus and Lucy" and the "Graveyard Theme" reveal variations in tempo, instrumentation, and the prominence of specific instruments such as flute, trumpet, and guitar.
The use of these alternate takes in the recording sessions provided insight into Guaraldi’s creative process. Musicians like British-born Colin Bailey recalled that the sessions, although structured, allowed for improvisation and collaboration, with Guaraldi often refining his melodies and arrangements in real time. Bailey reflected on recording in 2021 shortly before his death, commenting that "it was terrific playing with Vince. He was a wonderful guy and great piano player. He was a good man for asking me to play on those sessions." Bailey admitted, "I had no idea who Charlie Brown was because I didn't grow up in this country. We just did the tunes: I didn't have any music. I might have had a couple of lead sheets, because there might have been a 'stopper', or something to catch. Monty [Budwig] had lead sheets for the changes. But there was no rehearsal, or anything like that; it was just a recording session to us".
The rediscovery of these session reels in 2020, after having been thought lost, further highlighted the nuanced and evolving nature of the recording process for the television score.
MusicTAP critic D. W. Dunphy was underwhelmed, saying, "there is something wrong about the It’s The Great Pumpkin soundtrack. The audio sounds struck directly from the monophonic television program soundtrack," complaining that "the music here is also presented with the sound effects, but not the dialogue. These are some of the puzzling choices. I could have easily accepted either the strictly music-only version (or as much of it as was available) and the full audio version as a sort of audioplay." Dunphy highlighted the fact that in 1978 former Disney parent company Buena Vista released the exact soundtrack as a children’s book and record set on its Charlie Brown Records label. "Craft Recordings had an opportunity to take full advantage of a 78-minute compact disc and have both the full audio version, dialogue included, and the music-only version on the same disc. Instead, we have some odd half-measure here that doesn't quite honor either the television special or Guaraldi’s contributions." Dunphy concluded calling the release "a missed opportunity," saying that children "who not only grew up with the specials but with those book and record sets are now parents (and some, grandparents) themselves...might welcome the greater permanence of either a CD, a digital file version, or a re-released vinyl LP version of the complete, unexpurgated It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown."
Bang commented that the individual tracks "feature music only as it's heard in the animated special, with short edits, fades and some very abrupt stops…along with sound effects 'baked in'" which added "clutter" to the songs.
Following criticism, Craft Recordings announced in June 2022 it would release a new version of the soundtrack remastered from newly discovered original master tapes, without sound effects from the television special.
All About Jazz critic Mark Sullivan remarked that the remastered version significantly enhances its sonic timbre as evidenced from the opening track "Linus and Lucy," characterized by "Guaraldi's thunderous piano and Ronald Lang's agile flute playing." Sullivan observes that, despite "Linus and Lucy" not yet being established as the Peanuts franchise theme during the time of recording, it "certainly claims pride of place as the opener." He further highlights the "Great Pumpkin Waltz," noting that its extended length affords greater prominence to guitarist John Gray. "Trick or Treat" is distinguished by its trio arrangement minus Guaraldi featuring flute, double bass, and drums, which provides a distinct contrast to the rest of the soundtrack.
IndieWire critic Erik Adams praised Guaraldi's compositions for capturing "the mood and the sensations of the holiday... better than almost any other music," beautifully enhancing moments like Linus’ earnest belief in the Great Pumpkin, Snoopy’s imagined World War I adventures, and Charlie Brown’s humorous misfortune of receiving rocks while trick-or-treating. Adams also highlights the "Great Pumpkin Waltz," where the piano shifts to celesta, giving the piece a "golden-hour glow" and establishing it as one of the most fitting musical pieces for Halloween.
Set the Tape author S. Rockwood celebrates the long-awaited release, describing it as "pure nostalgia in music form," highlighting standout tracks such as the piano-driven "Linus and Lucy," described as defining the Peanuts specials more than even "Charlie Brown Theme". The remastering is praised for its audio quality, with "rich bass notes" and "clean trebles," offering a polished listening experience without sounding "over-produced or muted."
Derrick Bang, author of Vince Guaraldi at the Piano, commented that the music "emphatically established the Peanuts musical personality," adding that the version of "Linus and Lucy" featured in the cold open sequence was "arguably the best arrangement…that Guaraldi ever laid down, thanks in great part to Ronald Lang's flute counterpoint." (This version was again utilized in the 1969 feature film A Boy Named Charlie Brown.)
All tracks are written by Vince Guaraldi, except where noted.