October 20, 2023

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving soundtrack album now available!

The complete original soundtrack for the 1973 special A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, with music composed by Vince Guaraldi, is now available to buy on CD, vinyl, and digital download, or to stream on your favorite streaming service.

While a few cues from the special have been released on previous Vince Guaraldi compilations (for example, "Thanksgiving Theme" on Charlie Brown's Holiday Hits), most of the tracks have never been available before.

Released on October 20, 2023, this new album features the entire soundtrack for A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving in terrific stereo sound that showcases the music and instrumentation far better than in the broadcast show. And rest assured, the tracks - transferred in high resolution from the original studio session tapes - are all sound-effects free.



The 13 tracks of show score - including the song "Little Birdie," sung by Guaraldi himself - are accompanied by 9 bonus and alternative tracks. The liner notes for the physical releases have a track-by-track analysis by Sean Mendelson, musician, record producer, and son of Peanuts producer Lee Mendelson.

The CD and regular black vinyl LP can be bought from the MVD Entertainment shop (the album's publisher), Amazon, or numerous other online retailers.

Two color variants of the LP were also announced - "Jelly Bean Green" for Record Store Day and "Cranberry Sauce Red" from Target - but may be difficult to get at this point.

You can purchase a digital download from Apple Music or Amazon (click on "Purchase Options"), as well as other places that offer lossless and high resolution downloads such as Qobuz or Presto Music .

Finally, you can stream the album on Apple Music, Spotify, or other streaming services; and you can preview the whole album on the Lee Mendelson Productions YouTube channel.

Note that purchasing the album instead of - or in addition to - streaming it will help ensure that there will be releases of other Vince Guaraldi Peanuts soundtracks in the future!

For more information about the Thanksgiving soundtrack release, see the official press release and additional details on the Mendelson Productions website.

If you're interested in learning more about the album's background, including how the music masters were found, what work was done to create the album, and thoughts on how the music for A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving compares to Guaraldi's other Peanuts soundtracks, be sure to check out these entertaining and informative podcasts:



The track list of the album is as follows:

Show score
1.Charlie Brown Blues
2. Thanksgiving Theme
3. Thanksgiving Theme (Reprise)
4. Peppermint Patty
5. Little Birdie
6. Thanksgiving Interlude
7. Is It James or Charlie?
8. Linus and Lucy
9. Fife & Drums Theme
10. Charlie Brown Blues (Reprise)
11. Thanksgiving Interlude (Reprise)
12. Thanksgiving Theme (2nd Reprise)
13. Thanksgiving Theme (3rd Reprise)

Bonus/Alternate tracks
14. Thanksgiving Theme (Alternate)
15. Peppermint Patty (Bonus Mix)
16. Linus and Lucy (Bonus Mix)
17. Thanksgiving Interlude (Alternate take 2, 4, and 6)
18. Thanksgiving Interlude (Alternate take 10)
19. Thanksgiving Interlude (Alternate take 14)
20. Is It James or Charlie? (Bonus mix with Whistling)
21. Clark and Guaraldi

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting that this "Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" album is supposedly free of sound effects, and is even in stereo sound to boot

Scott McGuire said...

It is not just "supposedly" free of sound effects, it definitely is free of sound effects. And it is definitely in stereo, too. The good folks at Lee Mendelson Film Productions located the original multi-track master tapes to work from, and the album sounds terrific.