Easter Beagle egg-shaped vinyl, A Boy Named Charlie Brown alternate takes, and more Peanuts podcast episodes

Three news items for your ears!

Record Store Day 2025 is coming Saturday, April 12 and there will be not one, but two, Vince Guaraldi exclusive vinyls available that day.

As mentioned in an earlier blog post, the complete soundtrack to It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown will be released on March 21, 2025.

Then on April 12, Record Store Day, Lee Mendelson Film Productions is releasing a special egg-shaped - yes, egg-shaped! - 10" vinyl, titled Selections from It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown. It features the "eight best tracks" from the full soundtrack album.

The limited edition, individually numbered, egg-shaped vinyl will be available in five different colors - but like a true Easter egg hunt, which color you get will be a surprise; the color isn't revealed on the packaging.. so you won't know which color you've got until you open the album. 

You can read the official press release for the egg-shaped exclusive here, and details about both the full 20-track album and the exclusives here.

The track list for the egg-shaped exclusive is:

SIDE A

1. Peppermint Patty

2. Snoopy and Woodstock

3. Woodstock's Dream

SIDE B

1. Marcie's Song (Kitchen Music)

2. Linus and Lucy (Reprise)

3. Woodstock's Pad

4. Easter Egg Soup (Kitchen Music 2)

5. Salting Eggs / Linus and Lucy (4th Reprise)

This exclusive will be available only at participating record stores on April 12, 2025 - see the Record Store Day website for a list, or call your local store to see if they'll be carrying it. 

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Second, the folks at Craft Recordings will release a Record Store Day exclusive they're calling Jazz Impressions of A Boy Named Charlie Brown (Alternate Takes)... because the entire LP consists of never-before-released alternate versions of the tracks on that 1964 album, taken from the original recording sessions.

The album's music was composed for a 1964 documentary that never aired, but Guaraldi would use the themes he created for it in his work for the Peanuts animated specials.

According to the press release, Jazz Impressions of a Boy Named Charlie Brown (Alternate Takes) features two alternate versions of "Linus and Lucy," including an early studio test; outtakes of "Oh, Good Grief" and the ode to fellow (albeit animated) pianist "Schroeder;" the sweepingly carefree "Baseball Theme" and more.

This Record Store Day edition will be pressed on sky-blue vinyl and limited to 3,400 copies. It also includes new notes from Guaraldi historian Derrick Bang. You can read the official press release here.

The full track list for the album:

SIDE A

1. Linus and Lucy (Studio Test)

2. Linus and Lucy (Take 3)

3. Happiness Theme (Happiness Is) (Take 4)

4. Pebble Beach (Take 7)

5. Baseball Theme (Take 1)

6. Oh, Good Grief (Take 1)

7. Schroeder (Take 3)

8. Baseball Theme (Take 2)

9. Oh, Good Grief (Take 1 / Later Session)

 

SIDE B

1. Schroeder (Take 2)

2. Blues for Peanuts

3. Charlie Brown Theme (Take 4)

4. Blue Charlie Brown (Take 1)

5. Frieda (With the Naturally Curly Hair) (Take 1)

No CD or digital release of these tracks has been announced, but hopefully that will change sometime in the future!

This exclusive will be available only at participating record stores on April 12, 2025 - see the Record Store Day website for a list or call your local store to see if they'll be carrying it.

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Finally, after a couple months' break, the official Peanuts podcast "You Don't Know Peanuts" has returned with a second series of five more weekly episodes.

Episode 6, released earlier this week, features an interview with Jeanne Schulz, the woman behind the man behind Peanuts. Other episodes in the second season will cover the making of The Snoopy Show and other 21st Century Peanuts television series; how Snoopy has influenced fashion from New York to Paris; and a look at NASA’s relationship with Peanuts over the last 60 years.

You can learn more about the podcast and listen to it at https://www.youdontknowpeanuts.com , or you can get it from your favorite podcast source, including (but not limited to) Apple Podcasts or Spotify.