In April 1951, Vince Guaraldi gave his first known professional performance, which means 2026 marks 75 years of Vince Guaraldi's music.
As part of the commemoration, Lee Mendelson Film Productions will release the complete soundtracks from two Peanuts television specials -
It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown (1976) and
Charlie Brown's All Stars (1966) - together on one album, arriving March 20, 2026. This is the first official release of music from those shows.
There will be two releases of the album - a regular, "wide" release available everywhere on March 20, 2026; and then a special limited-edition Record Store Day exclusive LP version of the album, available only at participating record stores on April 18, 2026. More details on both below.
The full 34-minute soundtrack album includes 24 tracks comprising the scores from both specials: 17 tracks from Arbor Day, including two bonus alternate tracks, and the Charlie Brown’s All Stars score mixed into 7 tracks. See below for a full track list.
Note that while nearly all of the Arbor Day tracks are in stereo sourced from the original studio session tapes, the original tapes for All Stars haven't been found, so those tracks in mono and are pulled from a 35mm negative soundtrack tape.
You can listen to excerpts from several tracks
on Soundcloud, and also stream three full track released as digital singles:
The pairing of the two soundtracks is apt, since both specials are baseball-themed, and the music is also thematically linked. Guaraldi debuted the track "Rain, Rain, Go Away" in Charlie Brown's All Stars, and then used it again a decade later in Arbor Day. Through the book-ended presentation, the listener can compare and consider the evolution of Guaraldi across the years that he composed and performed for the Peanuts specials.
“Rain, Rain, Go Away (Rain Gentle Rain)” on the Arbor Day soundtrack is also notable as one of the final tracks Guaraldi ever recorded. Laid down on the afternoon of February 6, 1976 at Wally Heider Studio in San Francisco, Guaraldi unexpectedly passed away (far too young) while performing at Butterfield’s in Menlo Park a few hours later that evening.
As usual, physical copies of the album include liner notes with a track-by-track analysis by album producer Sean Mendelson, notes from album producer Jason Mendelson, and a historical essay on both the specials and soundtracks by Derrick Bang, author of Vince Guaraldi at the Piano (and FiveCentsPlease.org co-host).
In addition to the environmentally friendly materials used for both the LP and packaging, for this release Lee Mendelson Film Productions has partnered with the Arbor Day Foundation to plant a tree in a forest of need for every physical copy of the album purchased in 2026 (with a minimum annual support of 12,000 trees planted).
The "regular" wide-release version of the album, to be released March 20, 2026, will be available as a 12" 33 RPM Black BioVinyl LP and also as a special Forest Green-colored 12” 33 RPM BioVinyl LP, both in gatefold jacket packaging; plus also as a regular CD, and digitally.
The regular versions will be available at all retailers; it can be purchased or ordered from your favorite local record retailer, or pre-order links for select retailers and digital providers can be
found here.
The Record Store Day (RSD) exclusive version, coming April 18, 2026, is a nifty set of two records in one package - a 10" clear "baseball" 45 RPM LP of It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown and a 12" brown die-cut glove-shaped 45 RPM LP of Charlie Brown's All Stars.
The RSD exclusive will only be available at participating Record Store Day locations, in limited quantities; you'll need to go to a store in person to buy a copy. You can view the details of the release at
recordstoreday.com, find a list of participating stores
here , or call your local store to see if they're participating and expecting copies.
Note that the RSD exclusive LP set has only 22 tracks; the two bonus alternate tracks that are on the regular album version are not included on the RSD version.
To read more details about all the album and its releases, visit the Lee Mendelson Film Productions website:
The full track listing for the album:
It’s Arbor Day, Charlie Brown1. Rerun’s Lament*
2. Rerun’s Lament (Reprise)*
3. Ships Sail into Arbor
4. Laughter in the Library
5. Flatten Patten (Baseball Theme)
6. Young Man's Fancy
7. Jay Sterling Morton Jazz
8. We're the Visiting Team
9. Seeds for Thought (Joe Cool)
10. Don't Forget the Shovel
11. Sprinkle Your Bird
12. Snoopy at Bat
13. Lucy's Home Run
14. Rain, Rain, Go Away (Rain, Gentle Rain)
15. Happy Arbor Day, Charlie Brown
16. Jay Sterling Morton Jazz (Bonus Alternate Take)**
17. Happy Arbor Day, Charlie Brown (Bonus Alternate Take)**
Charlie Brown’s All Stars!
18. Charlie's Run*
19. Charlie Brown's All Stars!*
20. Baseball Theme (Medley)*
21. Oh, Good Grief!*
22. Surfin' Snoopy (Air Music)*
23. Pebble Beach*
24. Rain, Rain, Go Away*
* Tracks pulled from a 35mm negative soundtrack tape (all the rest from the original 2” 16 track session tapes)
** Bonus material not in the special; included on the regular version of the album, but not on the RSD LP version.
*******
And here's several recent videos from Lee Mendelson Productions that Peanuts and Guaraldi fans can enjoy right now to start celebrating 75 years of Vince!
- A very rare, not seen for 60 years television broadcast of Vince Guaraldi performing "Linus & Lucy" from 1964
- A video montage of various social media artists performing covers of Vince Guaraldi songs, compiled by Sean Mendelson. Lots of great and fun interpretations.
- A playlist of Vince Guaraldi Peanuts tracks, with occasional commentary by album producer Sean Mendelson, originally created for a Record Store Day listening party in October 2025, and now avaialble on YouTube. It's a nice selection of tracks pulled from the albums they've released so far.
