“He was playing a small little club,” said his daughter, Dia Guaraldi, “and he had gone off for a break. Guaraldi wrote the music for every Charlie Brown special thereafter, until February 1976. It won an Emmy, it’s been on TV every Christmas since 1965, and Guaraldi’s score became one of the bestselling jazz albums of all time. As Jason Mendelson explains, they hated everything about it: the music (“What’s this jazz?”), the animation (“This is not what we expect”), the story (“There’s religion in it? And there’s feelings?”).īut the special was a monster hit. Once the special was ready, Mendelson showed it to the network executives. “I mean, it’s true that things were a little catch-as-catch-can and haphazard,” said Bernhard, “but you got to hang out with people, and it was late at night!”Ĭedarblade added, “And to then just be a part of this iconic show that really touches people for years and years and years … it’s humbling in that way.” No royalties – not even their names in the credits. The kids got $5 for each recording session.
“Because, you know, that $15 ain’t getting any bigger!” “Yup, this starts to get a little discouraging when you put it that way!” laughed Bernhard. “And this group here is fabulous.”Ĭorrespondent David Pogue asked, “The recordings you made have probably been played and listened to more than many of the biggest pop singers.” “It’s fun to work with the kids,” Guaraldi once said. Paul’s Episcopal Church youth choir, in San Rafael, California. The children’s singing voices belonged to Cedarblade, Dan Bernhard, Dave Willat, and a few other members of the St. “Lee just dashed off some lyrics, like, basically on the back of a paper bag or something,” said Cary Cedarblade.
With time running out, he wrote the words himself. The song was just piano, bass, and drums, but Mendelson thought that it should be sung. But the opening song of the TV special became forever associated with Christmas. Guaraldi’s music became forever associated with Peanuts. Mendelson thought that it had the perfect sound for Charlie Brown. Guaraldi was a rising San Francisco jazz pianist his “Cast Your Fate to the Wind” had won a Grammy. Schulz agreed to write the script, but the special would need just the right music – and that’s when Mendelson heard a Vince Guaraldi song on the radio. Jason Mendelson, Lee Mendelson’s son, recalled: “My father called Charles Schulz and he said, ‘Hey, I just sold ‘Charlie Brown Christmas’ to CBS.’ And Charles Schulz said, ‘What’s that?’ And my father said, ‘It’s something you and I have to write over the weekend!'” Its story begins in 1965, when CBS asked producer Lee Mendelson if he could put together a Christmas special in six months. How did this song ever become a classic? It’s kind of a melancholy waltz, and the chords are really complicated.
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