Christmastime Is Here Again Vince Guaraldi
Vince Guaraldi's classic "A Charlie Brown Christmas" music
How did this song ever become a archetype? Information technology'south kind of a melancholy flit, and the chords are really complicated. It's not "Jingle Bells" … information technology's jazz!
It'due south called "Christmas Time Is Here":
It'due south story begins in 1965, when CBS asked producer Lee Mendelson if he could put together a Christmas special in vi months.
Jason Mendelson, Lee Mendelson'southward son, recalled: "My father called Charles Schulz and he said, 'Hey, I just sold 'Charlie Brown Christmas' to CBS.' And Charles Schulz said, 'What'south that?' And my father said, 'It'south something you and I have to write over the weekend!'"
Schulz agreed to write the script, but the special would demand just the right music – and that's when Mendelson heard a Vince Guaraldi song on the radio.
Guaraldi was a rising San Francisco jazz pianist; his "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" had won a Grammy. Mendelson thought that it had the perfect audio for Charlie Brown.
He was correct. Guaraldi's music became forever associated with Peanuts. But the opening song of the TV special became forever associated with Christmas.
The song was just piano, bass and drums, but Mendelson idea that information technology should be sung. With time running out, he wrote the words himself.
"Lee just dashed off some lyrics, like, basically on the dorsum of a paper bag or something," said Cary Cedarblade.
Christmas time is here
Happiness and cheer
Fun for all that children call
Their favorite time of year
Snowflakes in the air
Carols everywhere
Olden times and ancient rhymes
Of beloved and dreams to share
The children's singing voices belonged to Cedarblade, Dan Bernhard, Dave Willat, and a few other members of the St. Paul's Episcopal Church youth choir, in San Rafael, California. "It's fun to work with the kids," Guaraldi once said. "And this grouping here is fabulous."
Correspondent David Pogue asked, "The recordings you made take probably been played and listened to more than many of the biggest pop singers."
"Yup, this starts to get a little discouraging when you put it that way!" laughed Bernhard. "Because, yous know, that $15 ain't getting any bigger!"
The kids got $5 for each recording session. No royalties – non even their names in the credits.
"I mean, it's true that things were a niggling catch-as-grab-tin can and haphazard," said Bernhard, "but y'all got to hang out with people, and it was late at dark!"
Cedarblade added, "And to then just be a part of this iconic show that really touches people for years and years and years … information technology'southward humbling in that way."
Once the special was prepare, Mendelson showed it to the network executives. As Jason Mendelson explains, they hated everything nigh it: the music ("What's this jazz?"), the animation ("This is not what we expect"), the story ("At that place'due south religion in it? And there's feelings?").
Merely the special was a monster hit. Information technology won an Emmy, information technology'due south been on Television set every Christmas since 1965, and Guaraldi's score became one of the bestselling jazz albums of all time.
Guaraldi wrote the music for every Charlie Brown special thereafter, until February 1976.
"He was playing a small lilliputian club," said his daughter, Dia Guaraldi, "and he had gone off for a break. And he striking the ground and he was dead, on the pause from the bear witness."
Vince Guaraldi died of a heart attack at age 47.
"I'm proud of who my dad is," Dia said. "I'1000 so blest by this life because of him, for sure."
Pogue gathered Cedarblade, Bernhard and Willat – who hadn't sung "Christmas Time Is Here" together since September 1965 – around the piano: "This is information technology – the reunion bout!"
Christmas fourth dimension is here
Families cartoon virtually
Oh, that we could always run across
Such spirit through the year
Sleigh bells in the air
Beauty everywhere
Yuletide past the fireside
And blithesome memories at that place
For these 3 guys, "Christmas Time Is Hither" volition ever be much more than a classic. "I'grand extremely proud to have been associated with it," said Willat. "I think that information technology'due south gotten better with age. I mean, thank goodness Linus reminds u.s.a. every year what Christmas is all about."
You can stream the album "A Charlie Brown Christmas" by clicking on the embed below (Costless Spotify registration required to hear the tracks in full):
For more info:
- "A Charlie Brown Christmas" will air on PBS Sun, December., xix at vii:xxx p.grand. ET., and can also be streamed on Apple TV+
- Vince Guaraldi (Peanuts Wiki)
Story produced by Gabriel Falcon. Editor: Joseph Frandino.
Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/christmas-time-is-here-vince-guaraldi-a-charlie-brown-christmas/
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