Vince Guaraldi - It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (Zoetrope Picture Disc Vinyl)

Zoetrope Picture Disc, 45 RPM

This is the first zoetrope edition of Vince Guaraldi's score for It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, issued by Craft Recordings for the special's 60th anniversary. Both sides of the picture disc carry scenes from the special laid out as a zoetrope: film the record while it spins, with a phone camera set to 30 frames per second, and the artwork animates. The album is cut at 45 RPM, twelve tracks to a side, and includes a new essay by Sean Mendelson. The label notes that each pressing is unique and that its color may differ slightly from the product images.

The special first aired on October 27, 1966. Charles Schulz wrote it, Bill Melendez animated it and Lee Mendelson produced it. Guaraldi recorded the score on October 4, 1966, at Desilu's Gower Street Studio in Hollywood, with John Scott Trotter as arranger and conductor. The band was Guaraldi on piano with Monty Budwig on bass, Colin Bailey on drums, Emmanuel Klein on trumpet, John Gray on guitar and Ronald Lang on woodwinds.

No soundtrack album existed until 2018, when Craft first issued the music. After Lee Mendelson's death in December 2019, his children found the original quarter-inch session reels, long presumed lost, and a 2022 edition was rebuilt from those tapes with Guaraldi's complete cues and several alternate takes. This record carries that 24-track program, and the last seven tracks on Side B are alternate takes. The album has reached No. 1 on Billboard's Kid Albums chart. Peanuts historian Derrick Bang, quoted by the label, writes that Guaraldi "emphatically established the PEANUTS 'musical personality' with this third outing."

Tracklist

Side A

1. Linus and Lucy
2. Graveyard Theme
3. Snoopy and the Leaf/Frieda (With the Naturally Curly Hair)
4. The Great Pumpkin Waltz
5. Linus and Lucy (Reprise)
6. Charlie Brown Theme/Charlie Brown Theme (Minor Theme)/Graveyard Theme (Reprise)
7. The Great Pumpkin Waltz (Reprise)
8. The Red Baron/Military Drum March
9. The Great Pumpkin Waltz (2nd Reprise)/The Great Pumpkin Waltz (3rd Reprise)
10. Graveyard Theme (Trick or Treat) (2nd Reprise)
11. Fanfare/Breathless/Graveyard Theme (Trick or Treat) (3rd Reprise)
12. Charlie Brown Theme (Reprise)

Side B

1. Breathless (2nd Reprise)
2. It's a Long Way to Tipperary/There's a Long, Long Trail A-Winding/Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag/Roses of Picardy
3. Graveyard Theme (Trick or Treat) (4th Reprise)
4. Linus and Lucy (2nd Reprise)/Linus and Lucy (3rd Reprise)
5. Charlie Brown Theme (2nd Reprise)
6. Linus and Lucy (Alternate Take 1)
7. Graveyard Theme (Alternate Take 1)
8. Charlie Brown Theme (Alternate Reprise Take 1)
9. Linus and Lucy (Alternate Take 2)
10. The Great Pumpkin Waltz (Alternate Take 2)
11. Linus and Lucy (Alternate Reprise Take 1)
12. Charlie Brown Theme (Alternate Reprise Take 2)

Complete the Collection

Vince Guaraldi at Evergreen Vinyl, 5 titles with this one:

• A Charlie Brown Christmas
• Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown
• A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
• It's A Mystery, Charlie Brown