Vince Guaraldi -- Great Pumpkin Waltz/Graveyard Theme (from "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown")

 

In the last few years of my stay in Japan, I was collecting those big volumes of the old "Peanuts" newspaper strips which began in 1950. Although those tomes went all the way to Charles M. Schulz's final productions in 2000, I basically stopped collecting them after I reached the 1980 edition since I think the heyday of Charlie Brown and Snoopy was within those first thirty years. The above two photos display the October 26, 1959 strip showing Linus' first mention of the Great Pumpkin as Lucy must be thinking about committing her little brother to a hospital somewhere.

Interestingly enough, it was 56 years ago today that the television adaptation of those Halloween hijinks of Charlie and the gang made its debut on CBS. "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" made its premiere less than a year after "A Charlie Brown Christmas" as the second holiday-themed Peanuts special, and I've also enjoyed this Halloween-themed one over the decades. The introduction of the show with Linus and Lucy getting out into the pumpkin patch, accompanied by a reprise of the iconic "Linus and Lucy" by jazz pianist and composer Vince Guaraldi, was able to remind viewers of the Van Pelt siblings' different personalities without a word said in the first minute and a half.

Linus' raving and ranting about the Great Pumpkin aside, I think the one other scene that has stuck in fans' memories is Charlie Brown's perennial "treat".

Now, as I promised when I wrote on the theme song for "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" a few weeks ago, I will be giving my Halloween-themed Reminiscings of Youth article (KKP's 9,100st!) in the form of the song that has remained in my head from "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown". "Great Pumpkin Waltz" by Guaraldi and five other musicians was a song whose title I hadn't even known; it was just a number that I knew as a theme for the special. It wasn't until I had purchased George Winston's tribute to Guaraldi, "Linus and Lucy: The Music of Vince Guaraldi" in 1996 and listened to Winston's slower, longer and even more soulful rendition the piece that not only did I finally find out the title but also that it was a particularly beautiful waltz. It's up there with one other waltz created for pop ears, "Lover", by Rodgers and Hart which was also a ROY article early last year. The original by Guaraldi hits harder in the special especially in the scene when Sally Brown decides to sit in the pumpkin patch with her sweet Baboo.

When I was prepping this ROY article, I discovered that the music which accompanies the title reveal and the Peanuts kids getting spooked was also pretty good, so I've included it here. According to Wikipedia, it was originally titled by Guaraldi as "D Minor-Major Groove" when he did a recording session with bassist John Mosher and drummer Johnny Markham back in 1958, but he brought it back for the special under the new title of "Graveyard Theme". There is some playfully sinister feeling in the brief musical cue, although I think that for a graveyard song, it's still pretty happy.

Anyways, I will be coming up with a J-Halloween song for next Monday. There were a few singles coming out in Japan around October 1966 of course, although Halloween wouldn't become a thing for a few more decades there.

Linda Yamamoto -- Kommachauna （こまっちゃうナ） (September 1966)

The Wild Ones -- Omoide no Nagisa（想い出の渚） (November 1966)

The Spiders -- Yuuhi ga Naiteiru (夕陽が泣いている） (September 1966)