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Oct 05, 2021 Web Exclusive By Austin Saalman

Following the smash success of A Charlie Brown Christmas, Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz regrouped once more with producer Lee Mendelson, director Bill Melendez, and legendary jazz composer Vince Guaraldi for a follow-up special, 1966’s Halloween-themed It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

Despite its sometimes fragmentary nature, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is not to be underestimated, as Guaraldi and company sincerely usurped past efforts on numbers such as the moody “Trick or Treat” and hallucinatory “Graveyard Theme.” The same can be said of the warm “Charlie Brown Theme (Reprise),” which, despite its brief length, utilizes the sound of the cheering Peanuts gang to accentuate its confident bounce, inviting the listener on a leisurely stroll through Guaraldi’s rich imagination.

The album’s centerpiece, however, exists within the melancholy shuffle of “The Great Pumpkin Waltz,” one of Guaraldi’s finest compositions. Like young Linus van Pelt in his desperate attempt to locate the “most sincere” pumpkin patch in which to await the fabled Great Pumpkin, there is a tinge of frustrated genius present on Guaraldi’s part, which instantly transports the listener to an autumnal world of nocturnal blues, the sense of ontological despair and longing permeating each Peanuts cartoon now at the center of the action—this is Guaraldi at his most wistful, making the record entirely worth owning.

Despite the soundtrack’s subtleties in comparison to A Boy Named Charlie Brown and A Charlie Brown Christmas, Craft Recordings’ treatment of the vinyl release places It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown in firm competition with its siblings. Featuring an introduction by Lee Mendelson, written shortly prior to his 2019 death, liner notes by Peanuts historian Derick Bang, and pressed on orange, Pumpkin-shaped wax (also available in regular black vinyl), Craft Recordings represents this underrated Jazz Age relic with grace and style, making It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown a key addition to any music devotee’s personal library. (www.craftrecordings.com)

Author rating: 8/10