Halloween Tunes: It's the Great Pumpkin--Linus and Lucy by Vince Guaraldi



Photo: Kevin Dooley

 What an idea to put a jazz track with a cartoon on Peanuts animated special.  

According to this NPR article, CBS didn’t have very high hopes for theoriginal little Christmas special they were putting together. They didn’t think “jazz fit properly.” And they wanted professional actors, not the regular children that producer Lee Mendelson chose.

Fortunately for Guaraldi, Schulz, and us, it turned out just fine.

Halloween Tunes: “Oh great pumpkin, where are you?”—“The Great Pumpkin Waltz” by Vince Guaraldi

Pumpkin and morning glory--Ellen Mackey

Whenever I choose a Halloween pumpkin with my family, I hear Vince Guaraldi’s jazz song “The Great Pumpkin Waltz” from the TV show It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.  The whole soundtrack just says autumn.

George Winston’s rendition of the song is available from Freegal.