Christmas song #22:

Vince Guaraldi Trio--Linus & Lucy



AND

Vince Guaraldi--Christmas Time Is Here (vocal version)



Today I'm bringing the two most recognizable tunes from A Charlie Brown Christmas. You've all heard them before (except if--for some unfortunate reason--you have NEVER LIVED), but give them another listen, because they're still great. And you probably haven't watched the special at all this year, and this should motivate you to go out and do so.

"Linus & Lucy" is a song that has origins in the Charlie Brown Christmas special, but isn't really considered to be a Christmas related song because it then went on to be the signature theme of pretty much all the Peanuts specials. But it got its start here, so it's a Christmas song, damnit. There's not much else I can say other than it's popularity is quite warranted. I used to have the theme song (plus this great Peanuts background) as my startup and shut down theme on my Windows 2000 (or something around there) profile back in the day, until my dad deleted it because it was "slowing down the computer." It was a much sadder day than I would have imagined.

"Christmas Time Is Here" actually appears on the soundtrack twice, and consecutively to boot... with an instrumental version followed by the one you're hearing above. Both are pretty great, but I have stronger memories of the vocal version, because it opens up the special with kids skating on the pond and Charlie Brown morosely skirting across the scene trying to make sense of it all.

It's also pretty weird. The lyrics are mostly upbeat, talking about things that any child would go crazy about during the holidays, but the vocals sound so melancholy that lyrics like "Christmas time is here, happiness and cheer, fun for all that children call their favorite time of year" come off as being sung by a gang of bitterly sarcastic children. But it's a great, sullen holiday track if you look at it as a song about yourself viewing your own past, and thinking about how innocent and carefree everything was.

Anyway... I'm watching the special tonight, hopefully. At least that's the plan. It's my girlfriend and I's anniversary (and ultimately Christmas, since we usually head home after this date), and the plan is to go out to eat somewhere, then watch this sometime afterwards. And I'm really looking forward to it. I haven't been feeling myself these past couple of days, and the fact that there's no snow on the ground combined with my family having a lot of financial issues right now-- kind of has me in a holiday funk.

And you know, watching a depressed kid ruminate about the holiday sounds deeply comforting to me right about now. Maybe to no one else it would. But it does for me.