Rating: NNNN
When picking up a home-for-the-holidays soundtrack, it often comes down to finding the least sappy set that will appeal to the kids yet won’t annoy the folks. Ever since A Charlie Brown Christmas first aired in 1965, Vince Guaraldi’s jazzy piano-trio soundtrack has done the job. Certainly a nostalgia factor comes into play for baby boomers for whom the first few notes from Linus And Lucy never fail to conjure happy Yuletide memories, but the lightly swinging grooves Guaraldi hits with bassist Fred Marshall and drummer Jerry Granelli have a feel-good appeal that crosses cultures and generations. The music of A Charlie Brown Christmas, newly remastered here with four bonus alternate takes, sounds as fresh today as when I first heard it way back in the day, which can’t be said of many recordings released 41 years ago.
