‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ soundtrack getting deluxe reissue with session outtakes (stream one)

One of the greatest holiday albums of all time, Vince Guaraldi's score for the equally loved special A Charlie Brown Christmas, is getting reissued on October 14 via Craft Recordings. There are a few different editions available, all of which feature a brand new stereo mix of the album, remastered from the original 3-track and 2-track sources. There are also deluxe and super deluxe editions featuring outtakes from the sessions the Vince Guaraldi Trio recorded for the special. You can pre-order the deluxe 2-LP vinyl and limited edition single-LP Gold Foil editions now.

"The wealth of music captured in these half-dozen sessions is —- in a word —- amazing,” Peanuts historian Derrick Bang says in the liner notes of the album. "It’s also fascinating to observe how a given tune evolves, over the course of the six weeks these sessions took place, from September 17 through October 28, 1965. Along the way, you’ll hear all manner of false starts, initially terrific takes that collapse when Guaraldi fluffs a few notes, and outré experiments that sound almost nothing like what we know today. Consider this a ringside seat—a place of honor, watching and listening from the recording engineer’s booth—as the individual songs for this historic album were fine-tuned and ultimately laid down."