![]() The answer lay in an up-and-coming sound from Brazil called “bossa nova.” The term means “new wave” in Portuguese, and is characterized by syncopated samba rhythms, unusual chord progressions and laid-back percussion. How did a jazz artist intend to build a musical backdrop for a group of cartoon children most people knew from the Sunday funnies – and add Christmas flair? The secrets behind your favorite Christmas movie classics White Christmas - 1954 Paramount/Kobal/Shutterstock Vera-Ellen, Danny Kaye, Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney Mandatory Credit: Photo by Paramount/Kobal/Shutterstock (5884630ab) ![]() It was also enough for Mendelson to call upon Guaraldi for a frantic, last minute holiday project that would become “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” Mendelson convinced Guaraldi to work with him on a 1963 documentary called “A Boy Named Charlie Brown.” The work never aired, but the album that resulted – called “Jazz Impressions of a Boy Named Charlie Brown,” was a hit. When he heard Guaraldi’s single “Cast Your Fate to the Wind” on the radio while driving through San Francisco, he knew who he wanted it from. Yet still, Mendelson knew what he wanted. In other words, it wasn’t the rollicking classical music one expected from most Disney shorts or Looney Tunes. “Productions that featured jazz, most famously ‘The Man with the Golden Arm,’ dealt heavily with vice.” A lot of people thought the sound was too ‘out there,’ and there was still a lingering sense of the genre being equated with sin and depravity,” he says. A major part of the country equated it with Black performers. “It seems so absurd looking back, but jazz had a lot of strikes against it,” explains Derrick Bang, speaking to CNN as a jazz expert, entertainment journalist and “Peanuts” historian. Michael Ochs Archives/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images Jazz composer Vince Guaraldi plays piano circa 1962. For whatever reason, Mendelson was sold on the idea that jazz would be the perfect accompaniment to a “Peanuts” special. The idea to pair jazz with the “Peanuts” comic strip, however, began with television producer Lee Mendelson, who admired cartoonist Charles Schulz’s work and was determined to bring his comic characters to the small screen. A prominent pianist at the time, Guaraldi brought a fierce musicianship that he honed playing with some of the best jazz combos in Northern California, where he was born and based. The man at the center of “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” and most other music associated with more than a dozen “Peanuts” TV specials, is Vince Guaraldi. The first ingredient: Something unexpected It helped change the sound of Christmas music for generations to come. The musical formula they created didn’t just make “A Charlie Brown Christmas” an instant hit. It took a few brilliant, wild minds – and a host of unexpected inspiration – to bring it all together. Jazz in family-friendly TV specials wasn’t really a thing, either. In 1965, when “A Charlie Brown Christmas” first aired, Christmas jazz wasn’t exactly a thing. ![]() Though the beloved television special is unquestionably iconic today, its place in Christmas music history wasn’t always assured. The opening measures make us children again, abed after Christmas dinner as the subtle sounds of the record player waft in from another room. ![]() The familiar tunes of “A Charlie Brown Christmas” transport us.
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