Flashbeagle Charlie Brown

Vince Guaraldi’s score from the classic 1965 animated Peanuts special, A Charlie Brown Christmas, is subject of a major reissue campaign from Craft Recordings.

Originally entitled Jazz Impressions of a Boy Named Charlie Brown, this is an important album not only because it is Guaraldi's first Peanuts soundtrack, but also because the music heard here probably introduced millions of kids (and their parents) to jazz from the mid-'60s onward.

Poor Charlie Brown. He can't fly a kite, and he always loses in baseball. Having his faults projected onto a screen by Lucy doesn't help him much either.

During his fifty-year career, ninety-nine percent of Charles Schulz's creative energies went into the dailyPeanuts comic strip. But once in a while he would create a special something else on the side, and this adorable little package collects two of his best "extras" from the 1960s: two Christmas-themed stories written and drawn for national magazines. Created in 1963 (two years before the Charlie Brown Christmas TV special) as a supplement for Good Housekeeping magazine, "Charlie Brown's Christmas Stocking" comprises 15 original captioned vignettes featuring the entire Peanuts cast of the time ― Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, Linus, Schroeder, Frieda, Violet, Shermy, and Sally ― each with a joke or reflection about the season. "The Christmas Story" is an original tale created for Woman's Day in 1968, this one focusing just on Snoopy and the Van Pelt siblings, with Lucy and Linus each explaining the meaning of the holiday to Snoopy. "I'm going to have to be careful," Snoopy reflects at the end of the story, resting on his doghouse next to his bone-decorated tree; "all this theology could ruin my Christmas." The book also includes notes on the provenance of the stories and a pocket-sized biography of Schulz.

Charlie Brown may not be the best pitcher, batter, or team manager, but his love for the game is boundless, no matter how many home runs he gives up, how many games he loses, how many errors his team makes, or how many times the game is rained out. This delightful collection of newspaper comic strips ―Batter Up, Charlie Brown! ― features three complete baseball stories starring good ol' Charlie Brown and his frustrating (and frustrated) teammates Lucy, Linus, Pigpen, Snoopy, and the rest of the gang.