Vince Guaraldi - You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown (Original Soundtrack Recording)

The music Vince Guaraldi wrote for You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown waited more than half a century for its own album, finally released in 2024 from the original recordings.

The special first aired on CBS in 1972, just days before that year's US presidential election, and follows Linus as he runs for student body president with Lucy managing the campaign. All goes well until he mentions the Great Pumpkin in his big speech. Guaraldi composed the score and recorded it with his sextet at Wally Heider Studios, with John Scott Trotter conducting and arranging, and the album was timed to land ahead of the 2024 election.

The band, featuring Tom Harrell on trumpet, Pat O'Hara on trombone, Seward McCain on bass and flute, Mel Martin on woodwinds and Glenn Cronkhite on drums, gives Guaraldi's familiar piano a brighter, brassier frame. "Incumbent Waltz" is the gently lilting theme, "Blue Charlie Brown" is cool and bluesy, and the special marked the debut of "Joe Cool", sung by Guaraldi himself. Naturally, "Linus and Lucy" turns up too.

It fills a long-standing gap in the Guaraldi catalogue, and the music is as warm and witty as anything he wrote for the Peanuts gang. Few campaign promises have been kept this well.