It just isn't Christmas without Schroeder sitting on the floor, crouched over his miniature piano, playing the tune he named after his neighborhood pals. "Linus and Lucy" is one of the most recognizable jazz standards of all time. It has been covered by artists as diverse as Oscar Peterson and Steve Vai, and is indelibly connected to the life and work of Charles Schulz.
Charles Schulz was in a San Francisco taxi when he first heard the Vince Guaraldi Trio. The playful jazz melodies and light, allegro tempo seemed the perfect accompaniment to a documentary he was calling "A Boy Named Charlie Brown". The performance he heard was a live broadcast from a local nightclub. Schulz demanded to be driven directly to the club. He told Guaraldi about the pilot for a documentary and asked if he would be interested in collaborating. The San Francisco native known as Dr. Funk had already achieved great success with the Grammy-winning single,
"Cast Your Fate To The Wind." He liked the idea and composed what was originally called "Jazz Impressions of A Boy Named Charlie Brown." In 1965 Schulz suggested that he do a Christmas album. The trio consisted of Fred Marshall on bass and Jerry Granelli on drums; they recorded in a San Francisco studio in 1965. Those recordings became the soundtrack for the classic television special A Charlie Brown Christmas and one of the most popular holiday albums of all time.
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