Redo Pop Song 25 of 100 'Linus and Lucy' - Vince Guaraldi Trio 1964

Redo Pop Song 25 of 100 'Linus and Lucy' - Vince Guaraldi Trio 1964

The genesis of "Linus and Lucy" began when Peanuts producer Lee Mendelson heard Guaraldi's recent hit, "Cast Your Fate to the Wind", on the radio while driving over the Golden Gate Bridge. Mendelson then contacted San Francisco Chronicle jazz critic Ralph J. Gleason, who put him in touch with Guaraldi. Mendelson believed Guaraldi would be a good fit for a documentary he was working on entitled A Boy Named Charlie Brown. Guaraldi gladly accepted the offer to compose several jazz tunes for the documentary.

Within several weeks, Mendelson received a call from an excited Guaraldi who wanted to play a piece of music he had just written. Mendelson, not wanting his first exposure to the new music to be marred by the poor audio qualities of a telephone, suggested coming over to Guaraldi's studio. Guaraldi enthusiastically refused, saying "I’ve got to play this for someone right now or I'll explode!" He then begun playing the then untitled "Linus and Lucy" for Mendelson, who agreed the song was perfect for Schulz's Peanuts characters.

Reflecting on the song in 2008, Mendelson said, "it just blew me away. It was so right, and so perfect, for Charlie Brown and the other characters. I have no idea why, but I knew that song would affect my entire life. There was a sense, even before it was put to animation, that there was something very, very special about that music