Vince Guaraldi Trio artist picimg 2 . akamaized . netiu 252 e 59 c 1 f 4 cb 9 d 640 df 9 c 67 c 468 e 70161 bd . png The Vince Guaraldi Trio was a jazz group fronted by pianist and composer Vince Guaraldi . Most wellknown in its acoustic pianodrumsbass configuration , the trio provided music for a number of animated productions of Charles M . Schulz ' s Peanuts comic strips . Guaraldi ' s distinctively breezy , bluesy , and melancholy jazz has become an indelible part of Peanuts ' timeless legacy . Their soundtrack for the 1965 Christmas special , A Charlie Brown Christmas , is one of the biggestselling and most critically successful Christmas albums of all time . The San Franciscobased trio was first formed around 1954 , then in a pianoguitarbass configuration . Starting with the release of the group ' s selftitled debut album on Fantasy in 1956 , Guaraldi would remain on the label for some time . Guaraldi ' s early recordings were decidedly lowkey and morose compared to the work for which he would become famous , but his trademark melancholy and distinctive instrumental voicings , including his deep basslines , were indelible parts of his aesthetic framework from the very beginning . Influenced by the Brazilian film Black Orpheus 1959 whose soundtrack was a large part of the impending Bossa nova crazethe trio recorded the album Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus 1962 , having by this point settled into their now familiar pianobassdrums lineup . The album featured renditions of songs from the film , as well as a number of originals one such song was Cast Your Fate to the Wind which would , within a year , become one of the most commercially successful jazz instrumentals of its time , notably winning a Grammy for Best Instrumental Song . Several vocal versions with lyrics by Carel Werber would also achieve significant success . It was thanks to Guaraldi ' s hit song that he was discovered by Lee Mendelson who wanted him to write music for Peanuts animation . Guaraldi ' s first Peanuts assignment was the music for the illfated Schulz documentary A Boy Named Charlie Brown . Though the special was never aired and remained unavailable to the public for several decades , the music was released as the album Jazz Impressions of A Boy Named Charlie Brown 1964 . For later reissues , the album was retroactively renamed after the documentary . Despite a troubled production process , 1965 saw the premiere of A Charlie Brown Christmas . Guaraldi ' s groundbreaking amalgamation of Christmas music and his own unique brand of jazz was an inexorable part of the special ' s unforeseen success the soundtrack , featuring originals alongside Guaraldi ' s interpretations of standards , continues to amass impressive sales even now . One of the songs from the special , Linus and Lucy featured in the special ' s famous dancing scene , would become the de facto theme of Peanuts animations , often mistakenly referred to as the Peanuts Theme . Another song on the soundtrack , Christmas Time Is Here with lyrics by Mendelson , has become a Christmas standard in its own right . With the passing of the ' 60 s , Guaraldi began experimenting more and more with different sonic textures for his music , having all but replaced his acoustic piano with various electronic keyboards , most notably the Fender Rhodes . Consequently , Guaraldi would , less and less , perform and record within the context of a trio . While it was never officially disbanded , and Guaraldi still used this configuration from time to time , the group inevitably dissolved upon Guaraldi ' s untimely death in 1976 . Peanuts specials made subsequent to his death often reuse Guaraldi ' s recordings , or original music inspired heavily by Guaraldi ' s iconic scores a testament to his importance to the identity of Peanuts . More importantly , generations of people have cited Guaraldi ' s inventive and playful jazz as their formative experience with the genre , imbuing a spark of the love of jazz in untold numbers of listeners that only seem to increase the more time goes by . Read more on Last . fm . GuaraldiTrio 452 , 413 listeners , 5 , 614 , 985 plays tags jazz , piano , instrumental , jazz piano , christmas Please downvote if incorrect ! Selfdeletes if score is 0 .