Christmas Is Coming (song)
1965 Christmas instrumental jazz composition by Vince Guaraldi
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"Christmas Is Coming" is an instrumental composition by American jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi. Performed by the Vince Guaraldi Trio, it was released on the soundtrack album to the 1965 CBS television special A Charlie Brown Christmas and accompanies an energetic stage-rehearsal sequence in the program. The jazz-trio arrangement features piano, double bass and drums with a bossa nova-influenced rhythm.[1]
| "Christmas Is Coming" | |
|---|---|
| Instrumental by Vince Guaraldi | |
| from the album A Charlie Brown Christmas | |
| Released | December 1965 |
| Recorded | September 1965 |
| Studio | Whitney Studios, Glendale, California |
| Genre | |
| Length | 3:25 |
| Label | Fantasy |
| Composer | Vince Guaraldi |
| Producers | Soul Weiss, Mark Piro |
| Audio | |
| "Christmas Is Coming" on YouTube | |
The composition developed from an earlier Guaraldi piece titled "Track Meet", recorded in July 1965. During two sessions that September, Guaraldi revised the arrangement through 18 documented takes and partial performances. The surviving recordings, released together in 2022, trace changes to the instrumentation, contrasting passages and ending.[1]
Background
Television producer Lee Mendelson first heard Guaraldi's Grammy Award-winning instrumental "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" in 1963 and hired him to score A Boy Named Charlie Brown, a documentary about cartoonist Charles M. Schulz and Peanuts.[2] Although the documentary was not broadcast at the time, its score was released in 1964 as Jazz Impressions of A Boy Named Charlie Brown.[3][2]
When The Coca-Cola Company commissioned A Charlie Brown Christmas in 1965, Mendelson, Schulz and director Bill Melendez again engaged Guaraldi.[3] The score combined original compositions with jazz arrangements of traditional carols; "Christmas Is Coming" was among the original instrumentals released on the accompanying Fantasy Records album.[3]
Composition
The composition originated as "Track Meet", which Guaraldi recorded on July 29, 1965, during a session that also produced an arrangement of "Camptown Races". It used the principal musical material later heard in "Christmas Is Coming", but with a more pronounced bossa nova treatment.[4][5]
It is not known when Guaraldi decided to revise and rename the piece. "Track Meet" remained unreleased until its inclusion on Charlie Brown's Holiday Hits in 1998, while the surviving September 1965 tapes document its development into "Christmas Is Coming".[4][1]
Recording and development
Recording sessions
Guaraldi recorded versions of "Christmas Is Coming" during sessions on September 17 and September 21, 1965. These sessions formed part of a group of surviving recordings made between September 17 and October 28 at Whitney Recording Studio in Glendale, California, and at Fantasy Studios and Studio 16 in the San Francisco Bay Area.[1]
The September 17 session contains two separately numbered sequences. The first runs from take 1 through take 7; the second, identified on the tape as item number five, runs from take 1 through take 4. Guaraldi returned to the composition on September 21 and recorded another sequence of seven takes. Together these comprise the 18 numbered takes and performances publicized by Craft Recordings.[6]
The original soundtrack album and television special contain different performances of the composition. The television special utilized item 1: take 7, whereas the album utilized item 5: take 4, both from the September 17 recording session. The 2022 archival editions present take 3 from September 17 and take 3 from September 21 as representative alternates.[7]
Development
"Christmas Is Coming" took longer to reach its finished form than most of the other pieces recorded for A Charlie Brown Christmas. Guaraldi experimented with instrumentation and stylistic approaches and repeatedly revised the conclusion.[1] The tapes contain complete performances as well as false starts, breakdowns and several takes combined into single archival tracks. They therefore document 18 numbered takes or performances rather than 18 complete, independently issued renditions.
The September 17 sequence occupies 11 numbered takes. On the Super Deluxe edition, takes 4 and 5 of the first sequence are grouped on one track, while the remaining takes are presented individually. The September 21 sequence adds seven takes, with takes 4 through 6 grouped on a single track.[6] These were initially successful performances that collapse after missed notes, along with more experimental versions that differ considerably from the familiar recordings.[1][8]
The first September session shows Guaraldi testing the piece more than once in the recording order: the trio recorded seven takes at the beginning of the session and returned to it for four more after working on "Christmas Time Is Here", "Skating" and "Linus and Lucy".[6][8] The second session consists of a further seven attempts before the musicians moved to other material, as Guaraldi was unsure how to bring the song to a logical conclusion.[1]
The single-disc and two-LP Deluxe edition contains two selections from these sessions: take 3 from September 17 and take 3 from September 21. The Super Deluxe edition includes the complete surviving sequences, with grouped false starts and incomplete takes retained in session order.[7][6][8]
Musical style
"Christmas Is Coming" is a brisk jazz-trio instrumental with a bossa nova-influenced rhythm. Guaraldi's syncopated piano theme is supported by bass and drums and alternates with contrasting trio passages.[1] The session recordings show that the bridges and ending evolved during recording. Guaraldi tested several forceful keyboard-and-drum passages before returning to the principal theme and developing the conclusion heard in the released versions.[1]
In a 2006 review for Pitchfork, Dominique Leone described the performance as "kinetic" and characterized its mood as understated elation.[9] Reviewing the 2022 Super Deluxe edition for The Guardian, Alexis Petridis wrote that the piece "propels itself along" and conveys anticipation.[10][11]
Use in A Charlie Brown Christmas
"Christmas Is Coming" accompanies part of the rehearsal for the children's Christmas play alongside of "Linus and Lucy". The sequence shows the Peanuts characters dancing on the auditorium stage while members of the group play instruments. The music functions as an energetic contrast to the special's more reflective cues, particularly "Christmas Time Is Here".
The television special uses item 1: take 7, distinct from the original soundtrack-album track. Neither the published production histories nor the accessible archival documentation conclusively establishes whether the animation was completed to the music, whether the recording was edited to finished animation, or whether the sequence resulted from a combination of both processes. The surviving session commentary shows that the intended dramatic use affected Guaraldi's decisions. Various aggressive bridge experiments were rejected as unsuitable for the scene.[1]
The cue is sometimes identified as "Christmas Is Coming (Isn't It a Great Play?)" in cue sheets and later soundtrack documentation, reflecting dialogue associated with the rehearsal sequence.[12]
Release history
"Christmas Is Coming" was released on the original Fantasy Records soundtrack album in December 1965. The recording subsequently appeared on the album's 1986 compact-disc edition and later remastered releases. The 2006 edition added an alternate performance under the title "Christmas Is Coming (Alternate Take 1)".[9]
A 2012 remastered and expanded edition retained the original album performance and the previously released alternate. In 2022, engineer Paul Blakemore created a new stereo mix from the original three-track and two-track sources. Craft issued this mix alongside the original stereo mix as part of the Super Deluxe edition.[6]
The 2022 Deluxe edition added take 3 from September 17 and take 3 from September 21. The Super Deluxe edition presented all three surviving session sequences:
- September 17, item 1: takes 1–7;
- September 17, item 5: takes 1–4;
- September 21, item 1: takes 1–7.[6]
The package's Blu-ray Audio disc contained the 2022 stereo remix in high-resolution audio and a Dolby Atmos mix. In 2023, Craft issued the album and the selected session alternates digitally in Dolby Atmos, including the two September take 3 performances.[13]
Reception and legacy
Contemporary reviews of A Charlie Brown Christmas generally treated Guaraldi's music as a complete score rather than discussing "Christmas Is Coming" separately. Later critics have identified it as one of the album's more animated performances. Leone contrasted its kinetic quality with the soundtrack's more subdued selections, while Petridis cited its forward motion as an expression of anticipation.[9][10]
Although the composition has no lyrics and does not quote a traditional carol, its title, its use in the television special and its continued circulation on the soundtrack connected it with the Christmas season. The annual exhibition of the special and the soundtrack's commercial longevity reinforced that association. These broader measures of popularity apply to the complete album, however, rather than to the composition individually.[10]
The piece has also remained in circulation through published piano arrangements, professional tribute recordings and concert performances of the complete A Charlie Brown Christmas score. Its repeated treatment by jazz pianists reflects Guaraldi's broader influence on musicians who encountered jazz through the Peanuts television scores, although the existence of those versions does not by itself establish the composition as a jazz standard.[10]
Cover versions and performances
Pianist Ellis Marsalis Jr. recorded the composition with his trio for Joe Cool's Blues (1995), where it was incorrectly titled "Peppermint Patty".[14] David Benoit recorded "Christmas Is Coming" for Remembering Christmas (1996) and again arranged the piece for 40 Years: A Charlie Brown Christmas (2005).[15][16]
The Cyrus Chestnut ensemble recorded a 5:35 version for the 2000 album A Charlie Brown Christmas. The performance included Chestnut, drummer Steve Gadd, bassist Christian McBride, saxophonist Kenny Garrett and guitarist Pat Martino.[17]
"Christmas Is Coming" has also been included in professional concert presentations in which jazz ensembles annually perform Guaraldi's complete soundtrack.
Personnel
Guaraldi played piano on all surviving versions. The specific bassist and drummer on the released recording have not been conclusively identified. Musicians credited with the relevant soundtrack sessions include:[1]
- Vince Guaraldi – piano
- Monty Budwig, Fred Marshall – double bass
- Colin Bailey, Jerry Granelli – drums
Original and later releases provide differing personnel credits, and no complete take-by-take allocation of the rhythm-section musicians has been published.[1]