charlie brown
Vince Guaraldi’s soundtrack to the 1975 animated TV special Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown, debuts across an array of Billboard album charts (dated Feb. 1), including top 10 arrivals on Jazz Albums, Traditional Jazz Albums and Indie Store Album Sales. It also takes a bow on the Kid Albums and Top Album Sales charts.
This is the first time the complete soundtrack to the special has been released, as only select tracks from the program have been released previously.
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Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown marked the 13th animated Peanuts special, and premiered on CBS-TV on Jan. 28, 1975. It garnered an Emmy Award nomination for outstanding children’s special.
The soundtrack was issued nearly 50 years to the day after the program’s debut – as the album arrived on Jan. 17, 2025. The 30-track album was released via streaming services, as well as to purchase as a digital download, CD and across three vinyl variants (a standard black vinyl, plus a red-colored edition and pink-colored edition).
Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown enters at No. 7 on Traditional Jazz Albums, No. 9 on the overall Jazz Albums ranking, No. 9 on Indie Store Album Sales, No. 18 on Kid Albums and No. 48 on Top Album Sales. The set earned a little over 2,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Jan. 23, according to Luminate, with nearly all of that sum driven by traditional album sales.
Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown is the latest in a series of from-the-vaults Peanuts soundtrack releases Lee Mendelson Film Productions, the company that produced more than 50 Peanuts animated specials. In recent years, the studio has released Guaraldi’s companion albums to You’re Not Elected, Charlie Brown; It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown and A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.
The first Peanuts animated special, 1965’s A Charlie Brown Christmas, launched the evergreen soundtrack album of the same name from Vince Guaraldi Trio. That set has spent more than 100 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Kid Albums chart and has visited the top 40 of the all-genre Billboard 200 in every holiday season for the last 10 years.
For a fourth straight year, Vince Guaraldi’s soundtrack to It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown returns to No. 1 on Billboard’s Kid Albums chart, largely powered by vinyl album sales. The set rises one spot on the Oct. 5-dated list, which ranks the week’s top-selling kid albums in the United States according to Luminate. The […]
The Peanuts are getting some real music education. In Apple TV+’s upcoming Peanuts special, Snoopy Presents: Welcome Home, Franklin, fans will get to explore the origin story of one of the squad’s most beloved members, Franklin.
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The special will follow Franklin and how he approaches making new friends since his dad has a military job and his family moves often. In a clip shared exclusively with Billboard, Franklin teaches Charlie Brown about his favorite artists. “My favorites are Stevie Wonder, Little Richard and, of course, the Godfather of Soul, James Brown,” Franklin tells Charlie, before jokingly asking him if he’s related to the icon given their shared last name.
“Here’s what I’m into lately,” Franklin continues, before putting a John Coltrane vinyl on the record player. “Listen closely, Charlie Brown. Jazz has harmonies that stay consistent, but pay attention. It has other parts that are always being improvised.”
Charlie Brown quickly gets into the groove, as the duo end up dancing together. Franklin’s inclusion in the Peanuts squad is historic and one to be celebrated, as he was the first Black Peanuts character to be introduced in the comics in 1968. That year, following Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, the series’ creator Charles M. Schulz received a letter from schoolteacher Harriet Glickman expressing concern about the lack of diversity in the Peanuts comic strip. Soon after, Schulz created Franklin.
In addition to the special, out on Apple TV+ starting on Feb. 16, Apple Music will be releasing on the same day a full collection of Franklin’s favorite songs. Snoopy Presents: Franklin’s Record Collection features tracks from Chuck Berry and Ben E. King to Bill Withers, Nina Simone, Sam Cooke and beyond.
See below for the full Franklin’s Record Collection track list, and watch the exclusive clip from the special above.
Snoopy Presents: Franklin’s Record Collection
01 – Billy Preston “Nothing from Nothing”02 – Chuck Berry “Johnny B. Goode”03 – Stevie Wonder “Happier Than the Morning Sun”04 – John Coltrane “Lazy Bird (Remastered)”05 – Clarence “Frogman” Henry “Ain’t Got No Home”06 – Sam & Dave “Soul Man”07 – Little Richard “Good Golly Miss Molly”08 – John Coltrane “One Up, One Down (Take 1)”09 – Bobby McFerrin “Drive”10 – Bill Withers “I Wish You Well”11 – Four Tops “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)”12 – The Three Degrees “When Will I See You Again”13 – Funkadelic “Can You Get To That”14 – The Staple Singers “I’ll Take You There”15 – Ben E. King “Stand By Me”16 – Bo Diddley “Pretty Thing”17 – Barrett Strong “Money (That’s What I Want) [Single]”18 – Sly & The Family Stone “Everybody Is a Star (Single Version)”19 – John Coltrane “Giant Steps”20 – Ella Fitzgerald “Blue Skies”21 – Ray Charles “Georgia on My Mind (Original Master Recording)”22 – Herbie Hancock “Watermelon Man”23 – Elvin Jones “Midnight Walk”24 – Otis Redding “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay”25 – Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”26 – Etta James “Don’t Cry Baby (Single Version)”27 – John Coltrane “Moment’s Notice (Remastered)”28 – Sam Cooke “A Change Is Gonna Come”29 – Sam & Dave “Hold On, I’m Comin’”30 – Baby Huey & The Baby Sitters “Hard Times”31 – The Isley Brothers “Freedom”32 – Nina Simone “To Be Young, Gifted and Black”33 – Curtis Mayfield “Move On Up (Single Edit)”34 – John Coltrane “Naima (2020 Remaster)”
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