Song of the Day by Eric Berman – “Skating” by Vince Guaraldi Trio from the album “A Charlie Brown Christmas”
Christmas songs…I really don’t like most of them! However, there are some classics you can never really do without…The Ventures’ Christmas Album, John Fahey’s Christmas Album, The Phil Spector Christmas Album, Eugene Ormandy’s performance of The Nutcracker, and holiday classics by Bing Crosby, Johnny Mathis, Andy Williams, Herb Alpert and Bob Dylan (yes, I do think his Christmas album is a classic).
For the most part, Christmas music is so overplayed that I just don’t care if I ever hear most of the stalwarts ever again! And don’t even get me started on that monstrosity of a Christmas song by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, probably the single most cringe-worthy holiday song of them all…with “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer” a close second! Bah Humbug!
But then there’s A Charlie Brown Christmas by Vince Guaraldi. The A Charlie Brown Christmas TV special first aired in December of 1965. At the time, Guaraldi was already a renowned Jazz pianist who worked with the likes of Cal Tjader, Woody Herman and Stan Getz, but he was best known for the Grammy Award-winning hit “Cast Your Fate to the Wind.” Guaraldi was originally asked to compose music for an unaired documentary on Charles M. Schultz by producer Lee Mendelsson in the early ’60s. When Coca-Cola later commissioned the creation of the Christmas special, Guaraldi was called again to compose the music.
Today’s Song of the Day by Eric Berman is only one of several classics on Guaraldi’s classic 1965 album A Charlie Brown Christmas. The other two members of the Vince Guaraldi Trio were Fred Marshall on bass and Jerry Granelli on drums. Close your eyes and you can almost feel the gently falling snow falling as you circle round your favorite ice rink!
