Although this jazz standard was originally released on Vince Guaraldi's album "Jazz Impressions of A Boy Named Charlie Brown in 1964," it gained its greatest exposure as part of A Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack in 1965. Over the years it has become a very popular song on radio stations playing Christmas music during the holidays.
When Peanuts producer Lee Mendelson heard Vince Guaraldi's hit, "Cast Your Fate to the Wind", on the radio while driving his car over the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. 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 a few 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 refused, saying "I've got to play this for someone right now or I'll explode!" He then began playing the then untitled "Linus and Lucy" for Mendelson, who agreed the song was perfect for Schulz's Peanuts characters.
