“It was not necessarily the kind of music that would be played on regular radio.” “It was actually an amazing opportunity for music like that to be heard by a lot of people,” added Connick, a jazz devotee even as a youngster. “I just remember, back in the days of three channels and scheduled programming, that was one of those things we were excited about because we knew it was coming on and we were familiar with it,” said Harry Connick Jr., who covered “Christmas Time is Here” for his own holiday disc just out. While a recognition of television’s new direction, will that reduce the chances of new generations of children happening upon the story and music? Apple TV+ bought the rights, and streams it exclusively starting this year. The special’s run on broadcast television ended last year. “A Charlie Brown Christmas” has aired every year since 1965, although that tradition is about to change. The latest, a box set of outtakes from Guaraldi's recording sessions, was released this year. Its nostalgia-fueled popularity has only grown, getting a crucial boost in 1998 when Starbucks began selling it in stores, and fed steadily by new products.

The soundtrack has sold more than five million copies. A children's choir adds charm to “Christmas Time is Here.” “O Tannenbaum” shifts from the traditional carol to a bass-driven groove. Guaraldi's cascading piano evokes both motion and lightly falling snow on “Skating.” The driving melody of “Linus and Lucy” is the eternal backdrop to a swinging party. The special itself was a bit of an oddity: a cartoon story of the meaning of Christmas soundtracked by a sophisticated, mostly instrumental jazz trio of piano, bass and drum. “Christmas just doesn't feel like Christmas without hearing that album in the background,” said Derrick Bang, author of the biography “Vince Guaraldi at the Piano.” Instead, “A Charlie Brown Christmas” became an indelible holiday tradition and so, too, has Guaraldi's music - perhaps even more so. No one even knew, once the special aired, whether it would ever be seen again. The producer always said it had taken less than half an hour to write, and he likely tossed the scrap of paper away. NEW YORK - The Mendelson family would love to find the envelope where their father, Lee, scribbled some lyrics to jazz musician Vince Guaraldi's composition “Christmas Time is Here” for an animated TV special featuring the “Peanuts” gang in 1965.

Charles M. Schulz by Derrick Bang