40 Years: A Charlie Brown Christmas

1	Christmas Is Coming / David Benoit 2:54
2	Just Like Me / Hank Williams Jr. 4:12
3	Linus and Lucy / Dave Koz 4:02
4	It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year / Toni Braxton 4:17
5	My Little Drum / Rick Braun 3:28
6	Skating / Norman Brown 4:01
7	Christmas Time Is Here / Brian McKnight 4:25
8	O Tannenbaum / Gerald Albright 3:53
9	Red Baron / The Rippingtons 4:10
10	The Christmas Song / Chaka Khan 4:03
11	Für Elise / David Benoit 1:07
12	Christmas Time Is Here (Reprise) / Eric Marienthal 3:13

Barnes & Noble

Fans young and old look forward to the annual broadcast of A Charlie Brown Christmas. Commemorating the animated special's 40th anniversary, Grammy-winning pianist and composer David Benoit has assembled a musical homage featuring a host of R&B and jazz luminaries. Tampering with songs that have become so indelibly linked with childhood memories can be risky, but Benoit succeeds by maintaining the sprightly arrangements and festive mood of Vince Guaraldi's originals. Visions of Snoopy doing his happy dance spring to mind upon hearing the piano-driven "Linus and Lucy," peppered with saxophonist Dave Koz's riffs over a samba-flavored rhythm, while guitarist Norman Brown recalls George Benson on a version of "Skating" that bobs and weaves over crackling riffs and subtle scatting. Elsewhere, vocalists keep the mood flowing -- whether it's Brian McKnight crooning his way through "Christmas Time Is Here" over a bed of brush-stroked drums, or Chaka Khan rendering a sparse, torch-song take on "The Christmas Song." Benoit does take liberties, adding a pair of songs not originally found on the show's soundtrack -- the Rippingtons' Mannheim Steamroller–flavored rendition of "Red Baron" and Toni Braxton's sultry run through "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" -- along with the Benoit-penned "Just Like Me," a tear-jerking nod to the scraggly tree at the center of the show's story line, featuring vocals by Vanessa Williams. Full of holiday nostalgia, 40 Years is a fitting tribute to Charles Schulz's Peanuts legacy. Dave Gil de Rubio

All Music Guide

If someone had told Vince Guaraldi in 1965 that his scores for the Charlie Brown specials for children would have been the first exposure to jazz for several generations of impressionable children, chances are the composer would have either shrugged off the statement and paid it no mind or he would have laughed heartily at such a notion. But his score for A Charlie Brown Christmas has remained a cornerstone for jazz orientation and an essential holiday remedy for the run-of-the-mill-predictable contemporary favorites. So it's fitting that, 40 years on, a tribute album paying homage to the landmark soundtrack would hit the market just in time for the holiday season. Producer and smooth-jazz juggernaut David Benoit assembled a veritable who's who of adult contemporary and jazz performers for this 12-song session, including good pal Russ Freeman and his Rippingtons band, Dave Koz, Chaka Khan, Brian McKnight and Toni Braxton. It's a very warm sounding, heavily polished, well-played tribute album full of reverence for the original material, and it's suitable for the generation that were children when Guaraldi's original scores first hit the television airwaves. There's also material that strays ever so slightly from the original soundtrack, but it's a welcome bonus. And while no tribute album could even come close to harnessing the magic of its inspiration, this certainly does the trick in making the word "tribute" appropriate in a world where tribute albums run a dime a dozen. Rob Theakston