This coffee-table quality songbook is a celebration of the art of Charles Schulz and the music of Vince Guaraldi. Within its stunning full-color, high-gloss pages are: an introduction by veteran music journalist Hank Bordowitz, which provides background on how the Schulz/Mendelson/Guaraldi collaboration came to be, and reflections from fellow musicians influenced by Guaraldi's music; and piano solo arrangements of 30 terrific tunes, each featuring a Peanuts illustration by Schulz. The songs include: Baseball Theme · Blue Charlie Brown · The Christmas Song · Christmas Time Is Here · Freda (With the Naturally Curly Hair) · Happiness Theme · He's Your Dog, Charlie Brown · Linus and Lucy · Oh, Good Grief · The Pebble Beach Theme · Peppermint Patty · Red Baron · Schroeder · Skating · You're in Love, Charlie Brown · and more. This book will be an absolute treasure for any Peanuts or jazz fan!!

Excellent note-for-note transcriptions of a wide range of tunes. Fun to play and fun for kids to hear. Others complain about the glossy pages, but if you bend (break) the spine, the book stands up no problem.

Moderately easy to moderately difficult; reasonably accurate interpretations. Since it's not easy to find anything but simple sheet music type arrangements of these pieces, this folio is well worth the money. The introductory essay is excellent.

I've just received this today and it really is beautiful to look at. But I do wonder why they had to print every single page of this book on glossy paper?

It seems like it would be much less durable than regular paper over time, and more prone to smudging and fading. This special paper requires extra careful handling, so don't even think about going near this with unclean or greasy fingers unless you delight in seeing great black finger streaks across your music.

Also, since the pages are so glossy and thick, it is impossible to open this book at the piano without it snapping shut in your face. I usually prefer music books bound this way, because spiral-binding destroys paper edges faster, but I really cannot open this book to a particular song for more than 2 seconds, even when I try to hold doewn the sides with heavier books.

It's a great value anyway, and I'm probably just being overly anal about the glossy pages. This is the only place you'll find some songs, such as "Thanksgiving Theme" and "Frieda with the naturally curly hair," so you might as well add it to your music collection.

Where to start? First, Vince Guaraldi was a great talent and our real loss is the wonderful music he would still be producing today.

Second, his Peanuts work is one of the main gateways to jazz for today's young minds. I don't know where the music would be today without the fans he introduced to it.

Third, Fantasy Records, who release his CDs, does an abysmal job in preserving the Charlie Brown musical legacy. Each and every CD they release is a slap-dash affair and dishonors the creators. "Oh, Good Grief" was less than 30 minutes long! His son should kick some butt. Just had to get this off my chest.

Finally, this music book is a delight! It's comprehensive and lovingly presented with colorful illustsrations. Most selections include transcriptions of Vince's jazz solos, grace notes and all. And the harmonies seem to be complete and error-free. (I really like Vince's use of the 13th chord with the flatted 9th.)

I did the same as the previous reviewer and had the book spiral bound at Kinko's. One star deducted from an otherwise excellent product.

This book is great in three ways: First, the music itself is first rate. The arrangements in the book are the real thing and are quite a bit more difficult than the "easy" piano versions. Second, there are great-looking comics on most every page, which makes it a joy just to look at. Lastly, there is a lengthy history of Peanuts and how Vince became involved with it.
The only aspect keeping this book from a 5 rating is the binding. The book wouldn't lay flat on the piano, which made it practically impossible to play. I brought it to Kinko's and got it spiral bound for about $4, and now it works great. Poor thinking on the publisher's part, though.