‘It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown’ Returns to No. 1 on Kid Albums Chart

For a fourth straight year, Vince Guaraldi’s soundtrack to It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown returns to No. 1 on Billboard’s Kid Albums chart, largely powered by vinyl album sales. The set rises one spot on the Oct. 5-dated list, which ranks the week’s top-selling kid albums in the United States according to Luminate. The latest chart reflects the week ending Sept. 26.

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The companion album to the 1996 animated TV special has spent at least one week at No. 1 on Kid Albums every year from 2021 onwards, for a total of six nonconsecutive weeks on top.

The soundtrack also climbs 9-8 on Jazz Albums and holds at No. 6 on Traditional Jazz Albums. It peaked at No. 2 on both rankings in 2019.

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown first aired on broadcast TV on CBS, before migrating to ABC, and eventually to the paid streaming service Apple TV+. The latter has announced that the special will stream for free this year on Oct. 19-20.

Guaraldi controls three of the top four titles on the latest Kid Albums chart, as his evergreen A Charlie Brown Christmas TV soundtrack (credited to Vince Guaraldi Trio) rises 5-2, and the You’re Not Elected, Charlie Brown TV soundtrack climbs 6-4. A Charlie Brown Christmas first aired on CBS in 1965. You’re Not Elected, Charlie Brown premiered on CBS on Oct. 29, 1972, shortly before the Nov. 7 U.S. presidential election between Richard Nixon and George McGovern.

The You’re Not Elected Charlie Brown garnered the first commercial release of its complete soundtrack ever on Sept. 6 across CD, vinyl and digital download configurations. Tracks on the album include “Incumbent Waltz,” “Elect Linus (Dilemma) / Woodstock’s Wake Up” and the title track.

Rounding out the top five on the Kid Albums chart is the chart-topping Disney rock covers set A Whole New Sound (holding steady at No. 3) and the chart-topping Hannah Montana: The Movie soundtrack (falling 4-5).

Keith Caulfield

Billboard