Vinyl Madness 2025: Part 2 (with a bonus)

Okay, I knew we'd get more, given that the 75th anniversary of the Peanuts comic strip debut is coming up on October 2...

...but seriously?

As my FiveCentsPlease blog colleague Scott suggested, we've now descended into vinyl insanity.

Truly, I feel sorry for the completists out there who are determined to get everything. (And I know you exist, because I hear from some of you.)

I'd love to think this is the final tally for what remains of 2025, but honestly ... I won't be surprised if a few more pop up, in the next month. If any more are announced, they'll be added to this post, so check back in a few weeks.

Meanwhile, let's dig in.

A previous blog post focused vinyl variants of A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and A Charlie Brown Christmas, so we'll consider those two done. (Fingers crossed.)

So, let's move now to It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. And, as it happens...

...Target is offering a ghost-white, pumpkin-shaped LP, due for release Friday, September 26. It can be ordered here.

And here's a surprise: The famed "big three" Peanuts holiday specials aren't the only albums getting variant treatment, because...

...the recently released score for You're a Good Sport, Charlie Brown is getting a "leaky pumpkin orange vinyl" from Urban Outfitters, due for release on October 17. It can be ordered here.

Actually, Urban Outfitters jumped into the game big-time this year, also with...

...a 4-inch yellow "tiny vinyl" excerpt from Jazz Impressions of A Boy Named Charlie Brown, also due for release on October 17. It can be ordered here.

Peanuts Greatest Hits is getting two vinyl variants: the first a 75th anniversary picture disc, available Friday, September 26, at numerous sources; and an exclusive Urban Outfitters black and yellow disc, due October 17.

The picture disc can be ordered here (among other places), and the Urban Outfitters variant here.

But Urban Outfitters isn't done yet...

...because they're also offering an exclusive "crayons colored vinyl" version of Peanuts Portraits, due October 17. It can be ordered here.

So, you undoubtedly assume that's enough, right?

Nope.

Record Store Day's many brick-and-mortar outlets throughout the country also will offer exclusive CD releases on October 17, starting with...

...the awesome, six-disc box set of Vince Guaraldi: The Peanuts Collection (Volume 1) containing Lee Mendelson Film Productions' previous releases (same music, same mastering, same liner notes). The contents include the six albums cited below, bearing the new cover art also cited below. It can be ordered here.

Additionally, your favorite brick-and-mortar stores will offer half a dozen individual Peanuts special scores as CD releases — again, same music, same mastering, same liner notes — with "Indie exclusive cover art," starting with Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown and You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown:

Valentine can be ordered here; Elected can be ordered here.

Next up: "Indie exclusive cover art" versions of It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown and It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown:

Easter Beagle can be ordered here; Short Summer can be ordered here.

Finally (dare I say finally?), you can salivate over "Indie exclusive cover art" versions of You're a Good Sport, Charlie Brown, and A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving:

(So I guess we weren't done with Thanksgiving after all...) Good Sport can be ordered here; Thanksgiving can be ordered here.

So ... is that truly it, for the rest of the year? As I said above, while I'd love to think so, this year already has been full of surprises, so we shouldn't discount the possibility of one or two more.

Rest assured, if anything else pops up, you'll find out here.

Meanwhile ... better work extra hours, because your bank accounts are about to take a serious hit!

Another morning of Grace

The morning of Sunday, August 31, was sunny and mild in bucolic Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania: a lovely, late-summer day that would top out at a comfortable 75 degrees. When Constant Companion Gayna, our friend Scott and I arrived at the First Presbyterian Church at 8:30, the place already was bustling: chairs being placed, programs being stacked, and all manner of other duties necessary for the impending service.

Nor would this be just any service for “The Church on the Hill,” even by standards firmly established by The Rev. Bill Carter, during his lengthy stint as pastor. As befits one of many music-oriented signs proudly displayed — a sax against a church window, alongside the motto “Jazz belongs in Church” — everybody was racing through final preparations for a 60th anniversary re-enactment of the Vince Guaraldi Jazz Mass, which debuted in San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral, back on May 21, 1965.

 

Longtime readers of this blog will recall that Rev. Carter — who cheekily bills himself as “preacher and pianist” — leads his own Presbybop Jazz Combo, which has released numerous albums of Carter's original compositions and jazz-hued liturgical music. Longtime readers similarly will recall that Guaraldi’s Jazz Mass also was revived a decade ago, for its 50th anniversary, also at the First Presbyterian Church of Clarks Summit.

 

I concluded my report of the 2015 service by noting that Rev. Carter expressed a strong desire to revisit the Mass at some point. While he has yet to “take it on the road,” as he suggested back then, he definitely made good on that early promise.

 

I also was on hand the previous morning, August 30, during a rehearsal involving Rev. Carter (piano), Michael Carbone (sax and flute), Tony Marino (bass), cantors Frank Jones and Kate Leahy, and half a dozen choir members (a modest sampling of the full choirs of First Presbyterian Church and Our Lady of the Snows, a nearby Catholic Church, both of which would be present in full strength the next morning). I immediately was struck by the rich sound coming from the church’s gorgeous new grand piano — donated a few years ago by a grateful individual who chose to remain anonymous — and the very much improved sound system and speakers, granting awesome depth to each note, song and chant, in every corner of the worship hall. (I know, because I kept moving around.)

 

I also helped Rev. Carter unpack the enlarged photos, facsimile 1965 Grace Cathedral programs and other vintage materials that he carefully had saved since they last were used in 2015.

 

Now, on Sunday morning, the choir members began to arrive and take their seats. Cantor Jones — who also serves as the church’s director of music, and supervises the sound system and recording equipment — bounced from one duty to another, repeatedly pausing to answer a quick question from a choir member, or confer with Rev. Carter. The latter, in turn, led his combo — now joined by drummer Tyler Dempsey — through a few brief passages of several portions of the Mass, clarifying a segue here, a transition there.

 

(Marino and Dempsey also were part of the quartet during the 2015 presentation of Guaraldi’s Mass.)