A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (CBS)(1973)

 I have heard the song 'Little Birdy' once a year during the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving yet I never knew who performed it. So I went online this morning to find out.

 

 "Little Birdie" is a song from the 1973 animated TV special A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. It was written by Vince Guaraldi who sings the song in the special. Although unnamed in the lyrics, the "little birdie" of the title refers to Woodstock. - From Peanuts Wiki 

 Lyrics:

Little birdie,

Why do you fly upside down?

It's amazing,

That the way you get around.

Little birdie,

Why do you worry like you do?

Don't you worry,

Just do what you can do.

Little birdie,

Things just fascinate you so.

And your friend there,

Likes to show you what he knows.

Little birdie,

He don't mind the way he should.

He needs watchin',

That's when you know he'll be good.

Little birdie,

Can't your friend do nothin' right?

It just seems now,

All he wants to do is fight.

Little Birdie,

Look at what he's tryin' to do.

It's so easy,

Yet he don't know what to do.

Vincent Anthony Guaraldi /ɡəˈrældi/ (July 17, 1928 – February 6, 1976), born Vincent Anthony Dellaglio, was an American jazz pianist noted for his innovative compositions and arrangements and for composing music for animated television adaptations of the Peanuts comic strip including their signature melody, "Linus and Lucy" and the holiday standard, "Christmas Time Is Here". He is also known for his performances on piano as a member of Cal Tjader's 1950s ensembles and for his own solo career. His 1962 composition "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" became a radio hit and won a Grammy Award in 1963 for Best Original Jazz Composition.

In 1963, while searching for music to accompany a planned Peanuts documentary entitled A Boy Named Charlie Brown, television producer Lee Mendelson heard "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" on the radio while driving home from a meeting with Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz. Mendelson then contacted Ralph J. Gleason, who put him in touch with Guaraldi. Mendelson offered Guaraldi the job of composing several jazz scores for the documentary, which Guaraldi gladly accepted. Within several weeks, Mendelson received a call from an excited Guaraldi who wanted to play a piece of music he had just written. Mendelson, not wanting his first exposure to the new music to be marred by the poor audio qualities of a telephone, suggested coming over to Guaraldi’s studio. Guaraldi enthusiastically refused, saying "I’ve got to play this for someone right now or I’ll explode!" He then begun playing the yet-untitled "Linus and Lucy" for Mendelson, who agreed the song was perfect for Schulz’s Peanuts characters.

Guaraldi went on to compose scores for thirteen additional Peanuts television specials, as well as the 1969 feature film A Boy Named Charlie Brown. Despite the wealth of Peanuts material Guaraldi recorded, only A Charlie Brown Christmas and A Boy Named Charlie Brown (both the unaired documentary and feature film) received official soundtrack releases during his lifetime.

"I have always felt that one of the key elements that made A Charlie Brown Christmas was the music," said Mendelson in 2010. "It gave it a contemporary sound that appealed to all ages. Although Vince had never scored anything else and although I was basically a documentary film maker at the time, we started to work together on the cues because we both loved jazz and we both played the piano. So he would bring in the material for each scene and we would go over it scene by scene. Most of the time, the music worked perfectly. But there were times we would either not use something or use it somewhere else. We went through this same process on all sixteen shows. Although there was always some left over music, most of the time what he wrote and performed is what went on the air."

Check Out:

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (CBS)(1973)

It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown (1966)(CBS)