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.
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).
