Jazzy 'Charlie Brown Christmas' album swings on after 57 years

A promotional image for the 1965 animated TV special ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas.’ The soundtrack has sold more than five million copies. Photo: AP

The Mendelson family would love to find the envelope where their father, Lee, scribbled some lyrics to jazz musician Vince Guaraldi’s composition Christmas Time Is Here for an animated TV special featuring the Peanuts gang in 1965.

The producer always said it had taken less than half an hour to write, and he likely tossed the scrap of paper away. He was in a rush. Everything was rushed. No one even knew, once the special aired, whether it would ever be seen again.