Available August 21, 2026 on Vinyl, CD, and Digital!

Lee Mendelson Film Productions
Celebrates 75 Years of Vince Guaraldi Music with the Premiere Release of the Soundtrack to the Classic PEANUTS® Special

IT’S A MYSTERY, CHARLIE BROWN

“It's a Mystery, Charlie Brown (Original Soundtrack Recording) (Extended Edition)” includes the entire soundtrack, plus Bonus Tracks not heard in the Peanuts® Animated Specials. Additionally, all versions of the album come with a collectible credit-card-sized magnifying glass, which you can use to find clues to a mystery hidden within the album packaging!

Pre-Order coming SOON!

Special Variants!

Mystifying Teal 12” 33 RPM BioVinyl LP exclusively at Barnes & Noble

Mysterious Magenta 12” 33 RPM BioVinyl LP exclusively at Urban Outfitters

Magnifying Glass Clear 12” 33 RPM BioVinyl LP exclusively at RSD Independent Record Stores

Lee Mendelson Film Productions (LMFP) is thrilled to announce the first-ever release of Vince Guaraldi’s complete soundtrack for It’s a Mystery, Charlie Brown, the 11th animated Peanuts® special, from writer and creator Charles Schulz, and producers Bill Melendez and Lee Mendelson, and it was directed by Phil Roman. It originally aired fifty-two years ago on February 1, 1974, on CBS-TV. The special is currently available for streaming on Apple TV or from Warner Home Video.

The full soundtrack album includes 21 tracks comprised of the full 15 track score for Mystery plus four bonus tracks from the session and two covers of jazz standards. This is the funkiest Peanuts® score ever because Guaraldi plays wah-wah guitar, clavinet, and funky rhythms to their fullest effect.

Also, out August 21st, 2026 – the first single off of the album is “It’s a Mystery, Charlie Brown” the eponymous title theme from the special. The composition is performed five distinctive times throughout the special and each version is now available on the record.

This release is unique, as the packaging requires the customer to solve several mysteries to uncover its secrets.  Customers are invited to try to find all the tiny Peppermint Patty robbers, with the aid of included Snoopy Holmes magnifying glass sheet (all vinyl and Cd releases include this surprise treat). There are several other secrets in the packaging, where the listener/reader is invited to try to search for clues and solve puzzles that will lead to more surprises!  A can’t miss for Peanuts® fans and Guaraldi fans alike!

All the music was written by Vince Guaraldi. Except for “Autumn Leaves” by Joseph Kosma and “Billie’s Bounce” by Charlie Parker.

On “Mystery,” Guaraldi plays guitar, piano and electric piano, and is joined by Seward McCain on bass, and both Mike Clark and Eliot Zigmund on drums. This was recorded at Wally Heider Studios in San Francisco on December 14th and 16-19th, 1973 and January 24th, 1974.

Some of the bonus material comes from and additional recording session that features Ron McClure on bass and Mike Clark on drums from October 8th, 1973. 

The soundtrack was produced by Sean Mendelson and Jason Mendelson; it was mixed at Bones and Knives by mixing engineer Terry Carleton, and was restored and re-mastered by Vinson Hudson (who has mastered all the LMFP releases).

The 42-minute LP album will be available August 21, 2026, on 12” 33 RPM BioVinyl, in Black, or on Mysterious Magenta, an Urban Outfitters Exclusive pre-order, or on Mystifying Teal a Barnes & Noble Exclusive pre-order, or on Magnifying Glass Clear a Think Indie Exclusive.

It will also be available on CD and Digital.

Pre-order here

Continuing with LMFP’s sustainability efforts, the LP is eco-minded and is made from BioVinyl with foundational material sourced from used cooking oil or industrial waste gases to reduce our carbon footprint, and employs sustainably forested paper in a compostable PLA bag. 

-Replaces petroleum in S-PVC by recycling used cooking oil or industrial waste gasses.

-68% CO2 savings in S-PVC production rather than traditional PVC.
-ISCC PLUS certification guarantees sustainable PVC supply chain.
-100% recyclable and reusable.
-FSC-certified paper stock (jacket, insert, OBI strip, labels) for zero deforestation.
-Compostable, reusable PLA bag, made from 99% renewable material.
-Acoustic and optical quality identical to conventional vinyl records.

The CDs are made with a “Digipack Lite ™” with eco-friendly ink, 16pt FSC® certified partially recycled board stock, and a re-sealable eco-bag. Additionally, the flexi-tray that holds the CD is made from repurposed water bottles and containers, and less paper overall was used relative to a standard digipak. 

For more information about our sustainability efforts, please see LMFP’s website.

The physical copies include liner notes that give a track-by-track analysis by album producer Sean Mendelson, and notes from album producer Jason Mendelson, sons of legendary Peanuts® producer Lee Mendelson. Derrick Bang, Guaraldi biographer and author of “Vince Guaraldi at the Piano,” continues the tradition of providing an historical essay for both the special and the soundtrack. The liner notes (vinyl: 4 page and

CD: 12-page booklet) contain images from the special, and rare photographs, and each comes with a magnifying glass sheet.

“It’s a Mystery, Charlie Brown is a full-on funk fest. It’s also the bluesiest and guitar heaviest score. It’s also an entirely unique flavor relative to the other fourteen Guaraldi Peanuts special scores.” 

— From the liner notes by Sean Mendelson, producer of the album.

“Guaraldi’s primarily electric keyboard score for It’s a Mystery, Charlie Brown is light, cheerful and whimsical, as befits the story’s fantasy nature.”

— From the liner notes by Derrick Bang, author of “Vince Guaraldi at the Piano”

For an extended version of the press release and more information, including the track list, click here.