You're Mired in Controversy, Charlie Brown

OK, so it's a little confusing and frustrating, especially when talking to Colin Bailey, who to this day believes he and the late Monty Budwig appear on the record. "There's nothing much really to tell about the recording," Bailey says. "It was simple, but it was fun. Vince was never serious. It was always loose. It was a happy thing. Everybody was laughing. It was always like that with Vince. And thank God the kids get to hear something good on television. The shit they listen to now is all brain-dead. It's good to have something that may jolt them toward a better life."

Bailey says he didn't even know the album existed in any form until "several years ago." He and his wife were shopping in a Bay Area record store when she heard what sounded like Guaraldi's music playing on the store speakers and asked the clerk what that was from. He told her it was A Charlie Brown Christmas. The couple purchased a copy, only to see Colin's name listed in the credits. He was surprised to learn of the disc's existence, even more shocked when he realized he had never received a penny in royalties from Fantasy. "But like everything else in the music business," he says, "the musicians are always the last to find out about anything."

Including the fact that they don't play on records they're listed on. When informed that the brand-new copies of A Charlie Brown Christmas and Charlie Brown's Holiday Hits list Marshall and Granelli as the primary band, Bailey balks. "Fantasy must have screwed it up," he says. "They're notorious for having the wrong information."

Of course, none of this bickering diminishes the album's stature. It's just a reminder that even grown-ups can act like children at the most wonderful time of the year. Charlie Brown might actually understand. The poor schlub never got credit for anything he did, either.