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 across the Golden Gate Bridge. Mendelson then contacted Ralph J. Gleason, who put him in touch with Guaraldi. Mendelson offered Guaraldi the job of composing the score 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 began playing the yet-untitled "Linus and Lucy" for Mendelson, who agreed the song was perfect for Schulz’s "Peanuts" characters. Reflecting on the song in 2008, Mendelson said, "it just blew me away. It was so right, and so perfect, for Charlie Brown and the other characters. I have no idea why, but I knew that song would affect my entire life. There was a sense, even before it was put to animation, that there was something very, very special about that music."