The following morning, on February 6, Guaraldi awoke with a bad cold and remained in bed throughout the day. That afternoon, Guaraldi finished recording the soundtrack for "It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown" at Wally Heider Studios with bassist Seward McCain and drummer Jim Zimmerman. "We had just come back from a concert we did up in the mountain," recalled Zimmerman, "and Vince had been skiing, and up there carrying on like nothing was bothering him. But once we were back in the studio, he started complaining that his stomach was bothering him."