Written by: McCartney
Recorded: July 1979
Producer: Paul McCartney
Released: 16 November 1979
Available on:
Back To The Egg (bonus track)
Personnel
Paul McCartney: vocals, guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, drums, percussion
Paul McCartney’s festive single ‘Wonderful Christmastime’ was recorded solo during the sessions for the McCartney II album. It was issued as a single in 1979 and remains a fixture of Christmas compilations.
Written on a “boiling hot day in July”, ‘Wonderful Christmastime’ was based upon a synthesizer riff played on a Sequential Circuits Yamaha CS-80. It was McCartney’s first Christmas composition since The Beatles’ fan club messages in the 1960s.
A video for the song was filmed at the Fountain Inn in Ashurst, West Sussex on 16 November 1979. It was directed by Russell Mulcahy and featured the members of Wings, even though they did not feature on the recording.
Wings performed ‘Wonderful Christmastime’ each night during their November-December 1979 tour of the UK. McCartney also performed it as an encore during December shows for his 2009 Good Evening Europe tour and the following year’s Up And Coming tour.
In later years some online claimed that ‘Wonderful Christmastime’ was about friends practising witchcraft before someone walks in and they have to play it cool. McCartney denied the claims, stating that the lyrics are “the mood is right” rather than “the moon is right”.
Oh yeah. Well, thank goodness they found me out. This is completely true and in actual fact I am the head wizard of a Liverpool coven. (Paul laughs) Either that… or it’s complete nonsense. And you know it’s the latter!It’s ‘the mood’! This is the mood; I’ve gathered together the witches and wizards… I’ve got ‘the mood’, which is what we in wizardry call it (laughs). The thing is about this stuff, it’s so easy to convince half the people in the world. You do have to be a little bit careful!
No, it’s ‘the mood’. And you know what, I’m thinking about Liverpool Christmas parties, that’s really all I’m doing with that song. ‘The mood is right, let’s raise a glass, the spirit’s up’ – you know, all the stuff you do at Christmas. Particularly with my old Liverpool family parties.
The release
The ‘Wonderful Christmastime’ single was issued in the United Kingdom on Parlophone as R 6029 on 16 November 1979, and peaked at number six in the charts on 5 January 1980. The b-side was ‘Rudolph The Red Nose Reggae’, a novelty version of the Christmas classic which McCartney had recorded in 1975.
In the United States it was issued as Columbia 1-11162. It fared poorly in the charts, reaching number 83 on the Cash Box chart on 12 January, and did not enter the Billboard Hot 100 until December 2018.
‘Wonderful Christmastime’ was the first single credited solely to McCartney since ‘Another Day’ in 1971, and was the first signal that Wings’ time together might be drawing to a close.
What a delightful, cheerful Christmas song. Brings back happy memories of that time of year when I was a child and Christmas was a fun time, filled with anticipation of the day. This song is a winner.
Loved it when I was a kid. Never sounds dated to me.
Thanks to Sir Paul for sharing his wonderful talent over the years and making countless happy memories for millions through his music. Linda looked so lovely.
Love the song!
Question about keys: The studio recording is in B major. When played live it is one semi-tone up, in C major (Glasgow 1979 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeHNY2594F8). I can see why: It is much easier to play in C. Does anyone know whether the studio recording was played in C, too (and then later slowed down before the vocals were added)?