Wednesday, Dec 8, 2021 • 11min

“Wonderful Christmastime” by Paul McCartney: the $15 million song

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Written in less time than it takes to light up the yule log, Paul McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmastime” continues to be played around the world during the holiday season more than 40 years after it was released. It’s a song that showcases McCartney’s remarkable talent for creating ear candy, and it earns the former Beatle a surprisingly hefty paycheck every year. Find out all about this festive tune’s origins in the new episode of Behind The Song. Watch the video episode on the Behind The Song Youtube channel: https://bit.ly/2DBF4wJ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Janda Lane

Transcript

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00:00

97.1FM The Drive presents the Behind the Song podcast, taking you deeper into classic rock's most timeless tunes. Here's your host, Janda.

Janda Lane

00:11

Some people love it, some people hate it, but there's one thing that can be counted on around the world every year; come December, you will hear

Wonderful Christmastime

Paul McCartney

. It is such an odd sounding song with such a total

Paul McCartney

vibe, including the pinging sound of the synthesizer that punches in throughout the tune.

00:34

It is a song that demands a response, one way or another, because it is so unique and for many, that response has been a weirdly lifted mood after hearing it. Because even in what is supposed to be the happiest of seasons, the Yuletide time can also be a period of sadness, full of memories of people and places. It can be downright hard.

00:59

But there's something about

Wonderful Christmastime

that brightens what I call the Christmas funk in a way that only a song written by this particular ’Beatle’ can. It's simple lyrics and how it somehow continues to defy sounding dated in any way is, for many, exactly what the doctor ordered. Come December, sleigh bells and all.

McCartney

wrote

Wonderful Christmastime

on what he calls a boiling-hot day in July of 1979 during the sessions for his second solo album, 1980s

McCartney II.

01:35

He wrote it on his farm in

Scotland

and recorded it all in about ten minutes, performing everything himself and serving as his own mixer and producer. He composed it, sang all the vocals, including the backing vocals and played all the instruments; drums, guitar, keyboards, sleigh bells, handclaps and of course the synthesizer. And on that note, it's a great example of

McCartney

dabbling in the electronic instrumentation that was coming to the forefront at that time.

02:07

The synthesizer sound that hits throughout the song was made with something called the

Sequential Circuits Prophet-5

, which you've also heard used on

The Doobie Brothers'

What A Fool Believes

and on

Kim Carnes'

Bette Davis Eyes

02:21

So here he was, in his home studio in Scotland, months after the release of what would prove to be

Wings'

last album,

Back To The Egg

, working on material for his upcoming solo project and in between time for him and has often been the case with

McCartney's

work. The in between times can yield some pretty incredible results, as it did with his and

Linda McCartney's

Ram

album in 1971 after The Beatles broke up.

02:53

So here's

McCartney

, one of the most genius song crafters of our time, with a few lyrics in his head about simply having a good Christmas on a sweltering July day. And with his characteristic remarkable effortlessness, about 10 minutes later, the lyrics were done and they go like this: "The moon is right, the spirits up. We're here tonight. And that's enough, simply having a wonderful Christmastime. The party's on, the feelings' here that only comes this time of year. Simply having a wonderful Christmastime. "

03:33

The choir of children sing their song and then you hear what sounds like a choir of children singing a series of ding-dongs, like the ringing of a bell; that's all

McCartney

too. He put on a higher voice to make himself sound like a choir of children in the recording. If you watch the

Get Back

Beatles documentary, you saw how both

McCartney

and

John Lennon

would often put on different voices in the recording studio, often just clowning around for fun.

04:02

But there is a skill of mimicry there that

McCartney

used to great effect in making himself sound like a children's choir in this song. His own one-man band, a choral force. The song meanders on, audibly twinkling like a string of lights and the lyrics continue: "We're simply having a wonderful Christmastime. The word is out about the town. To lift a glass and don't look down. Simply having a wonderful Christmastime. The choir of children sing their song. They practiced all year long. "

04:41

And this time around in the song, the ding-dong lyrics get even a little more choral with

McCartney

layering his voice even more. And the next lyrics, a repeat of a part of the first verse, sum-up what is so key about this song in its overall message: "The party's on, the spirits up. We're here tonight and that's enough. Simply having a wonderful Christmastime. "

05:10

In a season when we're often so busy and stressed out about making the holidays fit some kind of perfect ideal,

McCartney's

lyrics remind us that it's quite enough just to be here and to enjoy the moments as they unfold.

05:26

And the song ends with a full repeat of verse one: "The moon is right, the spirits up. We're here tonight, and that's enough. Simply having a wonderful Christmastime"

05:40

Released as a Christmas single in November of 1979 with the hilariously titled ’Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reggae’ on the B-side,

Wonderful Christmastime

, peaked at number six on the ’UK Singles’ chart in early January of 1980.

05:55

It didn't hit the

Billboard

’Hot 100’ chart in the US that year, but it did end up charting in subsequent years, because it began receiving substantial airplay. A music video is made for the song, featuring

McCartney

and the members of

Wings

going caroling, reportedly shot between trips to the pub for the band on what

McCartney

called a really fun day.

06:17

It was later added as a bonus track on the 1993 re-issue of

Wings

Back To The Egg

album and then as a bonus track to the 2011 re-issue of the

McCartney II

album. The song has been covered by

Diana Ross

and

Kylie Minogue

, among many others, and it was included in the 1998 animated film,

Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer

06:40

Because of the songs continued seasonal popularity and because

McCartney

is the sole writer and performer on the track, meaning he doesn't have to share the dividends with any other members, it earns him an estimated $400,000 a year or about $15 million over the years since its release; according to

Forbes

magazine, which is not bad for ten minutes work. No matter what the critics think about it.

07:08

With

Wonderful Christmastime

Paul McCartney

gave us a standout song for the season; one that delivers a simple message that is often overlooked this time of year. Don't forget to enjoy it all, because Christmastime is as fleeting as it is magical.

07:26

I'm Janda and this has been ’Behind the Song’. Special thanks to

Christian Lane

for the music you hear on this podcast. Subscribe on Youtube and watch the video episodes and you can follow Behind the Song podcast on Tiktok. On the way, more episodes about the history and lyrics of classic rock and roll.

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