With Christmas right around the corner, there’s arguably no better time to celebrate Paul McCartney’s holiday tune, “Wonderful Christmastime,” as it marks its 45th anniversary.
The song was released on Nov. 16, 1979, and was McCartney’s first solo single title since “Eat at Home,” which came out in 1971. “Wonderful Christmastime” was also recorded during the production of McCartney’s second solo album, “McCartney II,” but it did not make it into the first release of the album back in 1980.
When “Wonderful Christmastime” was released, the song was generally disliked by both fans and critics. The song also struggled commercially, as it only peaked at sixth place on the UK’s singles chart in the first week of January 1980 and failed to make it into Billboard’s Hot 100.
It also didn’t help that John Lennon, one of the former Beatles and a close friend of McCartney, passed away in 1980, which led to Lennon’s Christmas song “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” taking over the charts.
However, the song has seen a recent resurgence in both numbers and fandom. There appears to be a new wave of admirers for the tune, which pokes fun at the overall simplicity of the track while bringing up a popular theory as to what “Wonderful Christmastime” is really about.
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The theory surrounds the concept that “Wonderful Christmastime” is about a group of people practicing witchcraft while they keep getting interrupted. This comes in part from a common lyrical misconception where people hear the word “moon” instead of “mood” when McCartney sings, “The mood is right.”
Given the simplicity of the song and how it repeats itself and its chorus multiple times, it’s entertaining to see why people, including McCartney himself, might believe this song had ulterior motives.
“Well, thank goodness they found me out,” McCartney said in an interview with paulmccartney.com regarding “Wonderful Christmastime’s” history. “This is completely true and in actual fact I am the head wizard of a Liverpool coven. Either that… or it’s complete nonsense. And you know it’s the latter!”
In reality, the song is merely just a tune about, well, having a wonderful Christmastime!
Despite the song lasting four minutes and 16 seconds, “Wonderful Christmastime” doesn’t have much to say in terms of lyricism. Throughout the song, McCartney sings about how he’s “simply having a wonderful Christmastime” 13 times and repeats several hallmarks about what makes any Christmastime wonderful. This includes the mood being right, the choir of children singing their song and how “the party’s on.”
“And you know what, I’m thinking about Liverpool Christmas parties, that’s really all I’m doing with that song,” McCartney said in the interview. “‘The mood is right, let’s raise a glass, the spirit’s up’ – you know, all the stuff you do at Christmas.”
Another memorable aspect of the song is its use of the Sequential Circuits Prophet-5, the same synthesizer used in popular songs such as the Doobie Brothers’ “What a Fool Believes” and New Order’s “Blue Monday.”
The song greatly benefits from using the synthesizer, as it wraps around the entire track and brings a groovy rhythm that stands out among other Christmas songs released around this time.
Whether or not you are a fan of the jolly tone, there’s some merit to be given on McCartney’s behalf for how simple the song is. Through that simplicity, it’s impressive to see how this Christmastime classic has managed to stay wonderful all these years later.
