"Wonderful Christmastime" is a

Christmas song Christmas music comprises a variety of genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or, in the case of carols or songs, may employ lyrics whose subject m ...

by English musician

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

. Recorded during the sessions for his solo album '' McCartney II'' (1980), it was released in November 1979 following

Wings A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is expre ...

' final album ''

Back to the Egg ''Back to the Egg'' is the seventh and final studio album by the British–American rock band Wings, released in June 1979 on Columbia Records in America (their first for the label), and on Parlophone in the UK. Co-produced by Chris Thomas, t ...

'' earlier that year. It was McCartney's first solo single in over eight years since "

Eat at Home "Eat at Home" is a 1971 single by Paul and Linda McCartney that also appeared on their album ''Ram'' from the same year. The song, a standard rock number, features McCartney on lead vocals, electric guitar and bass, and Linda McCartney performing b ...

" in 1971. "Wonderful Christmastime" has charted within the top 10 in Austria, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom as well as the top 20 in Canada, Slovakia, Sweden, and Switzerland. Despite being regarded as one of McCartney's weaker compositions by some music critics, it is a popular song during Christmas and has been covered throughout the years by numerous artists. "Wonderful Christmastime" was added as a bonus track on the 1993 CD reissue of ''Back to the Egg'' and on the 2011 "Special Edition" and "Deluxe Edition" reissue of ''McCartney II''; a longer, unedited version was also included on the Deluxe Edition. The track was also mixed in

5.1 surround sound 5.1 surround sound ("five-point one") is the common name for surround sound audio systems. 5.1 is the most commonly used layout in home theatres. It uses five full bandwidth channels and one low-frequency effects channel (the "point one"). Dolb ...

for inclusion on the 2007 DVD release '' The McCartney Years''.

Background and recording

McCartney wrote the song in the key of B major, and recorded it entirely on his own during the sessions for his solo project '' McCartney II''. Although the members of

are not on the recording, they do appear in the promotional

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing devic ...

, which was filmed at the Fountain Inn in Ashurst, West Sussex. It also includes footage filmed at the Hippodrome Theatre in Eastbourne, where McCartney rehearsed his 1979 UK tour. Wings performed the song during their 1979 tour of the UK.

Reception and legacy

Following its release as a stand-alone single in the United Kingdom, "Wonderful Christmastime" peaked at number six on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

on the week ending January 5, 1980. In the United States, the single peaked at number 83 on the ''

Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', was an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an onli ...

'' Top 100 Singles chart (week ending January 12, 1980) and at number 94 on the ''

Record World ''Record World'' magazine was one of the three main music industry trade magazines in the United States, along with '' Billboard'' and '' Cashbox''. It was founded in 1946 under the name ''Music Vendor'', but in 1964 it was changed to ''Record W ...

'' Singles Chart (week ending December 29, 1979), but it did not initially make the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart. "Wonderful Christmastime" first appeared on a ''Billboard'' magazine music chart in December 1984, when it peaked at number 10 for two straight weeks on the magazine's special Christmas Singles chart. Its next appearance on a ''Billboard'' music came on the week ending January 6, 1996, when the song both debuted and peaked at number 29 on the magazine's weekly

Hot Adult Contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet ...

chart. "Wonderful Christmastime" finally debuted on the main ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart in December 2018, at position number 47. It peaked at number 28 on the week ending January 2, 2021, following its 2020 chart re-entry two weeks earlier. "Wonderful Christmastime" continues to receive substantial annual festive airplay, although some

music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on w ...

consider it to be one of McCartney's mediocre compositions. Beatles author Robert Rodriguez has written of "Wonderful Christmastime": "Love it or hate it, few songs within the McCartney

oeuvre Oeuvre(s) or Œuvre(s) may refer to: * A work of art; or, more commonly, the body of work of a creator Books * ''L'Œuvre'', a novel by Émile Zola * ''Œuvres'', a work by Emil Cioran * ''Œuvres'', a work by Auguste Brizeux * ''Oeuvres'', a wo ...

have provoked such strong reactions."Robert Rodriguez, ''Fab Four FAQ 2.0: The Beatles' Solo Years, 1970−1980'', Backbeat Books (Milwaukee, WI, 2010; ), p. 191. Including

royalties A royalty payment is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset. Royalties are typically agreed upon as a percentage of gross or net revenues derived from the use of an asset o ...

from cover versions, it was estimated in 2010 that McCartney makes $400,000 a year from this song, which puts its cumulative earnings at over $15 million.

Personnel

– vocals, keyboards, synthesisers, guitars, bass, drums, percussion,

jingle bell A jingle bell or sleigh bell is a type of bell which produces a distinctive 'jingle' sound, especially in large numbers. They find use in many areas as a percussion instrument, including the classic sleigh bell sound and morris dancing. T ...

s, production

Charts

Weekly charts

Certifications

Kylie Minogue version

Australian singer

Kylie Minogue Kylie Ann Minogue (; born 28 May 1968) is an Australian singer, songwriter and actress. She is the highest-selling female Australian artist of all time, having sold over 80 million records worldwide. She has been recognised for reinve ...

and British singer-songwriter

Mika Mika is a given name, a nickname and a surname. Notable people and fictional characters with the name include: People known just as Mika * Mika (singer) (born 1983), Lebanese-born British singer-songwriter Michael Penniman, Jr. * Mika (footba ...

covered the song for Minogue's reissue '' Kylie Christmas: Snow Queen Edition'' (2016). The song was released as album's second single on 9 December 2016 by

Parlophone Parlophone Records Limited (also known as Parlophone Records and Parlophone) is a German–British record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 192 ...

. The song was performed on 6 December 2016 by Minogue and Mika on Italian programme ''Stasera Casa Mika''.

Charts

Release history

Other cover versions

Diana Ross Diana Ross (born March 26, 1944) is an American singer and actress. She rose to fame as the lead singer of the vocal group the Supremes, who became Motown's most successful act during the 1960s and one of the world's best-selling girl groups ...

on the 1994 album ''

A Very Special Season ''A Very Special Season'' is the twentieth studio album and first holiday album by American singer Diana Ross, released on November 14, 1994, by EMI Records. Produced by Nick Martinelli, whom Ross worked with several times around the early nineti ...

'' which reached no. 37 in the UK and was certified Gold. * 2011:

Eli Young Band Eli Young Band is an American country music band composed of members who met while students at the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas: Mike Eli (lead vocals, guitar), James Young (guitar), Jon Jones (bass guitar), and Chris Thompson (dru ...

on the compilation ''The Country Christmas Collection'', peaking at No. 33 on the ''Billboard''

Hot Country Songs Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sa ...

chart in January 2012 * 2013: The

a cappella ''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Ren ...

group Straight No Chaser (with

) on their EP '' Under the Influence: Holiday Edition''

References

External links

Sold on Song
(

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 15 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the station broadcasts a wide range of content. ...

) {{Authority control Mika (singer) songs Paul McCartney songs Lady A songs 1979 singles 2016 singles British Christmas songs Songs written by Paul McCartney Song recordings produced by Paul McCartney Parlophone singles Columbia Records singles Music published by MPL Music Publishing 1979 songs British synth-pop songs