Of all the festive songs, ‘Wonderful Christmastime’ by Paul McCartney is one of the most polarising. Over the course of his career, Macca has been noted as a vastly influential and talented songwriter, penning a countless number of hits both during his solo career and with John Lennon during his time with The Beatles.
In what must come as something of an annoyance for the ex-Beatle, his Christmas track seems to be one of the most recognisable hits from his repertoire of solo work. Love it or hate it, the tune came around at a pivotal time during McCartney’s solo career, and it still gets wheeled out on a yearly basis to a mixed reception.
As opposed to his ex-songwriting partner John Lennon’s Christmas track ‘Merry Xmas (War is Over)’, commenting on the ongoing conflict in Vietnam and calling for global peace, McCartney’s attitude to the festive period is distinctly more cheesy. With lyrics about children’s choirs, Christmas parties and general festive cheer, the song is a far cry from the lyrical mastery of some of Macca’s previous work. Despite the elitist attitudes towards the track, though, it succeeds in its aims. ‘Wonderful Christmastime’ was never meant to be a poetic masterpiece akin to ‘Yesterday’. It was simply meant to be a jolly festive track to soundtrack the holiday period.
The story behind the composition of the track, however, is distinctly less festive. The legacy of the song begins, as all great Christmas tales do, in Tokyo’s Narita International Airport. Embarking on a run of Japanese tour dates with his band Wings, McCartney was detained after airport authorities found eight ounces of cannabis in the singer’s luggage. After being held by authorities for over a week, Macca was released and deported back to England. With Wings’ Japanese tour cancelled, the position and future of the group was left uncertain.
While McCartney mulled over his band’s future, he embarked on some solo material. The product of this ended up being McCartney II, the songwriter’s second solo album but the first in which the vocals were composed independently without the input of his wife, Linda. The album was a huge commercial success, debuting at number one in the charts. It marked a new era in McCartney’s sound, incorporating synthesisers and influences of new wave and synthpop.
It was during the recording sessions for McCartney II that the songwriter came upon the idea of writing a Christmas song. Thus, ‘Wonderful Christmastime’ came to be. Much like his solo album, the track relies heavily on synthesisers, although on the whole, it is noticeably sillier than the tracks on McCartney II.
Released in November 1979, before the solo album came out, it never quite reached the dizzying heights of Christmas number one, which was occupied by Pink Floyd’s ‘Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)’. However, the song did manage to reach number six in early January and has since regularly reentered the singles charts every year.
‘Wonderful Christmastime’ was only the second single that McCartney composed entirely independently, without the input of Linda or Wings. Despite this, members of the band, including McCartney’s wife, can all be seen throughout the wonderfully tacky music video.
Whatever your thoughts on ‘Wonderful Christmastime’, it is an undeniably important track within McCartney’s solo discography. An enduring earworm, the track is a classic of the festive period and has soundtracked Christmases for the past four decades. It is also perhaps the only cheesy Christmas song whose origins can be traced back to an airport drug bust in Tokyo.
