Wonderful Christmastime

Infobox Single
Name = Wonderful Christmastime


Artist = Paul McCartney
from Album =
B-side = "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reggae"
Released = 16 November, 1979
Format = 7"
Recorded = 1979
Genre = Rock
Length =
Label = Parlophone/EMI
Writer = Paul McCartney
Producer = Paul McCartney
Chart position = * #6 (UK)
Last single = "Getting Closer"
(Wings)
(1979)
This single = "Wonderful Christmastime"
(1979)
Next single = "Coming Up"
(1980)

"Wonderful Christmastime" is a 1979 Christmas song by Paul McCartney. McCartney's song enjoys significant Christmastime popularity in the UK, US, and Canada. The notable synthesizer riff was played on a Sequential Circuits Prophet-5. The song was later added as a bonus track on the CD reissue of Wings' "Back to the Egg". Although the song did not chart on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, it reached #6 in the UK Singles Chart.

Fellow ex-Beatles John Lennon and George Harrison had already released such numbers, and Ringo Starr made a Christmas album decades later. Of all of the former Beatle seasonal offerings, Lennon's "Happy Xmas (War is Over)" and McCartney's "Wonderful Christmastime" have become two of a large number of popular Christmas songs played year after year.

Covers

*Hip hop group De La Soul sampled "Wonderful Christmastime" on their track "Simply Havin'", off of their album "".
*Acoustic rock group Jars of Clay recorded a cover of the Paul McCartney song on their 2007 release, "Christmas Songs".
*Trance project S.K.Y. recorded two cover versions for the 2006 compilation "S.K.Y. Presents Christmas Trance".
*Christian pop group Jump 5 performed a cover, which appears on "Radio Disney Holiday Jams 2".
*Hilary Duff did a version of this song on her Christmas album "Santa Claus Lane".
*Singer/songwriter Tom Mcrae contributed a cover of this song on a mixed album called "Maybe This Christmas Tree".
*Canadian group Barenaked Ladies has a short synthesized instrumental cover (that segues into 'Happy Birthday, Dear Jesus') on their 2004 album "Barenaked for the Holidays".

External links

* [http://www.mplcommunications.com/song_display.asp?SongNum=2278 Information] from the song's publisher, MPL Communications
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/soldonsong/songlibrary/wonderfulchristmastime.shtml Sold on Song] (BBC Radio 2)