Wonderful Christmastime



"Wonderful Christmastime" is a 1979 Christmas song by Paul McCartney. It enjoys significant Christmas time popularity around the world. The notable synthesiser 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 Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, it reached #6 in the United Kingdom Singles Chart. The video was filmed at the Fountain Inn in Ashurst, West Sussex.

McCartney recorded the song entirely on his own during the sessions for his solo project McCartney II. Although the members of Wings are not on the recording, they do appear in the video.

Fellow ex-Beatles, John Lennon and George Harrison, had already released festive singles and Ringo Starr made a Christmas album in 1999. 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 canon of Christmas songs played year after year. "Wonderful Christmastime" can be heard in the 1998 animated film Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Movie during Santa's takeoff on Christmas Day. Wings performed the song during their 1979 tour of the UK, and McCartney included the song as an encore during his Good Evening Europe tour.

Though McCartney has since gone on to state that he is now embarrassed about this record, it continues to receive substantial airplay every year. Including royalties from cover versions, it is estimated that Paul McCartney makes $400,000 per year from this song, which puts its cumulative earnings for this song at near $15 million.

Cover versions

 * Martin Sheen, John Spencer, and Stockard Channing covered the song on the NBC Celebrity Christmas album in 2000.
 * Barenaked Ladies has a short synthesised instrumental cover on their 2004 album Barenaked for the Holidays.
 * De La Soul sampled "Wonderful Christmastime" on the track "Simply" from their album AOI: Bionix.
 * Jump5 covered and remixed the song for their Christmas album All The Joy In The World.
 * Earthsuit covered the song for Happy Christmas Vol. 3.
 * Hilary Duff did a cover of this song on her Christmas album Santa Claus Lane.
 * Tom Mcrae contributed a cover of this song on a various artists album called Maybe This Christmas Tree.
 * Jars of Clay recorded a cover on their 2007 release, Christmas Songs.
 * Demi Lovato did a cover on the 2008 All Wrapped Up! album.
 * Irene Grandi covered the song for her 2008 Christmas album Canzoni per Natale.
 * Cale Parks covered the song for the compilation Suburban Sprawl Holiday Sampler 2008.
 * Bonnie Pink covered the song on her mini-album Chain, released in 2008.
 * Peter Serafinowicz did a parody of it called "Sexual Christmas Time" in episode 6 of The Peter Serafinowicz Show.
 * Family Force 5 covered the song on their 2009 Christmas album Family Force 5 Christmas Pageant.
 * Overboard covered the song in their 2008 holiday album, Tidings.
 * Beatallica covered the song on their 2009 album Winter Plunderband.
 * Amy Grant covered the song for her primetime Christmas special entitled 'Amy Grant: A Christmas to Remember', which aired on 15 December 1999 on CBS.
 * Rahsaan Patterson covered this song on his 2008 album The Ultimate Gift.
 * Helix covered the song on their 2008 Christmas album A Heavy Mental Christmas.
 * The Venture Bros. co-creators Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer released a version of the song, performed as the characters 21 and 24, for the website Quick Stop Entertainment as part of the 2008 holiday season.
 * Kelly Rowland recorded a version of the song for the 2010 release Now That's What I Call Christmas! 4.
 * The Ready Set released a version in 2010 on his holiday EP Regifted.
 * Chicago featured Dolly Parton on their own version on Chicago XXXIII: O Christmas Three released in October, 2011.