The reason why Paul McCartney made ‘Wonderful Christmastime’ alone
Love it or hate it, ‘Wonderful Christmastime’ is one of the most iconic songs that Paul McCartney ever wrote. Even though he has a legendary collection of number one songs, classic barrier-breaking compositions, and beloved underrated gems, it’s his silly holiday song that continues to pop up in grocery stores and waiting rooms every year. It’s as inescapable as any Christmas song, but unlike nearly every other holiday tune, McCartney didn’t have any help writing it.
After Wings released Back to the Egg in 1979, McCartney was detained in Tokyo for carrying around eight ounces of cannabis in his luggage. The band’s Asian tour dates were cancelled, and after being detained for more than a week, McCartney was released without charge and deported back to England. McCartney didn’t immediately break up the band, but upon his return, he decided to record his own album while mulling over the band’s future.
The result would be McCartney II. Like its predecessor a decade earlier, 1970’s McCartney, McCartney II featured the singer performing all of the album’s instruments. Unlike McCartney, which featured Paul’s wife Linda contributing occasional backing vocals, McCartney recorded all the vocals himself, making McCartney the dictionary definition of a solo album.
During the sessions, McCartney stumbled onto the idea of writing a Christmas song. His former bandmate John Lennon had already recorded one of his own, ‘Happy Xmas (War Is Over)’, back in 1971. Unlike that song, McCartney relied heavily on synthesisers and light silliness for ‘Wonderful Christmastime’. Since he was on his own, when McCartney called out for the “choir of children” to sing their song, he was actually overdubbing his voice to emulate the choir.
Since McCartney finished ‘Wonderful Christmastime’ prior to the completion of McCartney II, the song was earmarked for a Christmas 1979 release. At that time, Wings was still together, and the band members could be seen in the song’s promotional video. McCartney rounded out the single release by recording an instrumental reggae version of ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ for the B-side.
With its release in November of 1979, ‘Wonderful Christmastime’ became McCartney’s second-ever solo single and the first single to be credited solely under his name since ‘Another Day’ came out in 1971 (his subsequent singles from Ram were joint credits between him and Linda). The song peaked at number six the week after New Year’s in the UK, but the song’s success didn’t quite convince McCartney to let go of Wings just yet.
His follow-up single, ‘Coming Up’, featured the solo-recorded studio version on one side and the Wings live version of the track on the flip side. McCartney’s solo version peaked at number two in the UK, but the Wings version went all the way to number one in the US. Only Linda and Denny Laine would contribute to McCartney’s next album, Tug of War, but when Laine became frustrated with McCartney’s lack of commitment to a new Wings project, he officially left the band, effectively ending Wings.
Check out ‘Wonderful Christmastime’ down below.
