Christmas with The Beatles-NM Lennon & McCartney Holiday 45's

$

30

Just in time for Christmas! Get into the holiday spirit with these amazing releases from John Lennon and Paul McCartney! Capitol 1842 "Happy Xmas(War Is Over)/Listen, The Snow Is Falling"by John and Yoko and the Plastic Ono Band with the Harlem Community Choir March 1978 release with purple label in NEAR MINT condition; "Wonderful Christmastime/ Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reggae" by Paul McCartney, rare Dutch release from 1979, also NEAR MINT with picture sleeve. 

"Happy Xmas (War Is Over)"  was the seventh single release by John Lennon outside his work with the Beatles. The song reached number four in the UK, where its release was delayed until November 1972, and has occasionally re-emerged on the UK Singles Chart, most notably after Lennon's murder in December 1980, when it peaked at number two.

Also a protest song against the Vietnam War, "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" has since become a Christmas standard, frequently recorded by other artists, appearing on compilation albums of seasonal music, and named in polls as a holiday favourite.  In a UK-wide poll in December 2012, it was voted tenth on the ITV television special The Nation's Favourite Christmas Song.

Background

"Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" was the culmination of more than two years of peace activism undertaken by John Lennon and Yoko Ono that began with the bed-ins they convened in March and May 1969, the first of which took place during their honeymoon.  The song's direct antecedent was an international multimedia campaign launched by the couple in December 1969 – at the height of the counterculture movement and its protests against America's involvement in the Vietnam War – that primarily consisted of renting billboard space in 12 major cities around the world for the display of black-and-white posters that declared "WAR IS OVER! If You Want It – Happy Christmas from John & Yoko".  Although a similar line had previously appeared in the 1968 anti-war songs "The War Is Over" by Phil Ochs and "The Unknown Soldier" by the Doors (which features the refrain "The war is over"), the use of "War is over" (minus the definite article) by Lennon and Ono may be coincidental; there is no evidence to confirm that they were acquainted with these earlier works, or if so whether they were influenced by them.

Recognising the accessibility and popular appeal that made his 1971 single "Imagine" more commercially successful than his other post-Beatles songs, Lennon concluded, "Now I understand what you have to do: Put your political message across with a little honey."  He conceived "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" as a means of elaborating upon the themes of social unity and peaceful change enacted through personal accountability and empowerment that served as the basis of the earlier billboard campaign,  trying to convey optimism while avoiding the sentimentality that he felt often characterised Christmas songs. 

Recording

In late October 1971, with not much more than bare-bones melody and half-formed lyrics, Lennon recorded an acoustic guitar demo of "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" in his rooms at the St. Regis Hotel in New York City, where he and Ono were living. Ono would receive co-writing credit, but the actual extent of her contribution at this initial stage is unclear since she did not participate in the demo, which was atypical of their collaborations. Another demo of the song was made in late October after the couple had taken an apartment in Greenwich Village. Lennon brought in Phil Spector to help produce, as he had with his previous two albums, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and Imagine, which had been released in the US several weeks earlier. The first recording session was held on the evening of Thursday, 28 October, at the Record Plant studio. After the session musicians – some of whom had performed at one time or another as members of the Plastic Ono Band – laid down the basic instrumental backing and overdub tracks, Lennon and Ono added the main vocals. One of the four guitarists present filled in for bassist Klaus Voormann, whose flight from Germany had been delayed. The following day, Ono and the session musicians, including Voormann, recorded the single's B-side, "Listen, the Snow Is Falling". The Harlem Community Choir – 30 children, most of them four to twelve years of age – came to the studio on the afternoon of 31 October to record backing vocals for the counter-melody and sing-along chorus. 

Reception

On its US single debut in 1971, "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" did not meet with much success.  This was due to the single's late release, which resulted in limited airplay before Christmas,  and a lack of promotion.  The single peaked at number 36 on the Cash Box Top 100 Singles and number 28 on the Record World Singles Chart,  and number 3 on the Billboard Christmas Singles chart. The single subsequently re-appeared on the Billboard Christmas charts in 1972, 1983, 1984, and 1985.  The song appeared at number 32 on the Billboard Hot Adult Contemporarychart for the week ending 6 January 1996.  The song's most recent chart entry, and highest position, on the Billboard Hot 100 chart was in 2022, where it peaked at #38 for the week ending December 31, 2022.

"Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" enjoyed immediate success in Britain when issued there in November 1972.  The song peaked at number 4 on the UK Singles Chart  and number 10 on the listings compiled by Melody Maker.  Since then, it has re-entered the UK Singles Chart nine more times. The most notable of these instances occurred immediately following Lennon's death on 8 December 1980. The single peaked at number 2 – behind another reissued Lennon single, "Imagine" – and remained on the chart for nine weeks.

"Wonderful Christmastime" was recorded during the sessions for McCartney II (1980), it was released in November 1979 following Wings' final album Back to the Egg earlier that year. It was McCartney's first solo single in over eight years since "Eat at Home" 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.

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 Wings are not on the recording, they do appear in the promotional music video,

 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 on the week ending January 5, 1980.  In the United States, the single peaked at number 83 on the Cash Box Top 100 Singles chart (week ending January 12, 1980) and at number 94 on the Record World 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 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 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 have provoked such strong reactions."

Including royalties 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.