WONDERFUL CHRISTMASTIME by Paul McCartney

Ah, shite... You've just remind me that me dad has a Christmas tape, which he plays every year on Christmas Day. It has this song on it. So I voted "never want to hear it again", although frankly, the tape contains even more detestable songs.

when did he make this fucking thing? I swear I never heard it before this year.

I love it, I just don't want to hear it NOW.

this, along with the Waitresses, the Ronettes and the Beach Boys, make listening to the radio during christmas time ok.

Everything else makes life unbearable until the 26th.

e.g. I will not walk into a shop without closed-design headphones.

dan, I think you're confusing it w/ Tom Lehrer's "Hanukkah in Santa Monica"

when did he make this fucking thing? I swear I never heard it before this year.

1979 or 80.

I think I like this song more every year — one of the few Christmas tunes I can say THAT about!

oh god, that synth sound in this one, so tacky and awesome

this is 1979 i think. INCREDIBLE synths. and i love the abrasive guitar riff. and the little "oh-ooh-ooh" paul does before the penultimate chorus. so much better than "happy xmas (war is over)"

Please to have the option "I want to hear it again every Xmas, dude".

so much better than "happy xmas (war is over)"

― rio (r1o natsume), Monday, 22 December 2008 22:04 (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

beg to differ, though i quite like mccartney's seasonal synthpop. lennon's song sounds massive because of his genius for major/minor key games, giving the song constant upward motion. shame about yoko's backing vox.

I don't have a huge conceptual problem with this, but I'm so fucking burned out on it after the 1,093,456th time around.

shame about yoko's backing vox.

You could say that about almost everything she's done, including her solo work.

I stay well clear of any solo yoko

my sister's exhusband's family absolutely hated this song. I dont like much christmas music but this is probably better than most... the synths are funky

I want to hear the track "Check My Machine" by McCartney. It was recorded around the same time as this track and only ever released as the b-Side to "Waterfalls" from the album II. Read about it in Wax Poetics. Anyone have the "Waterfalls" 45?

The sensation I get when listening to this song is akin to the revulsion you get after realizing you've bitten into a PB&J sandwich where the jelly is actually an aborted fetus.

oh, that revulsion.

Re: "Check My Machine" - I'm sorta positive that it's added as one of the bonus tracks on the CD reissue of Macca II.

That's severe, Dan.

Check My Machine is an extra on the McCartney Collection release of McCartney II.

http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/9922/nancyqa6.jpg

Agh xp

For me it's more like when I walk down a flight of stairs in a multi-storey car park, and fart halfway down. Then as I reach the bottom of the stairs I get this creeping feeling that I've actually shat myself. Oh, and it's also a freezing cold day, if that helps you all picture that better.

...akin to the revulsion you get after realizing you've bitten into a PB&J sandwich ...

I was already hoping that HI DERE 's referring to some kinda kurious revulsion to some mysterious Pazz&Jop sandwiches that I kno nuthin about but ...oh no such luck no.

snoball - and after all that, do you hear you'sef hummin, ""she-ee-e-ee iiis a warm fart/ at xmas/ she's a breath of champagne on a starry night"?

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1909243188/bctid4440603001

Yeah, I like that cover a lot. Slowed down, but the instrumentation is nearly identical.

this vs mannheim steamroller is my annual hatemore conundrum

plus, Ane Brun's regular stuff is zzzzzzz, but she should consider working with Lindstrøm on a whole album. xp

Give me Mannheim Steamroller any day! At least they have an awesome name.

The second option is closer to the truth than the first, although I'd probably hate it if I started listening to it in July. :)

As long as we're already talking about christmas bullshit that makes us want to die:

BOEW BOEW BOEW BOEW BOEW
BUH BUH BUH BUH BUH
BOEW BOEW BOEW BOEW BOEW
BUH BUH BUH BUH BUH

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

This synth line on this song makes me want to kill people.

i bet this song has been at least partially responsible in hundreds of holiday suicides. it's bleak, saccharine, and horrible.

THIS HAS BEEN IN MY HEAD ALL DAY TODAY GET OUT

This synth line on this song makes me want to kill people

Used to hate hate hate, now I don't mind it so much.

That "Nancy" upthread is sweet; I've always dug the sound of that song, and I like Marisa Monte's version, too.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1909243188/bctid4440603001

this version by Lindstrøm, Ane Brun, and Thom Hell is pretty nice

You've just remind me that me dad has a Christmas tape, which he plays every year on Christmas Day. It has this song on it. So I voted "never want to hear it again"

I though this was going to go in the opposite direction -- that hearing your dad play something every year on Christmas Day would eventually make you unable to hate it, or at least would turn it into the kind of neutral Christmas ritual that's beyond love or hate or opinion. (This is how, due to certain members of my family, I feel about Journey's greatest hits.)

We didn't listen to Journey's greatest hits every Christmas, or anything; I just mean in general

I could get behind that Journey @ xmas tradition, though.

At least it's better than the b-side (Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reggae).

good song. sounds spacey.

Heard a cover tonight. Made me understand why I listen to this in July because I love it so much.

Chrod changes in chorus offset the lack of in verses.

Beautiful.

insert "crud changes" joek here

Big fan of this song right here.

Nabisco, the Journey mention is so funny. I too ended up getting into some of their songs ("Lights"!) because I had to figure out what made them so important to my little brother.

This is my tradition.

http://www.spinaltapfan.com/atozed/images/xmas.jpg

It's no Frog Chorus.

This song is fun, though I only heard it for the first time this year.

the Lennon one on the other hand... not so much

"Happy Christmas" reminds me too much of Christmas 1980 where my family was going though some severe setbacks and the ghost of John Lennon was all over the television and radio.

I mean, it's still a good song and I don't mind listening to it, but standing on the escalator at Dillard's in the middle of shopping and having that tune bore into my senses can be a bit overwhelming at times.

I like WC because it's so vapid and flighty. Paul just don't give a fuck.

Also, this was one of the rare videos on early MTV that didn't feature an album title or record company in the credits.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

He Wins!

Very bizarre instrumentation and kind of under-produced.. I think this part of what gives the song its charm. That middle part with the guitar solo is so weird and awesome. It sounds like Paul threw this one together rather quickly, with little intention of creating one of those notoriously overplayed Xmas-time radio songs, which it certainly is today. If I'm not mistaken he had few hits around 1979.. Was this played on the radio all that often at the time? Or does it receive more spins today?

They played this on 102.5 THE CAT today directly between "Love In This Club" and "Whatever You Like"!?

https://twitter.com/dick_nixon/status/678455833957670912?lang=en

Nixon otm

I'm a big McCartney fan but this song can just fuck right off. Hate it!

This song should never be played again

This song has really cool chords

this song is great (i've never worked in retail)

This song should never be played again

― calstars, Saturday, December 10, 2016 7:46 PM (forty-seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's telling that I'm one of the biggest defenders of McCartney's post-Beatles output, and a huge fan of synthpop, yet this song makes me wanna hit McCartney with the synth.

'Let 'Em In' works better as a Christmas song, IMO. 'Wonderful Christmastime' seems to have been an exercise in Macca seeing if he could get a Christmas No. 1 with any old shit.

(as it turns out, he couldn't)

It's just so obvious. Can we maybe have a less cloying, bludgeoning song?

I guess subtlety and Christmas don't really mix

This song has really cool chords

- flappy bird

This song is even more offensive than million dollar extreme

This song blows

this is the best of the christmas songs, great video as well

https://media.giphy.com/media/XUBmc6ell3JxS/giphy.gif

https://media.giphy.com/media/wTfc9mwey9Wx2/giphy.gif

http://cdn2-www.craveonline.com/assets/mandatory/legacy/2015/12/man_file_1063764_1wonderfulxmastime.gif

The moon is high
and so am I
It's time to eat
a mincey pie

Simply having a wonderful christmastime

The night is long
I write a song
It's time to grab
My polygon

Simply having a wonderful christmastime

The synth is out
It's time for fun
and when was your
last number one?

Simply having a wonderful christmastime

i've only ever heard this song while shopping and i'm not going to listen to it in any other context because i don't want to risk developing an appreciation for it

my favourite of the big Christmas hits

everything about it is awesome. no word of a lie.

Ha, I like it too.

from an fb thread Roxy started about 'Happy Xmas (War Is Over)' (which I personally to be 100% vile):

"it's in a similar style to the McCartney II material that was recorded at the same time. no effs given, home recorded, going slightly loopy after Lennon's death and the termination of Wings. I like the moogy Storyteller keyboards and their giddy, off tempo delay that makes it feel like you've had calendar chocolate for breakfast. I like the comically out-of-tune kids' choir (who've practised ALL YEAR LONG). I like the cheery, tacky drunken office party musical coda. I like pretty much everything about it. the whole slapdash melee. It sounds like it was tossed-off in a couple of hours but there's a lot more to it really than a lot of Christmas hits. it's not as raucous as Slade or as sincere and anthemic as The Pogues. But it's certainly more reminiscent of how I remember experiencing Christmas as a kid than that dreary Lennon song."

The time is right
The feeling's here
That only comes
With diarrhoea

Simply having a wonderful christmastime

I like the comically out-of-tune kids' choir

aka Linda

Eh, this song was recorded in August '79, at the back end of the McCartney II sessions, the bulk of which was done in June and July '79. Long before Lennon's death, by which point McCartney was working on Tug of War.

It's understandable that people would compare it to Lennon's, but both pale in comparison to 'Christmas Wrapping' ...

what is the most recent song to become part of the Christmas song canon? All I Want for Christmas Is You and Stay Another Day are both from 1994, has there been anything since then? when was the last time a big pop act tried for a Christmas hit? (last one I can think of was the Darkness, and that was in 2003)

yeah I was wondering this too. Coldplay had one didn't they? Doesn't Beyonce have one? I couldn't tell you how they go if I tried.

Last one I can remember was 'Christmas Time (Don't Let The Bells End)' by The Darkness, which I don't really hear all that much.

Cliff (of course), "21st Century Christmas", no. 2, 20006... altogether now.. er, what the fucker go?

... that should be 2006

... that whole sentence made no sense but I like it nonetheless.

yes, I remember a lot of chatter when that came out about how it was going to be up there with Slade and Wizzard etc as one of the songs that get played on rotation every December, but I don't think I've heard it in years (good, because it was awful). I guess the fact that the UK Christmas number one spot has been monopolised first by X Factor related stuff and then by charity singles is maybe one reason why pop stars don't do xmas songs as much (in this country at least)?

xp

The Darkness lost out on the 2003 xmas number one to that cover of Mad World from Donnie Darko

"One More Sleep" - Leona Lewis (2013, #3)
"Christmas Lights" - Coldplay (#13, 2010)
"December Song (I Dreamed of Christmas)" - George Michael (2009, #14)

Leona Lewis single seems like a genuine hit, the other two just fannying about for fans only.

Wonderful Christmastime was the first song I played last night when we put up our tree. We had mulled wine. It's a great tune. I'm a fairly massive fan of solo McCartney.

I wonder ever year if Low's "Just Like Christmas" could become one of the modern standards. Stranger things have happened. It's a lovely tune and I play it every year.

Robbie Williams "Angels" is on a Christmas CD we have. What's that about?

I think it's a guitar at 1:27 - I like that part. Like the whole record.

the killers have a ton of original christmas songs

stay another day last to join canon, despite the onlt christmassy thing about it being the addon bells and tonys hat.

still awesome tho obv

ito thread topic this tune is solidly mid solo beatles output which puts it well above most xmas tunes

ive worked retail

i'm bored shitless with most of the Xmas pop canon but i still like this one well enough

is "All the Time in the World" a Christmas song?

how woukd it be

on her majesty's secret service takes place during christmas

it was on a compilation of christmas songs i had in the mid-90s. maybe there was a Christmas advert or something with it on? 'Stay' isn't really a Christmas song either is it?

the bells

tonys hat

it's no last christmas but it knocks jona lewie into a cocked hat

i did work in b&q one xmas and had a bit too much of it but the scars have healed

I love feel Stop the Cavalry, feel like McCartney kind of ripped it off for Pipes Of Peace.

I don't really get Last Christmas. imo the golden age of Christmas songs which runs from 1971-1981, bookended by Happy Xmas (War Is Over) and Christmas Wrapping

what is Christmas Wrapping?

oh it's that 'Merry Christmas Merry Christmas' song... didn't know that was the name

there's also "Christmas Rappin'" by Kurtis Blow from 1979:

https://youtu.be/9xUFnGWWtoQ

http://www.salon.com/2016/12/11/in-defense-of-paul-mccartneys-wonderful-christmastime/

oh it's that 'Merry Christmas Merry Christmas' song... didn't know that was the name

― Lennon, Elvis, Hendrix etc (dog latin), Monday, 12 December 2016 22:37 (fifteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

worst shit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rspan_NizW0

http://www.salon.com/2016/12/11/in-defense-of-paul-mccartneys-wonderful-christmastime/

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

does salon do anything but publish thinkpieces defending shit everyone hates

This is a good one, though, although I wasn't persuaded.

Besides, twelve years ago I was writing thinkpieces about albums everyone hated.

The contrarianism in this thread is terrible. Wonderful Christmastime is the paradigm of a bad song.

xp and now everyone loves them all

In fact, although the Beatles are generally beloved, critics have been known to tear into “Wonderful Christmastime.”

How did this sentence make it into anything ever?

The contrarianism in this thread is terrible. Wonderful Christmastime is the paradigm of a bad song.

― Treeship, Tuesday, December 13, 2016 12:17 AM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Can't speak for anyone else, but I genuinely love the synth sound and can swear I'm not trying to be contrary on a holy book of your choice.

I wish there were more Christmas songs with cool synths that come on over the loudspeakers while I'm out trying to grocery shop. This does not have to be one of them.

I like this song. :O)

I like it.

I dont love it.

I like it.

The synth sound isn't just good, it seems to be unique - I can't think of anything else that sounds like it. Guess it was recorded around the same time as 'Check My Machine' and I just love all the sounds he was playing around with then.

On the other hand the vocals are unquestionably trite & irritating.

It's basically the 'I Took A Pill In Ibiza' of Christmas 1979.

This used to be my opinion:

This synth line on this song makes me want to kill people.
― You only like him coz he's sexually appalling (Masonic Boom), Tuesday, 23 December 2008 00:19 (seven years ago)

But now this is my opinion:

oh god, that synth sound in this one, so tacky and awesome
― Neotropical pygmy squirrel, Monday, 22 December 2008 21:57 (seven years ago)

good song. sounds spacey.
― Lingbert, Tuesday, 23 December 2008 03:51 (seven years ago)

(could still do without the chorus tho. and the "choir of children" bit. and any bits with guitars. and really anything beyond the intro, which I also used to detest.)

Sure, the song’s certainly not as emotional or epic as “Hey Jude,” “Yesterday” and “Live and Let Die.”

Well, thank fuck for that.

I'm with CAAML. I genuinely like the song I'm much the same way I like things like Check My Machine and Ze Records and it all disco. and I generally dislike most of the big overplayed Christmas tracks

If nothing else, this easily among the least objectionable McCartney singles from the '80s.

(If you told me that he wrote and recorded 'Spies Like Us' over the course of a single trip to the toilet, I wouldn't expend much energy disputing your claim.)

I haven't heard this while shopping yet, but I've already heard Slade.

First one I heard was 'Let it Snow', to which I immediately thought "no, please fucking don't"

(If you told me that he wrote and recorded 'Spies Like Us' over the course of a single trip to the toilet, I wouldn't expend much energy disputing your claim.)

There is absolutely no way it took that long.

Tarfumes OTM. 'Spies Like Us' is one of his worst ever tracks - struggling to think of a worse McCartney single, actually. '80s or otherwise.

maybe he was just trying to match the aesthetic of the movie

That'd make sense - it's a shit film.

The sensation I get when listening to this song is akin to the revulsion you get after realizing you've bitten into a PB&J sandwich where the jelly is actually an aborted fetus.

― ^likes black girls (HI DERE), Monday, December 22, 2008 5:30 PM bookmarkflaglink

the moon is right

I like this song now FTR

The most cheery thing about this song is how much some people hate it.

Reading this whole thread got me thinking: if McCartney recorded this in August, how was he able to accurately predict that we would simply be having a wonderful Christmastime?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEEeI5IoT68

it's funny that this song--probably the most universally reviled mccartney solo track, except maybe for "freedom" which i think is mostly forgotten now--came from the sessions for mccartney II, which is probably one of his most beloved solo albums now. i've never really minded it.

Could be wrong but I feel like this song has to be much less reviled these days. Seems like millennials in general would be a lot more accepting of it, at least. I love it, in no small part because it sounds like it's mid to late 80s Christmas and those synths are spilling out into the mall from a Radio Shack with lots of colorful blinking lights inside. So it's a big nostalgia trigger even though I have no memory of actually hearing it when I was a kid.

The fact it's McCartney undoubtedly increases its hatefulness exponentially but it'd still be irritating as fuck whoever had recorded it.

"sounds like it's mid to late 80s Christmas and those synths are spilling out into the mall from a Radio Shack with lots of colorful blinking lights inside."

YES

yeah love that description

Big fan of this song right here.

― total mormon cockblock extravaganza (jaymc), Monday, December 22, 2008 10:41 PM (thirteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Still a fan! Maybe it helps that I rarely actually hear it? But I've also never quite understood the hate; it's cheesy but fun. The synth sound is groovy, baby.

I think it's the same thing with ppl hating "I Just Called to Say I Love You": cheesy, simplistic pop song that's "beneath" the genius who wrote it.

It's top tier insofar as classic Christmas pop bangers are concerned

I think it's the same thing with ppl hating "I Just Called to Say I Love You": cheesy, simplistic pop song that's "beneath" the genius who wrote it.

Don't think so. McCartney has something of a track record.

its bizarre & goofy charm elevates it above 90% of christmas music easily

& as far as solo mccartney goes it fits right in with mccartney ii - not really his best work but a very unique charm to it which is enough to put it above a big portion of his catalogue

pic.twitter.com/C9yO1ZI9TT

— Paul Mainwaring #wokeandproud💚💙 (@islwynpaul) December 25, 2021

After decades of deliberation
I would like to publicly announce before God and everybody
that this is the only good Christmas song

I will not be taking questions at this time

Can't believe nobody's mentioned this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIfsBHXii2I

https://bsky.app/profile/cbthorburn.bsky.social/post/3ldbfhwkp4c2e

ding DONG

emsworth for world leader

needs a dub version with echoing synth washes

you know what would be good? The full 10 minutes of Secret Friend with Wonderful Christmastime mixed in at the end. You know what, I might just make that.

needs a dub version with echoing synth washes

― fetter, Tuesday, 17 December 2024 09:29 (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

OMG just cascading awkwardly into the void

might just make that

there’s a full length WCT on the fanciest McII reissue too

nice, might be able to get 20 minutes out of this

by coincidence McCartney’s reaction when he came up with the thread title line

It had to be attempted. Pardon the live scrappiness, but I feel it fits the mood of the original

https://soundcloud.com/charlieframe/simply-dubbing-a-wonderful-christmastime

well that lasted long haha

Ok, I had a go, look on my works ye mighty and despair, etc.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_xSjNZab24X8dB5s8U2JxvWlhPvFoj-E/view?usp=sharing

(made this without headphones, fully prepared for it to sound crap on headphones, sounds ok on pc speakers)

Okay here's a fresh link to the dub version I made using Serato

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VzjriONQnz_DVonQRBEsbme4p0PTf2E-/view?usp=drivesdk

Oh wow I love your version Camaraderie, proper rolls along into the cosmos

I cannot claim credit for Secret Friend, that's pure Paul

Something about this song always sounds slightly rushed and frenzied to me, which evokes the stress of the season

Exactly, that makes it genius

I can never decide if this thread is parody or not, but the use of the word "frenzied" to describe the arthritic lope of "Wonderful Christmastime" convinces me it must be.

I know nobody wants to download a dodgy-looking drive link and mixcloud and soundcloud are out, so let's see if I can do youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lx7eu0y4vDk

After decades of deliberation
I would like to publicly announce before God and everybody
that this is the only good Christmas song

I will not be taking questions at this time

― Cognosc in Tyrol (emsworth), Monday, December 16, 2024 4:16 PM (two days ago)

Christmas Wrapping by the Waitresses, Classic or Dud

And, following CaAL's example, here's my daft dub version. Hopefully peeps can listen before it gets scrubbed by The Man

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgM9tYYAVmc