Song: Paul McCartney – “Wonderful Christmastime”
Year released: 1979
Year “discovered” by me: 2002
Reason discovered: Paul McCartney retrofits a synth melody with Beatles style vocals about Christmas.
There’s a school of Beatles fanatics that feel of the Fab Four, the laziest and least inspired of the bunch as a solo artist was Paul McCartney. His solo act, Wings, to many is the equivalent of Jefferson Airplane becoming Jefferson Starship. It’s people like that who tend to hate power pop music, and wish that music that is emotive, moody, melodically interesting and somewhat inacessible could be commercially successful. The Lennon/McCartney partnership’s divergences are obvious here, as Wings is about as in your face and poppy as any of the arena rock acts of the era, opting for simple rollicking fun over lamentations over a misspent and seemingly social advancement barren 1960s.
Somewhere after the gorgeous opulence of James Bond theme “Live and Let Die” for me is “Wonderful Christmastime.” McCartney’s ode to the holidays is a gratuitous ode to the pop sensibilities of the synthesizer, and hearkens back to the Beatles era of McCartney’s lead on songs like “Yesterday.” It’s plaintive and frankly stupid, but in the same manner that any synth driven pop tune without significant spiritual meaning tends to be. But in celebrating Christmas and being so filled with unrepentant glee, it’s a winner.
To me, Christmas has gone from being the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ to now being as silly and banal of a holiday as Valentine’s Day. This song fits that perfectly.
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