Paul McCartney hit it big for the holiday season in 1979 with "Wonderful Christmastime."
Sir Paul says, "I like the idea of Christmas songs purely because they only come around at Christmas. They remind us of the fun atmosphere of the whole season, and when I was writing ‘Wonderful Christmastime’ I was trying to capture that party aspect. I did hope it would keep coming back -- which it has. Sometimes people will go into a shop and hear it a little too much, but I don’t care! I’m happy."
When Paul was asked about a theory that suggests that song is "about people practicing witchcraft, chanting ‘the moon is right, the spirit’s up,’ and when someone walks in, they must play it cool and pretend they are ‘simply having a wonderful Christmastime,’ McCartney says, "Well, thank goodness they found me out. This is completely true and in actual fact I am the head wizard of a Liverpool coven. Either that…or it’s complete nonsense. And you know it’s the latter!”
Paul also clarifies that the song lyric is "the mood is right" and not "the moon is right." McCartney says, "No, it’s ‘the mood’. And you know what, I’m thinking about Liverpool Christmas parties, that’s really all I’m doing with that song. 'The mood is right, let’s raise a glass, the spirit’s up' -- you know, all the stuff you do at Christmas. Particularly with my old Liverpool family parties."
Sir Paul says while growing up his father really wasn't fond of Christmas carols. He says, "The fun thing about Christmas caroling, that probably would have influenced my decision not to do it, was that my dad always used to make fun of them. He'd say, ‘Here’s a shilling to go sing in the next street.' He was not a big fan of Christmas carols. I quite like them!"
Paul McCartney has never released a full Christmas album, but he did record one for his family. He says, "When the kids were little, I suddenly thought there wasn’t the ideal Christmas record, in my opinion. There’s some great Christmas records like the Phil Spector one, and Nat King Cole and Bing Crosby on the old standards, but I just wanted an instrumental of all the tunes. So, I ended up recording one for the family in my studio... I now have this album I pull out every year, and it’s a bit of fun for the kids when we’re carving the veggie roast. I’ll stick it on and it means Christmas is here. It’s quite a cute little record actually! But it’s just for the family."
[Source: Classic Hits Today]