Christmas Time (Is Here Again)

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Christmas Time (Is Here Again)
The Beatles
publication 1967/1995
length 6 min 37 s
(short version 3 min 3 s)
Genre (s) Pop rock
Author (s) Lennon , McCartney , Harrison , Starkey
Cover versions
1999 Ringo Starr
2000 SEM
2002 Terry Draper
2007 The Smithereens
2013 Elephant Stone

Christmas Time (Is Here Again) ( English , Christmas time [is back] ') is a Christmas song of the British band The Beatles from the year 1967th

admission

The song was by all four Beatles members John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr wrote together and November 28, 1967, one day after the US -Publishing their album Magical Mystery Tour , in the Abbey Road Studios of EMI in London recorded.

The recording took place with the following cast:

The next day , George Martin and Geoff Emerick mixed the recording for the Christmas single. The originally 6:37 minute version has been shortened slightly by removing excessive laughter and curses.

Christmas Time (Is Here Again) was the last Christmas single to be recorded jointly by the Beatles. For the remaining two Christmas singles in 1968 and 1969, the contributions of the band members were recorded individually and then cut together.

content

The song consists of several repetitions of a verse in which the four Beatles sing the verse “Christmas time is here again” several times and which ends with the mysterious final line “OUT spells out”. Spoken scenes are embedded between the individual stanzas, which parody the audition of a band on the BBC and various radio reports . The Beatles sang the spoof commercial Get Wonderlust for your trousers twice. Get Wonderlust for your hair and at a supposed listener's request, they interpret the fictional song Plenty of Jam Jars by the fictional band Ravellers. Paul McCartney is interrupted by an emergency call from a telephone booth, and at the end John Lennon recites a nonsense poem and plays the melody of Auld Lang Syne on the organ . Paul Victor Spinetti and George Martin take part in the vocals, and Ringo Starr performs a tap dance interlude with Victor Spinetti .

Publications

Christmas Time (Is Here Again) was reproduced as a 7 ″ Flexidisc single , but did not go on sale, but was only sent as a Christmas greeting to the members of the Beatles' official fan club . The Flexidisc was accompanied by a newsletter in which the Beatles sent their Christmas greetings and thanked the fans for their support and loyalty in 1967. A compilation called The Beatles Christmas Album , which appeared in 1970 and contains the Christmas singles from 1963 to 1969, was also intended exclusively for fan club members.

The song was to be made available to the general public along with other previously unpublished titles on the compilation album Sessions planned for 1985 , the publication of which, however, was prevented by the three Beatles who were still alive at the time. Finally, Christmas Time (Is Here Again) was released on the B-side of the single Free as a Bird in December 1995   . For publication, the song was cut to a length of around three minutes. Most of the cut scenes have been removed. At the end of the day, Christmas greetings from the Beatles from 1966 were mixed in.

Cover versions

The first cover version of Christmas Time (Is Here Again) released the former Beatles member Ringo Starr in 1999 on his Christmas album I Wanna Be Santa Claus . Further cover versions followed:

  • 2000 by REM on a Christmas single for their fan club.
  • 2002 by former Klaatu singer Terry Draper on the compilation album Takin 'Care of Christmas .
  • 2007 by The Smithereens on their album Christmas with the Smithereens .
  • 2013 by Elephant Stone on the compilation album Psych-Out Christmas .

literature

  • Belmo and Garry Marsh: 1967: Christmas Time (Is Here Again) . In: The Beatles Christmas Book . Collector's Guide Publishing, 2011, ISBN 978-1-926592-25-1 , pp. 43-48 (English).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d The Beatles Christmas Book 2011, p. 11
  2. ↑ a b The Beatles Christmas Book 2011, p. 43
  3. ↑ Christmas Time (Is Here Again). In: The Beatles Bible. Retrieved December 24, 2016 .
  4. ^ The Beatles Christmas Book 2011, p. 47
  5. ↑ a b The Beatles Christmas Book 2011, p. 44
  6. ^ The Beatles Christmas Book 2011, p. 45
  7. ↑ The Beatles - Free As A Bird at Discogs
  8. ↑ Ringo Starr - I Wanna Be Santa Claus at Discogs
  9. ↑ REM - REM Holiday Single 2000 at Discogs
  10. ↑ Various - Takin 'Care Of Christmas at Discogs
  11. ↑ The Smithereens - Takin 'Care Of Christmas at Discogs
  12. ↑ Various - Psych-Out Christmas at Discogs