Happy Xmas (War Is Over)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
John & Yoko / Plastic Ono Band with the Harlem Community Choir
publication 1st December 1971
length 3 min 25 s
Genre (s) Rock , carol
Author (s) John Lennon and Yoko Ono

Happy Xmas (War Is Over) is a song by John Lennon and Yoko Ono that was first released as a single in the United States on December 1, 1971. In Great Britain the publication took place just under a year later on November 24, 1972. On the B-side was the piece Listen, the Snow Is Falling , a composition by Yoko Ono.

Originated as a protest song in the historical context of the Vietnam War , over time it developed into an almost classic Christmas song in the Anglo-Saxon-speaking world . It was released on numerous Christmas albums and in a viewer vote on the music channel VH1 , it came in 9th of the most popular Christmas carols.

composition

Peace campaign poster from 1969

The text is based on the slogan of an anti-war campaign by Lennon and Ono from December 1969. For this campaign, the two rented advertising space on billboards in several major cities worldwide, including New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, Tokyo, Rome and Berlin. The inscription read: “WAR IS OVER! IF YOU WANT IT Happy Christmas from John & Yoko ”( German :“ The war is over! If you want it. Merry Christmas from John and Yoko ”). In 1971 the United States was still deeply embroiled in the increasingly unpopular Vietnam War. The line “War is over, if you want it, war is over, now!” sung by the choir in the background comes from the campaign.

Lennon was approached about the play in his interview with David Sheff for Playboy magazine in 1980:

“Yoko and I wrote 'Happy Xmas' together. It says: 'War is over if you want it'. That was still the same message - the thought that we are as responsible as the man who pushes the buttons. As long as people have the idea that someone is doing it to them and that they have no power, they have no power. "

- John Lennon : December 1980

The melody and chord structure come from the folk song Stewball , a song about a racehorse. Lennon and Ono added a modulation (change between A and D ) and the war-is-over counter-melody. According to Phil Spector, Lennon took inspiration from I Love How You Love Me for the first few bars of the melody . Spector had produced the song in 1961 with the girl group The Paris Sisters .

Thematically similar piece

In 1967, the American songwriter wrote Phil Ochs the play The War Is Over , a song that announced the end of the Vietnam War and the artist recorded the 1,968th There is no evidence that Lennon or Ono knew this piece.

admission

The recordings for the song took place on October 28 and 31, 1971 at Record Plant Studios in New York . Phil Spector supported Lennon and Ono in the production . The sound engineer was Roy Cicala, the owner of the recording studio. On the first day the acoustic guitars, keyboards and drums were recorded. Several overdubs followed in which the chimes , glockenspiel and bells typical of Christmas carols were added. Finally, Lennon and Ono recorded their respective vocal passages. The following day, the B-side of the single was recorded. The final recordings for Happy Xmas (War Is Over) took place on the afternoon of October 31, 1971 with the participation of the Harlem Community Choir. The community choir, consisting of 30 children between the ages of four and twelve, sang the backing vocals under the guidance of John Lennon . The strings were probably recorded in early November 1971.

The play begins with spoken Christmas greetings from Ono and Lennon addressed to their children. Ono whispers Happy Christmas, Kyoko , Lennon follows with Happy Christmas, Julian . In the text sheet for the compilation album The John Lennon Collection from 1982, there is the incorrect information Happy Christmas, Yoko. Happy Christmas, John .

Publications

The single was released in the United States on the Apple Records label with catalog number Apple 1842 in December 1971. In Great Britain, the single received catalog number Apple R5970.

The first singles were pressed on green vinyl and had either the classic Apple label or the special "John and Yoko" label, which was also used for the album Some Time in New York City .

Due to problems related to publishing rights between Lennon and Northern Songs, the music publisher to which John Lennon and Paul McCartney were contracted until 1973, the release of the single outside the US was delayed until November 1972. The publisher's owner doubted that Yoko Ono had really made a compositional contribution. Paul McCartney had previously experienced a similar experience when he named his wife Linda McCartney as a co-author of some of his plays.

In 1975 the piece was first released on an album. It appeared on the Shaved Fish compilation , but in a slightly different form as a medley with a live version of Give Peace a Chance . Since then it has been featured on numerous Lennon and Christmas compilations. The album cover by Shaved Fish for Happy Xmas (War Is Over) shows the drawing of a bomber dropping a Christmas tree ball instead of bombs.

An alternative mix of the piece appeared on the John Lennon Anthology in 1998.

Hit parade placements

Version by John Lennon & Yoko Ono

In the US, the single reached number 3 on Billboard ’s Christmas Singles Chart and number 36 on the Cash Box Top 100 Singles Chart.

In December 1972 the single reached number 4 on the UK Singles Chart . After the murder of John Lennon on December 8, 1980, the single entered the British charts again and reached number 2 on December 20, 1980.

In Germany, 45th place in the music market hit parade on February 5, 1973 was the highest ranking, before the song was able to position itself as a return to 40th place on December 25, 2015. In Switzerland the single came in January 2009 at number 57, in Austria in December 2010 at number 54 in the respective charts.

year Chart placements
GermanyGermany DE AustriaAustria AT SwitzerlandSwitzerland CH United KingdomUnited Kingdom UK United StatesUnited States US
1972/73 45
(1 week) 		- - 4
(8 weeks) 		-
1974/75 - - - 48
(1 week) 		-
1980/81 - - - 2
(9 weeks) 		-
1981/82 - - - 28
(5 weeks) 		-
1982/83 - - - 56
(3 weeks) 		-
1983/84 - - - 92
(2 weeks) 		-
1984/85 - - - 91
(2 weeks) 		-
2003/04 - - - 33
(3 weeks) 		-
2004/05 - - - 88
(2 weeks) 		-
2007/08 98
(1 week) 		- - 40
(4 weeks) 		-
2008/09 64
(4 weeks) 		- 57
(1 week) 		67
(3 weeks) 		-
2009/10 69
(2 weeks) 		- 69
(1 week) 		76
(3 weeks) 		-
2010/11 73
(2 weeks) 		67
(4 weeks) 		- 84
(3 weeks) 		-
2011/12 99
(1 week) 		- - 78
(3 weeks) 		-
2012/13 - - - 81
(3 weeks) 		-
2013/14 - 54
(2 weeks) 		- 88
(1 week) 		-
2014/15 66
(1 week) 		57
(2 weeks) 		- 94
(1 week) 		-
2015/16 40
(1 week) 		49
(3 weeks) 		- 69
(1 week) 		-
2016/17 44
(2 weeks) 		28
(4 weeks) 		72
(1 week) 		49
(4 weeks) 		-
2017/18 15
(4 weeks) 		18
(4 weeks) 		20
(3 weeks) 		21
(4 weeks) 		-
2018/19 10
(4 weeks) 		10
(3 weeks) 		11
(4 weeks) 		18
(4 weeks) 		42
(2 weeks)
2019/20 10
(4 weeks) 		7
(5 weeks) 		10
(4 weeks) 		28
(4 weeks) 		-
All in all 10
(27 weeks) 		7
(25 weeks) 		10
(14 weeks) 		2
(73 weeks) 		42
(2 weeks)

Version by Celine Dion

year Charts
SwitzerlandSwitzerland CH
2018/19 82
(1 week)
2019/20 70
(1 week)
All in all 70
(2 weeks)

Version by John Legend

year Charts
United KingdomUnited Kingdom UK United StatesUnited States US
2019/20 9
(3 weeks) 		69
(1 week)

Contributors

Originally Klaus Voormann was supposed to play bass when recording, but since his flight was delayed one of the guitarists jumped in for him. It is not known which of the four guitarists can be heard on the recording. The following day, however, Voormann was there for the recordings for the B-side of the single.

Cover versions

The song was re-recorded by numerous artists. Among others by The Fray , whose version published on the Internet in December 2006 reached number 50 on the Billboard Hot 100 , and thus brought the piece into this hit parade for the first time.

Other versions come from:

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ news.bbc.co.uk: Pogues track wins Christmas poll . Retrieved December 13, 2012.
  2. ↑ a b c d John Blaney: Lennon and McCartney - Together Alone: ​​A Critical Discography of their Solo Work . Jawbone, London 2007, ISBN 978-1-906002-02-2 , p. 71.
  3. ↑ David Sheff: The Ballad of John and Yoko. The last big interview . Hannibal-Verlag, Höfen 2002, ISBN 978-3-85445-202-7 , p. 175.
  4. ↑ : Ger Tillekens Baroque and folk and ... John Lennon , Soundscapes Vol 1 September 1998. December Accessed 18th 2012th
  5. ↑ Michael Schumacher: There But for Fortune: The Life of Phil Ochs . Hyperion, New York 1996, ISBN 0-7868-6084-7 , pp. 141-142
  6. ^ Jon Wiener: Come Together: John Lennon in His Time . University of Illinois Press, Champaign-Urbana 1991, ISBN 0-252-06131-4 , pp. 108-109.
  7. ↑ a b Bruce Spizer: The Beatles Solo on Apple Records . Four Ninety-Eight Productions, New Orleans 2005, ISBN 978-0-9662649-5-1 , p. 62.
  8. ↑ Johnny Rogan: Lennon. The albums. Calidore, London 2006, ISBN 978-0-9529540-6-4 , p. 111.
  9. ↑ Chip Madinger and Mark Easter: Eight Arms to Hold You: The Beatles Solo Compendium . 44.1 Productions, Chesterfield (Missouri) 2000, ISBN 978-0-615-11724-9 , p. 66.
  10. ^ John Blaney: Lennon and McCartney - Together Alone: ​​A Critical Discography of their Solo Work . Jawbone, London 2007, ISBN 978-1-906002-02-2 , p. 72.
  11. ↑ a b Bruce Spizer: The Beatles Solo on Apple Records . Four Ninety-Eight Productions, New Orleans 2005, ISBN 978-0-9662649-5-1 , p. 61.
  12. ↑ Cash Box Top 100 . cashboxmagazine.com. January 1, 1972. Archived from the original on December 13, 2010. Retrieved on November 26, 2012.
  13. ↑ www.musikmarkt.de: Singlecharts-1973 / February 5th, 1973 . ( Memento of the original from December 19, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 14, 2012.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.musikmarkt.de
  14. ↑ hitparade.ch. Retrieved December 14, 2012.
  15. ↑ austriancharts.at. Retrieved December 19, 2013.
  16. ↑ Chart sources John Lennon & Yoko Ono: DE1 DE2 AT CH UK1 UK2 US
  17. ↑ Chart sources John Legend: UK US
  18. ↑ Chip Madinger and Mark Easter: Eight Arms to Hold You: The Beatles Solo Compendium . 44.1 Productions, Chesterfield (Missouri) 2000, ISBN 978-0-615-11724-9 , p. 65.
  19. ↑ Song: Happy Xmas (War Is Over) www.secondhandsongs.com: Second Hand Songs .
  20. ↑ www.billboard.com: The Fray, Chart History . Retrieved December 18, 2012.
  21. ↑ Gala: Grönemeyer and Co. sing for peace