"Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" is a Christmas song released in 1971 as a single by John & Yoko/The Plastic Ono Band with the Harlem Community Choir. It was the seventh single release by John Lennon outside his work with the Beatles. The song reached number four in the UK, where its release was delayed until November 1972, and has occasionally re-emerged on the UK Singles Chart, most notably after Lennon's murder in December 1980, when it peaked at number two.

Also a protest song against the Vietnam War, "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" has since become a Christmas standard, frequently recorded by other artists, appearing on compilation albums of seasonal music, and named in polls as a holiday favourite.[1][2] In a UK-wide poll in December 2012, it was voted tenth on the ITV television special The Nation's Favourite Christmas Song.[3]


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Recognising the accessibility and popular appeal that made his 1971 single "Imagine" more commercially successful than his other post-Beatles songs, Lennon concluded, "Now I understand what you have to do: Put your political message across with a little honey."[13] He conceived "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" as a means of elaborating upon the themes of social unity and peaceful change enacted through personal accountability and empowerment that served as the basis of the earlier billboard campaign,[14][15][16] trying to convey optimism while avoiding the sentimentality that he felt often characterised Christmas songs.[17][18][19] From 1963 to 1969, the Beatles had issued special recordings at Christmas directly to members of their fan club.[20] After the group disbanded in 1970, Lennon was the first former member to release an original Christmas song. "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" would be followed by George Harrison's "Ding Dong, Ding Dong" (1974), Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmastime" (1979) and Ringo Starr's album I Wanna Be Santa Claus (1999).

In late October 1971, with not much more than bare-bones melody and half-formed lyrics, Lennon recorded an acoustic guitar demo of "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" in his rooms at the St. Regis Hotel in New York City, where he and Ono were living. Ono would receive co-writing credit, but the actual extent of her contribution at this initial stage is unclear since she did not participate in the demo, which was atypical of their collaborations. Another demo of the song was made in late October after the couple had taken an apartment in Greenwich Village. Lennon brought in Phil Spector to help produce, as he had with his previous two albums, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and Imagine, which had been released in the US several weeks earlier.

The song begins with spoken Christmas greetings from Ono and Lennon to their children from previous marriages: Ono whispers, "Happy Christmas, Kyoko", then Lennon whispers, "Happy Christmas, Julian". Lyric sheets accompanying the compilation albums Shaved Fish (1975) and The John Lennon Collection (1982) erroneously transcribe this introduction as, "Happy Christmas, Yoko. Happy Christmas, John."[22]

In addition to these reappropriated elements, the chords and melodic structure of "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" are similar to the traditional English ballad "Skewball", but with a different rhythmic meter, subsequent modulations and a wholly new and different chorus countermelody. The verses of the song are closest in structure to the 1963 rendition (titled "Stewball") by Peter, Paul and Mary.[23]

The song's first album appearance was on Shaved Fish, the only compilation of Lennon's solo recordings released during his lifetime. "Happy Xmas" was coupled there with part of a live version of "Give Peace a Chance", performed as the finale of Lennon and Ono's One to One benefit concert on 30 August 1972.[27] Designed by Roy Kohara, the album cover is composed of illustrations by Michael Bryan representing each song on the album; for "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)", the image shows an aeroplane dropping a Christmas ornament instead of a bomb.[28]

Over the years, "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" has been reissued in a number of single formats by Capitol, Geffen and Parlophone, sometimes in conjunction with the release of albums collecting Lennon's work.[29] It has also appeared on compilations of Christmas songs, notably those from the Now That's What I Call Music! series.[citation needed]

In 2003, a new video was created for the remastered 5.1 version of the song for the DVD Lennon Legend: The Very Best of John Lennon. This version is composed of documentary footage, mostly depicting children, from the Vietnam War, in addition to recent scenes from various conflicts in the Horn of Africa, the Bosnian War, the 11 September 2001 attack in New York City, and the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. This version has over 22 million views on YouTube.

On its US single debut in 1971, "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" did not meet with much success.[22][30] This was due to the single's late release, which resulted in limited airplay before Christmas,[31] and a lack of promotion.[22][note 1] The single peaked at number 36 on the Cash Box Top 100 Singles and number 28 on the Record World Singles Chart,[34] and number 3 on the Billboard Christmas Singles chart.[35][note 2] The single subsequently re-appeared on the Billboard Christmas charts in 1972, 1983, 1984, and 1985.[35][note 3] The song appeared at number 32 on the Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary chart for the week ending 6 January 1996.[37] The song's most recent chart entry, and highest position, on the Billboard Hot 100 chart was in 2022, where it peaked at #38 for the week ending 31 December 2022.

Ultimate Classic Rock critic Nick DeRiso rated it as Lennon's 5th greatest solo political song, noting that "Lennon took the opportunity to encourage Yuletide revelers toward a broader sense of pacifism."[40]

In later decades, "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" has gained a higher profile in the cultural mainstream due to an increasing proliferation of recordings by other musical artists, most having been recorded during the last twenty years.[42] Among these, two have entered the Billboard charts, both of them in the same year. The first was released on 17 October 2006 by Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan along with her album Wintersong, which was the best-selling Christmas album of the year and a Grammy nominee.[43] It features backing vocals from the Children's and Youth Choirs of the Music Outreach Program at the Sarah McLachlan School of Music in Vancouver, British Columbia. Entering the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart at number 22 on the week ending 9 December 2006, it climbed to a peak position of number 5, four weeks later.[44] The second was released on 12 December 2006 by American rock band The Fray as a digital download. It debuted at number 50 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 41 on the Pop 100 in the week ending 31 December 2006, but stayed on the respective charts for only one more week.[45]

On 14 December 2018, Miley Cyrus and Mark Ronson recorded a version of the song featuring Lennon's son, Sean Ono Lennon.[51] The three of them performed their cover on 15 December 2018 episode of Saturday Night Live, where Ronson and Cyrus were booked as the episode's musical guests.[52] In November 2019, John Legend released a new version of the song, including string arrangements by Matt Jones which featured an improvised solo by violinist Scott Tixier.[53] It reached number nine in the UK Singles Chart.[54] The song was also covered in late 2019 by two VTubers Hime Tanaka and Hina Suzuki.

Released in 1971, the song is officially a single by the Plastic Ono Band, which was comprised of Lennon and wife Yoko Ono. It includes the Harlem Community Choir singing delightful harmonies and background.

Music, meanwhile, works differently. It seems there is a clear line about whether something is or is not a Christmas song. It appears to be more straightforward: Christmas music is music for and about Christmas. (However, there are a few occasional comedic takes on what it is to be Christmas music, including popular comedian Brock Wilbur claiming every Ben Folds song is a Christmas song.)

This third, oft-unsaid element of Christmas songs is, in my opinion, where this entire conversation lies: Christmas songs are exclusive to the season, to the point where they demand a listening-to during it.

"Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" is a Christmas song by John Lennon, Yoko Ono and The Plastic Ono Band.The song is a protest about the Vietnam War in 1969. It has become a Christmas standard and has appeared on several Christmas albums.

Songwriters Hugh Martin and Ralph Blaine wrote the classic song "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" for Judy Garland's 1944 movie, Meet Me in St. Louis, along with dozens of other songs for MGM and Broadway musicals.

The song "began with the melody," Martin said. "I found a little madrigal-like tune that I liked but couldn't make work, so I played with it for two or three days and then threw it in the wastebasket."

"The original version was so lugubrious that Judy Garland refused to sing it. She said, 'If I sing that, little Margaret will cry and they'll think I'm a monster.' So I was young then and kind of arrogant, and I said, 'Well, I'm sorry you don't like it, Judy, but that's the way it is, and I don't really want to write a new lyric.' But Tom Drake, who played the boy next door, took me aside and said, 'Hugh, you've got to finish it. It's really a great song potentially, and I think you'll be sorry if you don't do it.' So I went home and I wrote the version that's in the movie."

Others believe that "merry" was associated with the rowdiness of the lower classes while "happy" took on a higher class connotation as even the royal family's preferred greeting is "Happy Christmas". On the other hand, early church leaders in Great Britain are believed to have reportedly encouraged Christianity followers to be happy rather than engage in the free-spirited act of "merry-making", a grammatical lesson that even historians tend to believe. e24fc04721

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