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"Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" is a Christmas song by John Lennon, Yoko Ono and the Plastic Ono Band. It was recorded at Record Plant Studios in New York City in late October of 1971, with the help of producer Phil Spector. It features soaring, heavily echoed vocals, and a sing-along chorus. The children singing in the background were from the Harlem Community Choir and are credited on the song's single. This song was John Lennon's reaction to the war in Vietnam. The song is commonly titled wrongly as 'So this is Xmas'.

Although the song is a protest song about the Vietnam War, it has become a Christmas standard and has appeared on several Christmas albums.

Structure and release

The lyric is based on a campaign in late 1969 by John Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, who rented billboards and posters in eleven cities around the world that read: "WAR IS OVER! (If You Want It) Happy Christmas from John and Yoko". The cities included New York, Tokyo, Rome, Athens, Amsterdam, London, Paris, Toronto, and some others. At the time the US was deeply entrenched in the unpopular Vietnam War. The line "War is over, if you want it, war is over, now!", as sung by the background vocals, was taken directly from the billboards.

The song's melody has been compared to that of the folk standard known as "Stewball".

The record starts with a barely-audible whisper of Christmas greetings to their children: Yoko whispers "Happy Christmas, Kyoko", then John whispers "Happy Christmas, Julian". The lyric sheet from the 1982 release The John Lennon Collection erroneously gives this introduction as "Happy Christmas, Yoko. Happy Christmas, John".

The single was released on December 6 1971, in the US, but never charted on the Billboard Hot 100 charts; the UK release was delayed until the following November due to a publishing dispute. Upon release, it reached #4 in the UK Singles Chart. Directly following John Lennon's death on December 8 1980, the song was re-released in the UK on December 20 1980. It is known as the "secret number one", as it featured top in the UK Singles Chart for the week ending January 3 1981, which was unpublished, as was usual for the Christmas week at that time. Thus, it is rarely, if ever, credited as a number one single.

Musicians

Musicians on the original recording were:

• Vocals: John Lennon, Yoko Ono and the Harlem Community Choir
• Guitar and bass guitar: Hugh McCracken, Chris Osborn, Teddy Irwin, Stuart Scharf
• Keyboards, chimes and glockenspiel: Nicky Hopkins
• Drums and sleigh bells: Jim Keltner

Klaus Voormann was supposed to play bass guitar on the song but was unable to attend the session when his plane was delayed. One of the four guitarists played the bass part but it is unknown which one.

Notable cover versions

• A Swedish version of the song is known as "Låt julen förkunna," and that text was written by Py Bäckman and recorded by Tommy Körberg and Sissel Kyrkjebø in 1989.
• There is also a Brazilian Portuguese version of this song, named "Então é Natal," and written by Cláudio Rabello. That song is first recorded in Brazil by Simone, in 1995.
• In 1990 this song was covered by the Welsh band The Alarm, using the title "Happy Christmas (War Is Over)" on the album Standards.
• In 1993, The K Foundation and the Red Army Choir produced "K Cera Cera" which was built around the songs "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" and "Que Sera Sera"
• The song is heavily covered in rock circles by bands such as The Used, Maroon 5, Thrice, The Fray, The Polyphonic Spree, An Angle, Street Drum Corps and Acceptance.
• Jimmy Buffett covered the song on his 1996 album Christmas Island.
• An instrumental version of the song was recorded by Tomoyasu Hotei and appears on the first Merry Axemas instrumental guitar Christmas album, organized by Steve Vai and released in 1997.
• Rebecca St. James recorded it on her Christmas album in 1997. Two major fundamental changes are made—the Australian spells out the entire word "Christmas" and it does not include the "War is Over" chant, nor does it appear in the song or its title, as she eliminated the anti-war message from the song. As an aside, in 2003 she read letters from US soldiers for Fox News Channel, and her record label, EMI Group plc, released a video of one of her songs that supported the US, British, and Australian troops in Iraq.
• Céline Dion covered the song on her 1998 album These Are Special Times.
• Melissa Etheridge recorded a live version.
• A darkwave cover was recorded by The Crüxshadows and released on a 1999 Christmas compilation by Projekt Records.
• Canadian death metal band Quo Vadis recorded a cover of the song with heavily-altered lyrics entitled "So This Is Christmas (War Is Over)" for the 2000 French Canadian Christmas album Noel dans la Rue.
• Delta Goodrem recorded her own version as a B-side for her single "Predictable", where she changed the lyrics "war is over" to "let the war be over".
• Los Angeles based artist John Romano scored a hit with the song during the 2005 holiday season.
• Shinedown has a single of the song on iTunes.
• Sarah McLachlan led off her 2006 Christmas album Wintersong with a cover of this song.
• Street Drum Corps, along with Bert McCracken recorded a cover available on the Christmas album The Taste of Christmas. It was released as a single.
• The Fray released a cover of the song on iTunes on 2006-12-12, recorded just nine days earlier at The Palms. The Fray's version was able to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 at #50, marking the first time the song has appeared on the charts.
• Joey Tempest and Mic Michaeli from the rock band Europe performed the song live on Swedish TV on December 17, 2006.
• The Moody Blues performed the song on their Christmas album December.
• A cover by former Nightwish lead singer Tarja Turunen appears on her 2006 album Henkäys Ikuisuudesta.
• Les Fradkin has a version on his Holiday release from 2006: "Spirit Of Christmas".
• In 2007, Angelique Kidjo covered the song for the CD Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur.
• Maroon 5 recorded a cover version in 2007 of 3:28 minutes as part of Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur and released it on December 11, 2007, for digital download.
• Acceptance, a now-disbanded alternative band, has also recorded a cover of the song.
• Trance projects Shock Treatment & Trance Airwave covered the song for the 2006 compilation S.K.Y. Presents Christmas Trance.
• Indie rock band Tokyo Rose has also recorded a cover.
• TrancesArc released a cover of the song on the Christmas compilation CD 99xmas Sound Track Volume III for Atlanta radio station 99x.
• Drake Bell sang it live in Times Square, NYC to welcome in the new year, 2007.
• N Sync recorded a cover version for one of their albums.
• Sarah Brightman recorded her own version as a bonus track for her album A Winter Symphony.
• Thrice, an Experimental rock band, has recorded their own version of the song.
• Japanese band Rin' released a cover version on their Christmas album, performing on traditional Japanese instruments.
• Badly Drawn Boy (Damon Gough) recorded a version for Q Magazine's 2005 Lennon cover album.

Live cover performances

• The Three Tenors (Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo, José Carreras) performed a live version on Christmas in Vienna in December 1999.
• U2 performed an acoustic version live on Ireland's RTE TV Late Late Show on December 16, 1986.
• The Corrs included a live version as a bonus track on the Live in London DVD (2001).
• In 2003, it was covered in 2003 by the finalists of Pop Idol 2.
• The Polyphonic Spree do a live cover this classic at their Christmas shows.
• A cover performed live by Masayuki Suzuki, Skoop on Somebody, and Aya Matsuura at the 2006 Happy XMAS show on 12-24-2006
• The late Boston singer Brad Delp did a live cover version for a Christmas charity concert in New Hampshire for WZID.
• American rock band Lifehouse covered the song at a live performance at the Tree of Lights Festival in Raleigh, North Carolina on November 17, 2007.
• Damien Rice performed a cover version on radio station KCRW's Live at the Lobby.
• David Cook covered the song at Christmas in Rockefeller Center in 2008.
• Tarja Turunen at her 2005 and 2006 Christmas concert tours.

References

1. "Ger Tillekens, Baroque and folk and ... John Lennon", Soundscapes
2. Record-Breakers and Trivia - everyHit.com
3. Chip Madinger and Mark Easter, Eight Arms To Hold You: The Beatles Solo Compendium (Chesterfield, MO: 44.1 Productions, 2000), 65-66.

• 1971 songs
• 1971 singles
• 1972 singles
• Anti-war songs
• Christmas songs
• John Lennon songs
• Songs produced by Phil Spector
• Irish Singles Chart number-one singles
• Protest songs
• Songs of the Vietnam War
• Songs written by John Lennon