Recently while driving I heard the 1975 Ringo hit “No No Song” on WCBS-FM in New York. It made me think. This song proved to be Ringo’s last Top Ten hit in the U.S. when it peaked at number three in March 1975. Afterwards, Ringo had four other songs in the Top 40 between 1975 and 1981, but the highest position attained by any of the four was number 26.

“No No Song” was off of Ringo’s 1974 album Goodnight Vienna. Harry Nilsson sang backing vocals.

Few people realize that this song was written by Hoyt Axton. A performer himself, Axton mostly wrote songs for other artists during his career. He wrote “Never Been to Spain” for Three Dog Night and “The Pusher” for Steppenwolf. However, Axton’s most successful song was “Joy to the World“, which topped the charts for six weeks in 1971 for Three Dog Night. Axton also wrote songs over the years for Joan Baez, Waylon Jennings, John Denver and Linda Ronstadt. However, it is safe to say that “Joy to the World” bankrolled his entire life afterwards.

Hoyt Axton must have had songwriting in his genetic pool. His mother, Mae Boren Axton, co-wrote a song that made a young performer famous. Her most famous song was “Heartbreak Hotel” and it became the first major hit for a young man from Tupelo, Mississippi named Elvis Aaron Presley. Ironically, Hoyt Axton, who also wrote and recorded his own country albums and died at age 61 in 1991, was part of an ironic cycle of hit songs for Three Dog Night that were written by someone with a famous relative in music or the arts. Let’s have a look….

1. “Mama Told Me (Not to Come)”, Three Dog Night’s first number one song was written by Randy Newman. It stayed on top for two weeks in July 1970. Randy Newman is the nephew of the famed composers Alfred, Emil and Lionel Newman; all three worked on film scores in Hollywood. Alfred Newman won nine Academy Awards, more than any other composer in Oscar history. Emil Newman worked on over 200 films and tv shows, earning an Oscar nomination in 1941 for Sun Valley Serenade. Lionel Newman’s career with Twentieth-Century Fox spanned 46 years and 200 movies; he also wrote several classic TV themes, such as Dobie Gillis and Daniel Boone. Since the 1980’s, Randy Newman has concentrated primarily on writing film scores (maybe … it’s in the genes!). “Mama Told Me (Not to Come)” was the number one song on the very first edition of Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 on the weekend of July 4, 1970. It has been used in many movie soundtracks such as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Boogie Nights.

2. “Joy to the World” was Three Dog Night’s second number one hit, topping the charts for six weeks in April and May 1971. It was written by Hoyt Axton, the son of famed songwriter Mae Boren Axton, who was known as “The Queen Mother of Nashville”. Mae Boren Axton’s most famous credit is co-writing the hit “Heartbreak Hotel” for Elvis Presley. Her list of songs is staggering and another one of her claims to fame is having introduced a very young Elvis Presley to Colonel Tom Parker. “Joy to the World” has been used in many movie soundtracks, most notably in The Big Chill and Forrest Gump.

3. “Black and White” was the third and final number one hit for Three Dog Night, reaching the top slot for one week in September 1972. The song was co-written by David Arkin and Earl Robinson in 1955 as a civil rights song. It was recorded by several artists over the years but none were successful until Three Dog Night’s rendition. David Arkin was the father of actor Alan Arkin and the grandfather of actor Adam Arkin. Alan Arkin twice received Oscar nominations for Best Actor, the first for The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming and the second for The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. He was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for the 2012 film Argo; Alan Arkin won his first and only Oscar for the 2006 movie Little Miss Sunshine for Best Supporting Actor. Adam Arkin has appeared on many television series and has received numerous nominations in his career, such a Tony nomination and three primetime Emmys.

4. “The Family of Man” reached # 12 in 1972. It was written by famed songwriter Paul Williams and his writing partner Roger Nichols, the team that also wrote the songs “An Old Fashioned Love Song” and “Out in the Country” for Three Dog Night. Paul Williams and Roger Nichols wrote many hits in the 1970’s, including the classic Carpenters’ hits “We’ve Only Just Begun” and “Rainy Days and Mondays“. On his own, Williams wrote “Evergreen“, the number one hit by Barbara Streisand from the 1976 movie A Star is Born; “Evergreen” won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year in addition to the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Paul Williams is the brother of the late John Williams, a well-known rocket scientist for NASA, as well as Mentor Williams. Mentor Williams is a songwriter who although not as prolific as his brother, has written hit songs. Mentor Williams’ most famous song is “Drift Away”, the legendary 1973 hit for Dobie Gray which resurfaced as a major hit for Uncle Kracker in 2004. Mentor is married to Lynn Anderson, whose biggest hit was “Rose Garden”, a song which successfully used 23 cliches to top the country charts in 1970 and stall at # 3 on the Top 40 in 1970.

5. “Eli’s Comin”, written by Laura Nyro, was an early Three Dog Night hit that reached # 10 in 1969. To say that Nyro is a famed songwriter is an understatement. She wrote many hits such as “Wedding Bell Blues” by The 5th Dimension, “Stoney End” by Barbra Stresiand, “And When I Die” by Blood, Sweat & Tears, “Stoned Soul Picnic” by The 5th Dimension, and a slew of others. Laura Nyro is the niece of famous artists Theresa Bernstein and William Meyerowitz. Highly revered in the art world for her paintings, Bernstein’s career spanned many decades as she died at age 112!

May it be noted that Three Dog Night recorded a song that did not crack the Top 40 that had been written by someone with a famous family member. The song was written by Reggie Dwight, whose cousin Roy Dwight was a British soccer star that could have been considered almost a David Beckham figure of his generation. Reggie Dwight, who changed his name to Elton John in 1968 at age 21, wrote “Your Song” with writing partner Bernie Taupin, which was covered by Three Dog Night on their fourth album It Ain’t Easy in 1970. Roy Dwight was a soccer star when Reggie Dwight was a youngster who loved soccer. People would give him a hard time and say things like “Your last name is Dwight and you’re Roy Dwight’s cousin and you’re terrible at football!”, etc. Young Reggie was unable to pursue his love of soccer in anonymity because of his cousin, a national hero who starred for teams like Fulham and Nottingham Forest. It is safe to say that the former Reggie Dwight resolved this conflict by purchasing his lifelong favorite team, Watford F.C., in 1976.

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The Paul McCartney song “Pipes of Peace” was released as a single on December 5, 1983 on its way to topping the charts in the UK for two weeks. While “Pipes of Pipes”, a song from the album of the same title, was a # 1 song in the UK, the song’s performance in the U.S. shows how some songs can be hits on one side of the Atlantic and then be totally invisible on the other side. The song was released in the U.S. as the B-side of “So Bad”, a song that was the B-side to “Pipes of Peace” in England. The single of “So Bad”/”Pipes of Peace” spent eight weeks in the Top 40 and only reached # 23. MTV, which was only two years old at the time, did not give the level of play to the video of “Pipes of Peace” as one would expect them to give to a rock legend. The video received minimal rotation on MTV, likely because the song was not released as an A-side single and received scant notice as the B-side to “So Bad”.

Despite the song’s invisibility in the U.S., this UK # 1 hit also topped the charts across the Irish Sea in the Republic of Ireland. “Pipes of Peace” is also significant in the UK because it represented the very first solo number # 1 hit that Paul McCartney ever scored in the UK after 17 chart-toppers with the Beatles, one with Wings (“Mull of Kintyre”) and one with Stevie Wonder(“Ebony and Ivory”). The song marked the 25th # 1 hit in the UK that was penned by McCartney, five of which were performed by other artists.

As is well known, the ex-Beatle has appeared on five charity singles that have hit number one on the UK charts over the years, beginning with Band Aid in 1984. The others are Ferry Aid (1987), Ferry Cross the Mersey (1989), Band Aid 20 (2004), and The Justice Collective (2012).

The video for “Pipes of Peace” told a story of the famed 1914 Christmas Day truce between British and German soldiers when the troops had cordial conversations, exchanged photos of loved ones, gave each other chocolates and played soccer. McCartney played both a British soldier and a German soldier. The good will of the soldiers in the No Man’s Land ‘s that day ended with a blast that sent them back to their respective sides, while each of the two soldiers played by McCartney realize afterwards that they have the other one’s family photo.

At the time, the video was said to have been inspired by the movie Oh! What a Lovely War, directed by Richard Attenborough. However, the 1969 movie did not depict an exchange of photos between German and British troops. Of course, in 2005 the French movie Joyeux Noel told the story of the 1914 Christmas truce.

Before Christmas 2014, McCartney fans felt that a Christmas advertisement for Sainsbury’s was intensely similar to the 1983 video for “Pipes of Peace”. The ad was controversial for other reasons as well as is evident in this article from the Daily Mail.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2834465/Watchdog-primed-investigate-Sainsbury-s-Christmas-advert-complaints-flood-use-WWI-imagery-promote-company.html

The 1983 Paul McCartney album Pipes of Peace was the quick follow-up to his 1982 album Tug of War. As was the case with Tug of War, it featured Ringo on drums and George Martin as both producer and pianist on some tracks. This album marked that last time that McCartney worked with Denny Laine, the guitarist who was the only member of Wings to be with the group from its 1971 inception until its 1981 demise.

Billboard magazine cited the album on its list of unexpectedly disappointing albums of 1983. Pipes of Peace ranked as the only McCartney studio album to fail to make the top ten in America.

Five of the songs on Pipes of Peace were actually recorded during the sessions for Tug of War. In addition to the album’s title track, the other four were “The Other Me”, “So Bad”, “Tug of Peace”, “Through Our Love”.

The big hit on Pipes of Peace was the Paul McCartney/Michael Jackson duet “Say Say Say” which topped the charts for six weeks in the U.S. in December 1983/January 1984. While the song is not considered part of McCartney’s great body of work since the break-up of the Beatles, it did amazingly well throughout the world. In addition to the U.S. “Say Say Say” was a # 1 hit in Canada, Norway, Sweden and a host of other countries. This song marked the last number one song for the ex-Beatle on the Billboard Hot 100. It would be the last # 1 Billboard song produced by George Martin until the wildly successful “Candle in the Wind: 1997” by Elton John.

The 1983 collaboration of Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson on “Say Say Say” ironically preceded by two years Jackson’s surprise purchase of ATV Music, the song catalog of Northern Songs Limited. When the Lennon/McCartney song catalog was available for sale, McCartney was unable to purchase it on his own at the time due to legal boundaries that were still intact at the time from the binding Apple Records settlement. If McCartney had wanted to buy the song catalog in 1985, he could have only done so with Yoko Ono. Those restrictions ended long ago.

“Pipes of Peace” is one of many examples of how a hit song in the UK may not get on the radar screen in the U.S. With such a telling video by a major rock heavyweight, one wonders why the song was virtually unnoticed in the U.S. As a result, the statement on war and peace that McCartney wanted so desperately to make with the song and video never was able to impact the U.S. as he had hoped.

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It is well known that in the early days of Beatlemania, there were several songs about the Beatles that hit the charts. One of the most remembered of these songs is the novelty song “Ringo, I Love You” by 17 year-old Bonnie Jo Mason which was released in March 1964. Bonnie Jo Mason was actually named Cherilyn Sarkisian but producer Phil Spector wanted all of his artists to have American sounding names, so Sarkisian issued her first single under the name Bonnie Jo Mason; soon she would drop Bonnie Jo Mason and simply go by the name “Cher”. However, there is only one song about an ex-Beatle that was intended to help his legal battles. The 1975 song “The Immigrant” by Neil Sedaka was written about John Lennon’s immigration difficulties.

On his Facebook page, Sedaka made a post on May 9, 2013 in which he wrote, “I wrote this song for my friend John Lennon during his immigration battles in the 1970’s. I’ll never forget when I called to tell him about it. Overwhelmed by the gesture, he said, ‘Normally people only call me when they want something. It’s very seldom that people call you to give you something. It’s beautiful.” He left a video of a live performance of “The Immigrant” on the Facebook post.

John Lennon and Neil Sedaka had a common friend in Elton John, the most popular recording artist of the 1970’s who gave both veteran artists a boost. Elton John performed backing vocals and lent his keyboard talents on John’s “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night”, which topped the charts for one week beginning on November 16, 1974. It was the ex-Beatle’s first number one hit in the U.S., making him the last of the four ex-Beatles to top the charts; ironically, this song was Lennon’s only number one song during his lifetime as “(Just Like) Starting Over” hit number one three weeks after his murder on December 8, 1980 and stayed on top for five weeks. Believe it or not, Ringo had two number one hits before John had his first one; “Photograph” hit number one for one week on November 24, 1973 and “You’re Sixteen” topped the charts for one week on January 26, 1974.

Around the same time, Elton John helped Neil Sedaka top the charts for two weeks in October 1975 with the song “Bad Blood”. Sedaka had recently signed with Elton’s new label, Rocket Records, in hopes of overcoming a career slump of almost twelve years. Written by Sedaka and Phil Cody, “Bad Blood” was practically a duet of Sedaka and Elton, but Elton insisted on giving Sedaka the sole billing and staying in the background. Signing with Rocket Records catapulted Sedaka back into both prominence and up into the top of the charts. Ironically, “Bad Blood” was knocked out of the top position on the charts by Elton’s “Island Girl“, which stayed in the number one position for the first three weeks of November 1975.

Sedaka and songwriting partner Howard Greenfield were among the famed “Brill Building” songwriting teams which included Carole King/Gerry Goffin, Burt Bacharach/Hal David, Barry Mann/Cynthia Weill, Doc Pomus/Mort Shuman and a few others. Sedaka and Greenfield wrote “Where the Boys Are”, which became Connie Francis’ signature song. As a solo performer, Sedaka scored thirteen songs in the Top 40 between 1958 and 1963, which included six top ten hits and the 1962 number one hit “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do”. His 1959 song “Oh! Carol”, written for singer/songwriter Carol King, hit # 2 while the 1960 # 4 hit “Calendar Girl” has been frequently used in commercials over the years.

A rough period of eleven years was ended after he signed to Elton John’s Rocket Records in the hopes of breaking the streak of bad luck. His first single to chart, “Laughter in the Rain”, landed on top of the charts for one week in February 1975, which was followed a couple of months later by his John Lennon tribute “The Immigrant”, peaking at number 22 and staying in the Top 40 for five weeks. Another song, “That’s When the Music Takes Me”, charted and reached number 27 prior to the success of the “Bad Blood”, which topped the charts for two weeks in October 1975. This incredible comeback on the part of Neil Sedaka received more steam when an old Sedaka/Greenfield song, “Love Will Keep Us Together”, was recorded by The Captain and Tennille and topped the charts for four weeks in June/July 1975, in between the two Sedaka number one hits that year. The title of the Sedaka comeback album was Sedaka Is Back, and as the song “Love Will Keep Us Together” is fading out, Toni Tennille sings “Sedaka is back”. This upswing in Sedaka’s career featured three more Top 40 hits in 1976, the most notable of which was a slower version of his 1962 number one hit “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do” which reached number 8.

After such success with “Love Will Keep Us Together”, Captain and Tennille lost no time in recording another Sedaka tune. Sedaka wrote and recorded “Lonely Nights (Angel Face)” for his The Hungry Years album. The Captain and Tennille version was released in January 1976, and reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100. When Sedaka was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live on January 24, 1975 in the show’s inaugural season, he performed “Lonely Nights (Angel Face)”.

Sedaka’s own immigrant background was that of having a Sephardic Jewish father of Turkish origins and an Ashkenazic Jewish mother from Poland. Sedaka was a first cousin to late Grammy-winning singer Eydie Gorme, who was born Edith Garmezano in New York City to Sephardic Jewish immigrant parents from Sicily and Turkey.

John Lennon’s problems with the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service are well known. The Nixon Administration denied him status as an important artist, a legal battle ensued, which was finally resolved on October 9, 1975, a day that marked both John’s 35th birthday as well as the birth of his son Sean. In the 1983 book The Book of Rock Lists by Dave Marsh, there is a list of ten celebrities who signed a petition that was sent to the I.N.S. on Lennon’s behalf. They were: 1) Fred Astaire 2) Saul Bellow 3) Leonard Bernstein 4) Bob Dylan 5) Lawrence Ferlinghetti 6) Allen Ginsberg 7) Jack Lemmon 8) Henry Miller 9) Virgil Thomson 10) Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

However, there was only one song written about Lennon’s immigration problems that charted on The Billboard Hot 100 !

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As is well known, Billy Preston was the only musician to get billing on a Beatles song as the worldwide # 1 hit “Get Back” was credited to “The Beatles with Billy Preston”. The talented keyboardist, who died in 2006 at age 59, first met the Beatles in Hamburg when he was touring with Little Richard. Preston was one of the first artists signed to the Apple Records label.

While there were several people who were dubbed “The Fifth Beatle”, Billy Preston was the only one from that list who had a number one song of his own, and two of them at that. “Will It Go Round in Circles” was in the top position on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks in early July 1973. “Nothing from Nothing” stayed at number one for one week in October 1974.

Preston also co-wrote the song “You Are So Beautiful” with Beach Boy drummer Dennis Wilson. Of course, this tune became the signature song of Joe Cocker; “You Are So Beautiful” also came to be the one song that Dennis Wilson would sing during Beach Boys concerts. Preston toured with the Rolling Stones from 1973-1977, playing alongside original Stone-turned-road manager Ian Stewart. He appeared on all of the Stones albums from time frame, Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main Street, Goats Head Soup, It’s Only Rock and Roll, and Black and Blue.

Billy Preston toured as a member of Ringo Starr’s All-Starr Band in 1989 and 1995.

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WCBS 101.1 FM in New York City is the most listened to radio station in the U.S., with its transmitter located on the top of the Empire State Building. Every Wedensday when I am in my office I listen to WCBS via internet radio because they have their famous “Beatles Wednesday” which entails more playing of Beatles songs along with interesting factoids and trivia, both on the air and on the WCBS-FM website (www.cbsfm.com). It was from a Beatles Wednesday not too long ago that I got the idea for a post about the classic song “Got to Get You into My Life”.

The last Beatles hit released was “The Long and Winding Road”, which stayed at # 1 for two weeks in June 1970. However, some of you may remember that in the summer of 1976, strangely enough the song “Got to Get You Into My Life” was released as a single, received major airplay and reached # 7 on the Top 40! “Helter Skelter” was on the B-side. This marked the first time that the song was released as a single, as it was not released as a single when Revolver was released in 1966. The song was released as a single in 1976 as a promo to bring attention to the Rock N Roll Music compilation album of Beatles works.

What received much attention years later in 1997 was Barry Miles’ book Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now, in which McCartney disclosed that the song was actually about marijuana. He said,”‘Got to Get You into My Life’ was one I wrote when I had first been introduced to pot … So [it’s] really a song about that, it’s not to a person. It’s actually an ode to pot, like someone else might write an ode to chocolate or a good claret.”

“Got to Get You into My Life” also has the distinction of being the first ever Beatles song to use horns. Three trumpet players were brought in for the sessions as well as two tenor saxophonists. Also, John Lennon claimed it was one if his favorite Beatles songs written primarily by Paul, and also liked the fact that it was a song about marijuana.

The fact that it reached # 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 1976, some ten years after its original release, is eye-opening. Early on, it was competing with Wings’ “Silly Love Songs”, which held the top slot on the charts for five weeks in the early part of the summer of 1976.

Similarly, ten years later, in 1986, “Twist and Shout” was released again as a single and reached # 23. It had attracted a new following after being featured in the hit summer movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, helping to form a new generation of Beatles fans.

I recommend checking out “Beatles Wednesday” on WCBS-FM because it is always chock full of cool surprises. WCBS-FM has faithful daily listeners from all over the world who tune in on the internet to make it the soundtrack to their workday. I have the station on constantly in my office via internet.

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As I am known to family and friends as a Beatles enthusiast to say the least, several of my gifts this holiday season were Beatles items. By the way, if you like this blog please go through our Amazon box on this site when you order from Amazon.com. Many thanks.

One gift I received was 2014 book Beatleness: How the Beatles and Their Fans Remade the World by Cathy Leonard. It was a fascinating read and I recommend it. The book covers how the Fab Four was a constant presence in the 1960’s. She interviewed hundreds of fans of different ages and genders over six years. Leonard has a master’s degree in Human Development as well as a doctorate in Sociology. In Beatleness, the six year period of 1964-1970 addressed in the book covers so much ground it was incredible.

One memorable aspect of the book is that it gives unique insight into how the band’s appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show and the major impact of this single appearance on culture.

Apart from Dr. Leonard’s book, another memorable anecdote about the first appearance on Sullivan comes to mind. Last year at this time I was very interested to learn once again about the story of Vince Calandra, the employee of Ed Sullivan who had to stand in for George Harrison for the rehearsal the night before their groundbreaking appearance on February 9, 1964.

Vince Calandra started out as a mail boy for The Ed Sullivan Show, working his way up to holding cue cards and later enjoyed a distinguished career in television as both a producer and a writer. That Saturday night George Harrison was back in the Plaza Hotel battling strep throat. Going to the rehearsal was out of the question in light of his delicate condition. Calandra just by chance was wearing the same color suit and tie as John, Paul and George as he had plans later in the evening. He was instructed to stand in for George for the rehearsal. He was given George’s guitar and told to don a mop top. He stood off next to Paul for the three song rehearsal. He commented in a 2014 interview, “I stood there like a statue. I didn’t move. I did not hit the strings. I didn’t open my mouth.”

In a January 31, 2104 New York Post article entitled “Sullivan Staffer Recalls Stint as Honorary Beatle”, Calandra stated that The Beatles were the only act in his 14 years of working for The Ed Sullivan Show that asked to go into the control room and hear the playback for themselves. He also said, “There was something about them when you started meeting them. You really wanted them to succeed. They were unpretentious. They knew they were talented.”

Before the rehearsal, Calandra stated that Paul turned to him and said, “My whole life, we always dreamed about doing this show.”

Please check out below the Amazon page for Beatlesness: How the Beatles and Their Fans Remade the World.

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Of course, everyone knows the about the rivalry between Yoko Ono and Linda McCartney, both in the last phase of the Beatle years and for almost the next thirty years. The two wives of the most famous Beatles tried to stake out their different characteristics, but Yoko and Linda had some very interesting things in common. Let’s look at three of them.

1. Both had wealthy parents who lived in the affluent New York City suburb of Scarsdale in Westchester County. Linda Eastman actually grew up in Scarsdale and graduated from Scarsdale High in 1959. Mr. and Mrs. Ono moved to Scarsdale in 1952 when Yoko’s father was transferred to run the New York office of the Bank of Tokyo; in her early 20’s, Yoko would soon go to the U.S. to live with them.

2. Both Linda Eastman and Yoko Ono attended Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville,NY, a twenty minute ride from Scarsdale, though at different times. Neither would graduate from Sarah Lawrence, both leaving to pursue artistic endeavors.

3. Both of their fathers were very hard-working and successful, while both mothers came from old-money backgrounds. Linda’s father was Lee Eastman, who worked his way through Harvard Law School and became a prominent Manhattan tax attorney who would also handle entertainment law after heavily investing in Broadway shows and song catalogs. Linda’s mother was the former Louise Linder, the daughter of the founder and CEO of the famous Linder Department Stores chain in the Midwest.

Yoko’s mother was a Yasuda, the family that was the backbone of Japan’s business empire, mainly financial, commercial and industrial conglomerates. Her mother, Isoko Yasuda, was the granddaughter of the founder of the Bank of Tokyo. On the other hand, Yoko’s father, Eisuke Ono, was from a much lower social caste. From a Samauri family whose lineage reached back to a 9th century emperor, Mr. Ono became a top executive with the Bank of Japan. While his wife’s family was from a higher class, the Onos became very prominent in politics.

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As is the case each year during the holiday season, Paul’s Christmas song “Wonderful Christmastime” is in heavy rotation on the airwaves. This McCartney solo song was recorded in 1979 during the recording of McCartney II, with Paul laying down all the tracks himself at the home studio on his farm. Though not a Wings single, all of the members of the final configuration of Wings appeared in the video which was filmed at The Founatin Inn in Ashurst, West Sussex.

“Wonderful Christmastime” reached # 6 on the UK Singles Chart, but did not chart on The Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. Since its debut during the 1979 holiday season, it was estimated by Forbes magazine that the song has earned Paul $15 million dollars. Each holiday season the song rakes him in excess of $400,000.

Beatles fans will remember that McCartney performed “Wonderful Christmastime” on Saturday Night Live on December 15, 2012.

In addition, Beatles fans will remember that there was never an official Christmas song released by the Fab Four. However, members of the official Beatles Fan Club received a record of Christmas song in 1967 that was not released commercially. “Christmas Time Is Here Again” lived on in bootleg records and became more accessible with the advent of YouTube.com.

Ironically, Paul can be heard on Side B of the monstrously successful 1984 charity single “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” by Band Aid. This song knocked out Wings’ “Mull of Kintyre” from having the distinction of being the biggest selling single in the history of the UK. It was on top of the UK Singles Charts in Christmas 1977. For whatever reason, “Mull of Kintyre” was a flop in the U.S., reaching # 33 on the Billboard Hot 100 and cracking the Top 40 for only that one week. “Mull of Kintyre” was a massive international hit that topped the charts in countless countries. Paul has never performed the song in a concert in the U.S. due to its bad performance there; however, there have been instances over the years in which he does a concert one night in the U.S. without performing “Mull of Kintyre” and then two nights later adds it to the playlist for a concert in Canada.

“Mull of Kintyre” still remains the biggest selling non-charity single in UK history.

Check out the songs below…….

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