In this annual Christmas Episode, host Paul Romanuk digs into a song that is well on the way (if it isn’t already) to being a traditional Christmas season standard: the 1971 John Lennon/Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band song Happy Xmas (War Is Over).

EPISODE NOTES:

-The song was inspired by and grew out of John & Yoko’s 1969 global billboard peace campaign. Here is a photo (from NYC) of one of the billboards they had put up in 12 major cities around the world.

-The producer of the song, Phil Spector, produced a Christmas album in 1963 called A Christmas Gift To You, which I talk about in the episode. Here’s the story behind that album.

-Here’s the original 45 sleeve for the song.

–Here’s an original pressing, which was on green vinyl, featuring the John & Yoko morphing faces label.