"Wonderful Christmastime" by Paul McCartney often elicits a quite different reaction than the sentimental feelings and good memories that many Christmas songs evoke.
Despite McCartney's widespread popularity, this particular Yuletide song draws a lot of criticism.
"Wonderful Christmastime" is seen by some as a metaphor for McCartney's discography's less successful elements. It also reportedly lacks diversity in contrast to well-known holiday songs like Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You" and Darlene Love's "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)," which have dynamic arrangements and rich musical textures.
Critics characterize the beat as static, combining a harsh element that some people find uncomfortable to listen to with an overly cheerful tone.
According to one Redditor who spoke of McCartney's song, "I absolutely hate this song. Every time I hear it come on in stores, I will hurry up with whatever I am doing to get the f*** out of there."
"But the strange part is that I have never met someone who doesn't hate the song."
"At best, one of my elderly coworkers said she listened to it because she doesn't want to change the radio station back after it's done. Yet not only does it get played on every Christmas station despite the fact that most awful Christmas songs leave the airwaves after a few years, it seems to get an insanely higher proportion of plays vs most other Christmas songs."
It's also noteworthy because the song was released in the late 1970s and during this time, McCartney's music was viewed as being of lower quality, especially after his impactful years with The Beatles.
Moreover, the song's negative response stems from its overexposure.
According to a review on Album Of The Year, "This song is horrible and while it's a holiday song, something about it kind of makes me want to cry. It's incredibly repetitive and the instrumental is so bad in a strange way. I don't even know how to describe this song."
"The chorus gets stuck in your head with the off-kilter synth following along with it. It kind of horrifies me."
"With this being said, I enjoy it for some reason. Maybe all of the curiosity I have for this tune leads me to want to hear it more and more, or maybe it's the change of pace from all of the other overly-jolly Christmas tunes that you hear."
Because of how frequently it is played around the holidays, many people find it unpleasant even if it may have been an innocuous filler music.
When asked about the song's meaning in a 2022 interview, McCartney said, "I like the idea of Christmas songs purely because they only come around at Christmas!"
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