On this day in 1971, John Lennon and Yoko Ono released “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)”

After two years of peace activism, the couples efforts culminated in a new single.  Recognising that Imagine had been so successful due to putting the “political message across with a little honey” and Happy Xmas (War Is Over) aimed to continue this idea. 

Several demos for the song were produced in late October and it was quickly decided to bring in Phil Spector to produce and sessions were arranged, beginning on the 28th of October. Several of the session musicians hired to work on the song had performed as members of the Plastic Ono Band at some stage or another and were clearly used to working with the pair. Because of thistle recording was handled fairly quickly with the majority being done in one session and the B-side the following day. 

By the 31st the song was complete and ready for it’s launch in December to coincide with the Christmas period and the anniversary of the original War Is Over! poster campaign. However, the release was deemed late and as such the song received little promotion or airplay in the US, affecting its initial performance. The same could not be said of the UK as the song immediately  peaked at number 4 on the UK Singles Chart. Since then, Happy Xmas (War Is Over!) has become a Christmas classic and reentered the charts several times, all while demonstrating the power of music as an instrument to bring about social change.