Release
The single was released on Apple Records in the United States (catalogue Apple 1842) in December 1971 and reached number three on Billboard's Christmas Singles chart and number 36 on the Cash Box Top 100 Singles chart. Due to a publishing dispute with Northern Songs, the UK and worldwide release of the single (Apple R5970) was delayed until the following November. The single peaked at number four in the UK in late December 1972. Initial pressings featured green vinyl and either the standard Apple label or the custom "John and Yoko" label also used on the album Some Time in New York City. The single re-entered the UK chart on 20 December 1980, shortly after John Lennon's murder on 8 December, peaking at number two.
The song's first appearance on album was the 1975 compilation Shaved Fish; it has also been included on several subsequent Lennon compilation albums and several Christmas-themed compilations. The album cover for Shaved Fish featured a drawing of a plane dropping a Christmas ornament instead of a bomb.
Read more about this topic: Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
Famous quotes containing the word release:
“The shallow consider liberty a release from all law, from every constraint. The wise man sees in it, on the contrary, the potent Law of Laws.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
“Come, thou long-expected Jesus,
born to set thy people free;
from our fears and sins release us,
let us find our rest in thee.”
—Charles Wesley (1707–1788)
“An inquiry about the attitude towards the release of so-called political prisoners. I should be very sorry to see the United States holding anyone in confinement on account of any opinion that that person might hold. It is a fundamental tenet of our institutions that people have a right to believe what they want to believe and hold such opinions as they want to hold without having to answer to anyone for their private opinion.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)