Originally Posted By: edshaw
Of course, these innovations were then in the hands of engineers and studio producers such as Phil Spector and others.


"Happy Xmas" was actually produced by Spector, with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, using the same "wall of sound" approach he'd applied to the original version of the Beatles "Let It Be". History has not been kind to his bombastic efforts on that album (Paul McCartney even released "Let It Be Naked" to show what the non-Spectorized recordings sounded like) but John gloried in that big sound and it works magnificently here.

From Wikipedia:

Quote:
When Lennon first played his demo for Phil Spector, the producer remarked that the song's opening line, "So this is Christmas…", was rhythmically identical to the 1961 single "I Love How You Love Me" by the Paris Sisters, which Spector himself had produced. At the recording studio, Lennon instructed the guitarists to incorporate mandolin-style riffs similar to the ones heard in "Try Some, Buy Some", a single that Spector and George Harrison had produced in February 1971 for his wife, Ronnie Spector, formerly of the Ronettes. Spector also included percussion instruments of the sort he used on the 1963 album A Christmas Gift for You.