"We All Stand Together" | ||||
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Single by Paul McCartney and the Frog Chorus | ||||
from the album Rupert and the Frog Song soundtrack | ||||
B-side | "We All Stand Together (Humming Version)" | |||
Released | 5 November 1984 [1] | |||
Recorded | October–November 1980 | |||
Genre | Children's music | |||
Length | 4:25 | |||
Label | Parlophone | |||
Songwriter(s) | Paul McCartney | |||
Producer(s) | George Martin | |||
Paul McCartney singles chronology | ||||
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"We All Stand Together" (sometimes referred to as the Frog Song or the Frog Chorus) is a song by Paul McCartney and the Frog Chorus.
"We All Stand Together" is from the animated film Rupert and the Frog Song and reached number three in the UK Singles Chart in 1984. [2] The "Frog Chorus" backing on the song was provided by The King's Singers and the choir of St Paul's Cathedral. [3] The B-side of the single contains a "Humming Version" of the song performed by the Finchley Frogettes.
The song re-entered the UK Singles Chart in 1985, one of three hits to do so that had originally charted in December 1984. ("Do They Know It's Christmas?" by Band Aid and "Last Christmas" by Wham! were the other two.)
Peter Kay performed the song on Britain's Got the Pop Factor... and Possibly a New Celebrity Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar Strictly on Ice, his satire of TV talent shows.
Although intended purely as a children's song in the mould of the Beatles' "Yellow Submarine", "We All Stand Together" is sometimes derided as an example of McCartney's inconsequential songwriting by his critics. [4] In a satirical cartoon by Stephen Collins of The Guardian in 2012, McCartney is shown recalling his creative partnership with John Lennon in the 1960s, before concluding: "It was a great time, y'know ... And then I went on to do The Frog Song." [5]
Two shaped picture discs were issued on the 12 November 1984 [6] and 1985, the only difference being a plain clear sleeve on the later version. In 1987, the song was included on the UK/Canada version of McCartney's compilation album All the Best! It also appears on the deluxe edition of his 2016 compilation album Pure McCartney . In October 2020, for the 100th anniversary of the Rupert character, the single was remastered for streaming and a vinyl re-release of the picture disc, alongside a 4K restoration of the accompanying short. [7]
Weekly charts
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"We All Stand Together" | ||||
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Single by Choirs with Purpose featuring Michelle McManus | ||||
Released | 22 November 2017 | |||
Recorded | November 2017 | |||
Genre | Christmas music | |||
Songwriter(s) | Paul McCartney | |||
Michelle McManus singles chronology | ||||
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In 2017, Choirs with Purpose, a collection of a dozen charity choirs, assembled for a remake of "We All Stand Together". Their recording features Scottish singer Michelle McManus in a bid to top the UK Singles Chart Christmas chart and win the coveted British Christmas number one for 2017; [15] it failed to make the top 100. [16] Profits from the single were split equally between the participating choirs in aid of their own charity work.
The choirs that took part in the recording with McManus include:
"With a Little Help from My Friends" is a song recorded by English rock band the Beatles for their 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. It was written primarily by Paul McCartney with contributions from John Lennon, and is sung by drummer Ringo Starr, his lead vocal for the album. As the second track on the album, it segues from the applause on the title track.
"We Are the Champions" is a song by the British rock band Queen, released from the band's sixth album News of the World (1977). Written by lead singer Freddie Mercury, it remains among rock's most recognisable anthems. The song was a worldwide success, reaching number two in the UK, number four on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, number three in Canada, and the top ten in many other countries. In 2009 it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and was voted the world's favourite song in a 2005 Sony Ericsson world music poll.
"Let It Be" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, released on 6 March 1970 as a single, and as the title track of their album Let It Be. It was written and sung by Paul McCartney, and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership. The single version of the song, produced by George Martin, features a softer guitar solo and the orchestral section mixed low, compared with the album version, produced by Phil Spector, featuring a more aggressive guitar solo and the orchestral sections mixed higher.
"Stand by Me" is a song originally performed in 1961 by American singer-songwriter Ben E. King and written by him, along with Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who together used the pseudonym Elmo Glick. According to King, the title is derived from, and was inspired by, a spiritual written by Sam Cooke and J. W. Alexander called "Stand by Me Father", recorded by the Soul Stirrers with Johnnie Taylor singing lead.
"Do They Know It's Christmas?" is a charity song written in 1984 by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise money for the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia. It was first recorded by Band Aid, a supergroup assembled by Geldof and Ure consisting of popular British and Irish musical acts. It was recorded in a single day at Sarm West Studios in Notting Hill, London, in November 1984.
"Last Christmas" is a song by British pop duo Wham! Written and produced by George Michael, it was released on 3 December 1984 via CBS Records internationally and as a double A-side via Epic Records with "Everything She Wants" in several European countries. The song has been covered by many artists since its original release, most notably by Whigfield, Crazy Frog, Billie Piper, Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande.
"Jingle Bells" is one of the most commonly sung songs in the world. It was written in 1850 by James Lord Pierpont at Simpson Tavern in Medford, Massachusetts. It was published under the title "The One Horse Open Sleigh" in September 1857. It has been claimed that it was originally written to be sung by a Sunday school choir for Thanksgiving, or as a drinking song. Although it has no original connection to Christmas, it became associated with winter and Christmas music in the 1860s and 1870s, and it was featured in a variety of parlor song and college anthologies in the 1880s. It was first recorded in 1889 on an Edison cylinder; this recording, believed to be the first Christmas record, is lost, but an 1898 recording - also from Edison Records - survives.
The Farm are a British band from Liverpool. Their first album, Spartacus, reached the top position on the UK Albums Chart when it was released in March 1991; Spartacus 30 was released in 2021 to commemorate the anniversary. Spartacus includes two songs which had been top 10 singles the year before. In 2012, they toured with their Spartacus Live shows and formed part of the Justice Tonight Band, supporting the Stone Roses at Heaton Park, Phoenix Park, Lyon and Milan. The Justice Collective had the 2012 Christmas number one with their recording of "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother".
"All Together Now" is a song by British band the Farm and the second single from their debut album, Spartacus (1991). The song was released in November 1990 by Produce, Jive, Sire and Reprise. Vocalist of the band, Peter Hooton wrote the lyrics in his early 20s, after reading about the Christmas truce of 1914. The song was first recorded under the title "No Man's Land" for a John Peel session in 1983. In 1990, Hooton wrote the chorus after Steve Grimes suggested putting the lyrics of "No Man's Land" to the chord progression of Pachelbel's Canon. To shorten the song for radio, the producer Suggs cut the song to three verses from its original six. Its accompanying music video received heavy rotation on MTV Europe. "All Together Now" has been used by numerous football teams since, as well as by the Labour Party for their 2017 general election campaign, often played during rallies.
"Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" is a Christmas song released in 1971 as a single by John & Yoko/The Plastic Ono Band with the Harlem Community Choir. It was the seventh single release by John Lennon outside his work with the Beatles. The song reached number four in the UK, where its release was delayed until November 1972, and has occasionally re-emerged on the UK Singles Chart, most notably after Lennon's murder in December 1980, when it peaked at number two.
Tropic Island Hum, released in 2004, but originally recorded in 1987, is a song from Paul McCartney's second animated film for children. The associated single reached #21 in the UK and #30 in Ireland.
"Ebony and Ivory" is a song that was released in 1982 as a single by Paul McCartney featuring Stevie Wonder. It was issued on 29 March that year as the lead single from McCartney's third solo album, Tug of War (1982). Written by McCartney, the song aligns the black and white keys of a piano keyboard with the theme of racial harmony. The single reached number one on both the UK and the US charts and was among the top-selling singles of 1982 in the US. During the apartheid era, the South African Broadcasting Corporation banned the song after Wonder dedicated his 1984 Academy Award for Best Original Song to Nelson Mandela.
"Mull of Kintyre" is a song by the British-American rock band Wings. It was written by Paul McCartney and Denny Laine in tribute to the Kintyre peninsula in Argyll and Bute in the south-west of Scotland and its headland, the Mull of Kintyre, where McCartney has owned High Park Farm since 1966.
Rupert and the Frog Song is a 1984 animated short film based on the comic strip character Rupert Bear, written and produced by Paul McCartney and directed by Geoff Dunbar. The making of Rupert and the Frog Song began in 1981 and ended in 1983. The film was released theatrically as an accompaniment to McCartney's film Give My Regards to Broad Street. The song "We All Stand Together" from the film's soundtrack reached No. 3 when released in the UK Singles Chart. It was released in 2004 as one of the segments of Paul McCartney: Music & Animation.
"Band on the Run" is a song by the British–American rock band Paul McCartney and Wings, the title track to their 1973 album Band on the Run.
"Once Upon a Long Ago" is a song by English musician Paul McCartney, released as his fortieth single on 16 November 1987, from his compilation All the Best!, released two weeks before the single. The track was produced by Phil Ramone and mixed by George Martin, and features violin by Nigel Kennedy.
"Wonderful Christmastime" is a Christmas song by English musician Paul McCartney. Recorded during the sessions for his solo album McCartney II (1980), it was released in November 1979 following Wings' final album Back to the Egg earlier that year. It was McCartney's first solo single in over eight years since "Eat at Home" in 1971. "Wonderful Christmastime" has charted within the top 10 in Austria, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom as well as the top 20 in Canada, Slovakia, Sweden, and Switzerland. Despite being regarded as one of McCartney's weaker compositions by some music critics, it is a popular song during Christmas and has been covered throughout the years by numerous artists.