Text Me Merry Christmas

Album: Under the Influence: Holiday Edition (2014)
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Songfacts®:

  • A Christmas song for the digital age, this one starts with a typical holiday scenario: a couple who will be spending Christmas apart. However, instead of a card or even a phone call, the girl just wants a text message from her guy so she'll know he cares.

    Most millennials will never roast chestnuts by an open fire, but they are sure to be near their phones over the holidays. As this song points out, a text message is the perfect way to show your love, especially if you choose just the right emoji.
  • Straight No Chaser is a 10-man a cappella group specializing in Christmas songs; their offbeat rendition of "Twelve Days of Christmas" got them a record deal.

    They needed a female voice for this song, so they enlisted Kristen Bell, a singer/actress who voiced Anna in the Disney movie Frozen, and gained a legion of fans from her starring role on the TV series (and movie) Veronica Mars. Bell says she had a lot of fun working on this song. "The lyrics are smart and creative, and musically it was a blast to sing a cappella with Straight No Chaser," she said. "I'm excited to be part of what could be a Christmas classic for our current generation."
  • "Text Me Merry Christmas" was written by David Javerbaum and Adam Schlesinger. The pair are a top team for contemporary comedy numbers; they've written musical bits for the Tony and Emmy award ceremonies, along with tunes for other TV specials, including A Colbert Christmas. Schlesinger is a member of the band Fountains of Wayne. "If you want to make a living as a musician, you try to be involved in as many things as you can," he told us.
  • A lyric video was made for this song with the words displayed in text message form. Another claymation video was also produced, this one done by the JASH comedy crew along with Cuppa Coffee Studios studios. Done in the style of the Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer and Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town Rankin-Bass TV specials, it features an animated Kristen Bell along with lots of product placement.

    Bell is a good candidate for a viral video - her appearance on Ellen where she revealed home footage of her sloth surprise racked up over 20 million views.

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