Jason and Travis Kelce made their debut as a Christmas song-singing brother act in 2023 when they personalized the Pogues’ “Fairytale of New York” by hurling insults at each other in sibling rivalry fashion on “Fairytale of Philadelphia.”
Now, the siblings are back with a new duet from the third Eagles holiday album, “A Philly Special Christmas Party,” with a song that Dr. Dog’s keyboard player Zach Miller wrote specifically with the brothers in mind.
“It’s Christmas Time (in Cleveland Heights)” shouts out the suburban Ohio town where the brothers grew up. The Kelces are joined in song by one of Philadelphia’s most beloved musical acts, Boyz II Men, whose sumptuous, swooping vocals surround the brothers’ less dulcet tones with gossamer sweetness.
The song, which comes out Friday, is the first to be released from the third volume of the Philly Specials series, which raised $3 million last year for the Children’s Crisis Treatment Center, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and other local charities. One song from the album, which also features Stevie Nicks, Mt. Joy, and Devon Gilfillian, will be released each Friday until the full album drops on November 29.
“It’s Christmas Time (in Cleveland Heights)” is the second original Christmas song written in-house by the Philly Specials team since offensive linemen Jason Kelce, Jordan Mailata, and Lane Johnson first got their jingle bells on with 2022’s “A Philly Christmas Special.” The first was Kelce’s “Santa’s Night,” which the now-retired Eagles center wrote for last year’s “A Philly Special Christmas Special.”
More from CafeMom: Stevie Nicks Wants Taylor Swift & Travis Kelce To ‘Get Married & Have Babies’
The first album came out in 2022.
For the first Philly Specials album in 2022, Zach wrote piano music to accompany Eagles radio voice Merrill Reese’s recitation of Clement Clarke Moore’s poem “A Visit From St. Nicholas,” more commonly known as “Twas the Night Before Christmas.”
For this one, Zach did something more. He created a melancholy Christmas tune in the spirit of holiday staples such as “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” and “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas,” penning lyrics for the brothers about their hometown being transformed while they were away playing football every holiday season.
“That’s one of the things I love about Christmas music. A lot of it sounds very sad, but it’s also ‘The Most Wonderful Time of the Year,’” said Zach, speaking this week from his home in West Philly, singing the title of that Andy Williams holiday perennial.
“Musicians and athletes and a lot of people can empathize with not being home for the holidays,” Jason Kelce said in an interview with The Inquirer in September. “So you end up thinking about it and yearning for the time that you were back there.”
“Travis and I have been away from home for so long, and not just for the holidays,” said the Monday Night Football analyst and cohost of the New Heights podcast, “so it means so much more to you when you are back home for the holidays. And that’s the way the song comes off to me. You’re home for Thanksgiving, or for Christmas, and you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, this place has changed mightily.’”
“It’s not a complicated song,” he said, “but I think the sentiment behind it is universal for a lot of people. It’s like an R&B version of a Christmas song. When I first listened to it, I didn’t know what it was, but I thought, ‘Man, I just love this song.’ It really struck a chord with me.”
Shawn Stockman, Nathan Morris and Wanya Morris of Boyz II Men add delicious vocal ornamentation to the arrangement, and Shawn sings the last verse before Wanya Morris embellishes the coda.
“When I found out it was even a possibility to have them on the song, it was unreal,” Jason said. “We’ve had Patti LaBelle and Amos Lee and a lot of great artists in years past, but Boyz II Men are probably the biggest names I’ve ever sang with. And the song is right in their wheelhouse.”
Zach, who grew up in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, remembers being 11 and spending afternoons in the den of his family’s house playing the “Lode Runner” computer game and listening to the cassette of the Boyz II Men’s 1991 debut, “Cooleyhighharmony,” on repeat.
“It’s a full circle,” said Zach, who’s credited with playing drum machine, Mellotron choir, Moog synthesizer, and DW600 Synthesizer on the track, which also features Philly Special regulars such as bassist Anthony Tidd, guitarist Kevin Hanson and sax player Immanuel Wilkins.
Being a key Philly Special player from the beginning has been a kick, “just being in the orbit” of Kelce, Mailata, Johnson and their ex-Eagle executive producer Connor Barwin, Zach said.
He also has praise for Charlie Hall, the War on Drugs drummer and producer who is “an incredibly charismatic person who can wrangle a bunch of people together to do something crazy and have a really great time doing it.”
The “persistent challenge” with the Philly Specials project, Zach said with a laugh, “is explaining what it is. It’s like: ‘We made this record of Christmas songs with football players’ — but it’s actually good.”
A children's choir also sang.
In addition to the Kelces and Boyz II Men, “It’s Christmas Time (in Cleveland Heights)” includes vocal contributions from the Philly Specials Children’s Choir, made up of children of the musicians and behind-the-scenes players on the project, including Zach’s son, Cyril, 13, and daughter, Frieda, 10. And since it stands to reason that Travis most likely plays the music he and his brother make, for important people in his life, Zach had a message for his daughter.
“I got to tell her that, technically, Taylor Swift has probably heard her sing. It’s a good possibility. And that’s kind of cool, you know? In a chorus of other kids.”
She took the news in stride, her Philly Specials father said. “She laughed.”
–Dan DeLuca, The Philadelphia Inquirer (TNS)
©2024 The Philadelphia Inquirer. Visit inquirer.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
