How Elton John Finally Convinced Ed Sheeran to Collaborate on a Christmas Song
Elton John and Ed Sheeran are ringing in the holiday season with a brand new Christmas song
Elton John and Ed Sheeran are ringing in the holiday season with a brand new Christmas song.
However, as Sheeran told to Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show, he was originally pretty opposed to the idea, citing the amount of effort needed to create a true Christmas hit as the biggest obstacle.
"I've always been quite against... not that I don't like Christmas, I love Christmas. But in terms of doing a Christmas song, you need to chuck the kitchen sink at it," the English singer-songwriter said.
"I have a Northern Irish friend that says, 'If you're gonna get done for stealing a horse, you might as well f--- it,' you know?" he said with a laugh.
On the flip side, John is no stranger to holiday music, with his own 1973 hit, "Step Into Christmas," continuing to climb the charts. In fact, Sheeran partially credited the duo's upcoming collaboration to the success of this song.
"I think it went in at 13 in the '80s, and it was like No. 6 last year in England, so he's like, 'I want to do another Christmas song, do you want to do one with me?'" he told Fallon.
"He rung me on Christmas Day ... 'cause he was so buzzed that 'Step Into Christmas' gets a higher chart position every single year."
Of course, given Sheeran's previous stance against Christmas music, he told John that if he were to take on the project, he wanted to give it his absolute all.
"I said to Elton, I was like, 'I don't really want to do a Christmas song unless we're going in. Unless it's like sleigh bells, ding-dong— yeah, it needs to be a proper Christmas song.'"
Under these conditions, the two began to write. "I wrote a chorus, and then I went to go and stay with him, and we wrote three, and one of them was this one called 'Merry Christmas,'" said Sheeran. Surprisingly, the name seemed to stick.
"So get this. So we write it, and I title it 'Merry Christmas,' and I'm like, 'We're going to have to change that title, 'cause there's probably loads of songs called 'Merry Christmas,'" said Sheeran.
"I went on Spotify, and I typed in 'Merry Christmas,' nothing. There's 'Merry Christmas, Everyone,' there's 'Happy Xmas,' there's 'Merry Xmas,' there's 'War Is Over,' [but] there's not a song called 'Merry Christmas.'"
No matter which name the two decide to officially move forward with, fans of both artists can anticipate new music just in time for the holidays. Kitchen sink and all.