The pivotal duet wasn’t in the original script but was tailored to Deschanel’s skill set.
“One actress they were looking at was good at skateboarding.
But I had a cabaret act at the time and I was performing a lot.
New Line
For Deschanel, the real discovery was Ferrell’s pipes.
“He said he wasn’t a singer, so I wasn’t expecting much,” she recalls.
“But his dad [Roy Lee Ferrell Jr.] is a great musician.
New Line
I should’ve known he’d be secretly good!”
Ferrell cuts throughthe song’s controversial qualityand shower setting too.
It would be completely mixed with the sounds of the shower.”
She went on to record the song with Leon Redbone for the soundtrack.
“So I just had to guess how long he was going to hold [the final note].
When he recorded his, he held his out a lot more than me.
It sounds good, but I wish I’d known he was going to hold it out longer.”
Deschanel later recorded a gender-flipped version on a She & Him holiday album.
“I was a little hesitant to do it because I had done it,” she admits.
“So I said, ‘How about we flip the script and I’ll sing the male part?’
So that’s how we ended up doing it.”
She also creditsElfwith the song’s resurgence and says, “It hadn’t really been revisited.
[A few] big names recorded it in the ’50s, noweverybody records a version.”
Because the best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear.
To read more on holiday film favorites,order the December issueofEntertainment Weeklyor find it on newsstands now.
