As the world knows by now, Kansas City Chiefs’ tight end Travis Kelce is dating famed musician Taylor Swift. And now, he’s put out a single of his own with his brother Jason, the Philadelphia Eagles’ center and 2023 People’s Sexiest Man Alive finalist. But this single actually comes from before Travis Kelce started dating Swift.
This single is part of a larger effort from The Philly Specials (Eagles’ offensive linemen Jason Kelce, Lane Johnson, and Jordan Mailata). They put out Christmas album A Philly Special Christmas last year, which was a wild hit that raised more than a million for Philadelphia-area charities. And in response to the success of that, they now have a second Christmas album, titled A Philly Special Christmas Special. That full album comes out Dec. 1 (it can be ordered on vinyl and CD here), and its proceeds benefit Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Children’s Crisis Treatment Center.
Ahead of that album release, The Philly Specials have already released three singles from the new album. The first was a cover of Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” featuring the core three members of the group (with Mailata on lead vocals). The second was Donny Hathaway’s “This Christmas,” featuring Mailata and Patti LaBelle. And the third has Travis team up with Jason Kelce for a new version of The Pogues’ classic “Fairytale of New York,” changing the setting to Philadelphia and the relationship to rivalry-turned-brotherly love. Here it is:
Jason also tweeted about this Wednesday:
And this is rocketing up the iTunes charts:
A few lyrical samples (the complete new lyrics, credited as “a collaborative effort by The Philly Specials,” can be found at The Philadelphia Inquirer here):
TRAVIS: You were handsome
JASON: You were pretty
TRAVIS: The king of South Philly
BOTH: When the band finished playing
They howled out for more
BOTH: The leathers were swinging,
All the drunks they were singing
We fought on a corner
Then danced through the night
A group of football players trying to rewrite and sing a Pogues classic doesn’t sound like it should work, but this definitely does. And it’s a cool big swing for this group, and it’s notable to see Travis involved in supporting his brother’s project this way.
Travis’ vocals were recorded by producer Charlie Hall (of The War on Drugs fame) and engineer Nick Krill in Kansas City in August, though, before he started dating Swift. So this album isn’t necessarily going to feature her. But it is yet another facet of the Kelces’ seemingly unstoppable media empire. And maybe one day we’ll get a Travis and Taylor duet.