Singer-songwriter Christina Perri didn’t wait long in her career to share an album of holiday tunes with the world. Her new EP, “A Very Merry Perri Christmas,” includes Christmas classics like “Ave Maria,” modern favorites like John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s “Happy XMas (War Is Over)” and even an original, “Something About December.” Billboard.com called the collection one of the 10 best holiday albums of the year, and now we’ve got a special exclusive video clip of Perri discussing the whole EP track by track, which you can watch below.
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The album’s original, “Something About December,” was “almost easy,” the singer says. “I feel like I’ve been writing it for 26 years. I sat down with my big brother, who’s had every christmas with me — we’re extremely close — [and] I decided, ‘let’s sing about our Christmasses.” The writing came quickly, she adds. “The song came out in one take one afternoon. We were wearing santa hats; it was July. It was a day I’ll never forget.”
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The bond of family influenced other parts of “A Very Merry Perri Christmas” as well. Her stripped down take on “Ave Maria,” which Perri says was “the most challenging,” came about because, “I did it for my family. It’s their favorite song. It’s just me, guitar and cello.” Perri’s version of the bluesy “Please Come Home For Christmas” features her brother on lead guitar.
Twentieth century holiday favorites Perri included on the set, meanwhile, were featured because they meant so much to her personally. She covers the Carpenters’ “Merry Christmas Darling,” because it’s “my all time, number one Christmas song.” “It was really emotional singing it in the studio,” she adds. “I cried the first time we ran through.” Lennon and Ono’s “Happy XMas (War Is Over)” made the set because, “to do a John Lennon song was just a must have for me. I had my friends come to the studio that day. I feel like the song is a big party.”
What Perri calls a “heartfelt and dramatic” take on the classic “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” closes the EP. The idea to cover it was borne of a little snippet Perri previously put on Youtube. “People [were] commenting that they wanted the whole version, so for me, this was one I had to put on there because I almost promised I would.”