The Kelce brothers have been on top of the world lately. They followed up their historic Super Bowl faceoff by co-starring in an Amazon Prime documentary and producing what’s become a top-rated weekly podcast.
Now? A No. 1 song on iTunes.
Eagles center and budding musician Jason Kelce invited his little brother Travis — tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs — to duet with him on “Fairytale of Philadelphia,” a local spin on the Pogues’ 1987 song “Fairytale of New York.”
Released Wednesday, it’s the third single from “A Philly Special Christmas Special,” the second holiday album headlined by the elder Kelce and two of his Eagles O-line teammates, Lane Johnson and Jason Mailata. Proceeds from the album will benefit holiday gift drives at Children’s Crisis Treatment Center and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
In its first 24 hours, “Fairytale” was streamed more than 500,000 times, according to spokesperson Maggie Poulos.
Aside from the two brothers being famous in their own right, a lot of the buzz is because Travis Kelce is dating Taylor Swift, one of the world’s biggest pop stars (who happens to be a Pennsylvania native and documented Eagles fan, despite being pictured in Chiefs gear a LOT lately).
Since the news broke of their formerly-maybe-but-now-definitely relationship, Swifties have started watching Chiefs games, listening to the Kelces’ podcast, and buying Kansas City merch.
So when the drop date for the Xmas single featuring Travis was announced, the fanbase began campaigning on social media to secure the song a spot on the charts, especially once they found out it would be supporting charity.
“swifties we have the opportunity to do the funniest thing ever,” one fan posted. Another replied, “We legally have to make it no 1 BAHAHAHA.”
“Fairytale of Philadelphia” is a playful but heartfelt cover, with numerous lyrical liberties taken to make the duet make sense for the context (including changing some lyrics that wouldn’t be particularly well-received in 2023).
The changes make it not only an ode to Philly, but also to the Kelces’ own brotherly love.
“Yo Trav,” Jason says over the phone in a behind-the-scenes video posted to Instagram. “We’re here recording the Christmas album and the guys have an idea that maybe you could hop on. It’s like two people fighting, but then they really love each other. It kinda works really good for our relationship.”
And thanks in part to Swifties, it’s now No. 1, at least on iTunes. As of Friday morning, the Philly Specials album version is the top song on the music buying service, and the single version is No. 11.
On Amazon, it’s the No. 21 best-selling song, with Jordan Mailata and Patti LaBelle’s cover of “This Christmas” at 30, and the Eagles’ cover of “All I Want for Christmas is You” at 33. The full record is No. 21 in top-selling paid albums.
Meanwhile, the vinyl edition of the album has received over 40k preorders so far, according to spokesperson Poulos, who said shipping is still on track for people to receive the physical record by Christmas. The first batch went out this week.
“Fairytale” doesn’t seem to be topping any streaming charts at the moment — the most recently available Spotify and Apple Music data don’t list it in the top 100. It did, as of Friday morning, claim the 18th spot on Apple Music’s list of songs trending in Philly.
This isn’t to say Swifties were necessarily responsible for all the digital download success. Last year’s “A Philly Special Christmas” album managed to make it to No. 1 on Billboard’s Compilation Albums chart during the week of Christmas 2022, way before Swift’s fanbase got involved with all things Kelce.
Still, T. Swift very well might’ve been onto something when she sang, “Karma takes all my friends to the summit.” (Facts.)
Read the “Fairytale of Philadelphia” lyrics below, with the changes from the original “Fairytale of New York” in bold:
Fairytale of Philadelphia
It was Christmas Eve again, in the drunk tank
An old man said to me
Won’t see another one
And then, he sang a song
“The Rare Old Mountain Dew”
I turned my face away and dreamed about you
Got on a lucky one, came in eighteen to one
I’ve got a feeling this year’s for me and you
So happy Christmas
I love you, brother
I can see a better time
When all our dreams come true
They’ve got cars big as bars, they’ve got rivers of gold
But the wind goes right through you, no place for the old
When you first took my hand on a cold Christmas Eve
You promised me Broad Street was waiting for me
You were handsome
You were pretty!
You’re the king of South Philly
When the band finished playing, they howled out for more
The Leathers were swinging
All the drunks, they were singing
We fought on a corner, then danced through the night
The sound of The Silver Ages choir
All singing “Galway Bay”
And the bells were ringing out for Christmas day
Youse a lush
You’re a crumb bum
You smell like some old scum
Washed up from the Schuylkill and rotting away
You dirtbag
You phony
You lousy jabroni
Happy Christmas, you ass
I pray God it’s our last
The sound of The Silver Ages choir
Still singing “Galway Bay”
And the bells were ringing out for Christmas day
I could have been someone
Well, so could anyone
You took my dreams from me
When Mom first had you
I kept them with me, Jase
I put them with my own
Can’t make it all alone
I’ve built my dreams around you!
The sound of The Silver Ages choir
Still singing “Galway Bay”
And the bells were ringing out for Christmas day
[Instrumental outro]
