Emmy-, Tony- and Golden Globe-nominated star Matthew Morrison serenades the PBS audience with a collection of standards -- many first made famous in Broadway musicals -- and a set of classic Christmas songs. New to Act One of the special is the song "As Long as She Needs Me" from Oliver. "It's actually 'As Long As HE Needs Me', " explains Morrison. "This song has such great storytelling. This song, like so many others in the special, takes you on a journey. You get to the end of the song and you're like - 'No! I want part two! What's going to happen now?' And then you get the next song, and you go on a whole new journey." In Act Three, Morrison takes viewers on a Christmas journey, with several of his favorite Christmas classics. In the special, "I'm singing the timeless classic 'Oh Holy Night', as well as the ageless yet youthful 'Jingle Bell Rock'," Morrison continues, "I have this great passion for Hawaii. One of my first singing gigs was performing backing vocals for Don Ho when I was in high school. So I sing 'Mele Kalikimaka' with my ukulele! It was important for me to throw in some great holiday spirit into this PBS special." Morrison turned to the late, legendary producer Phil Ramone (Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett) to produce and arrange the songs, and Maroon 5's Adam Levine as executive producer. This is the first project released by Levine's 222 Records.
