Watch Stephen Colbert, Norah Jones Debut ‘Worst’ New Christmas Tune
Stephen Colbert enlisted Norah Jones and Jon Batiste to help him debut a maddening, so-bad-it’s-good holiday tune titled “Christmas Is Now” on The Late Show Monday.
As Colbert explained, the song was written to bump Paul McCartney and Wings’ “Wonderful Christmas Time” from the top spot of “worst Christmas songs of all time.” True to his promise, Colbert, in an ugly knit sweater, began beating the song into ears, brains and hearts everywhere as he harmonized with Batiste, “Christmas is now, Christmas is now/ Now it is Christmas and Christmas is now.”
Jones soon joined the pair followed by a small choir and the entire Late Show audience, all of whom belted variations on the song’s infectious three word-theme into seasonal infamy.
Jones also stuck around to perform her smokey and shuffling cover of Horace Silver’s “Peace,” which appears on her new record, Day Breaks (Jones also recorded the song for her 2001 EP First Sessions).
Jones will kick off a string of U.S. shows in support of Day Breaks March 1st in Nashville. She’ll then play a handful of international dates before opening another stateside leg May 21st in Chicago.