Reggie Watts Releases 'Reggie Sings: Your Favorite Christmas Songs'

Season’s greetings from Reggie Watts — the comedian and musician surprise shares Reggie Sings: Your Favorite Christmas Classics, Vol. 1, out now. Like an unlabeled present under the tree, Reggie Sings: Your Favorite Christmas Classics is a pleasant and unexpected gift. It’s the heartwarming melodies and instruments listeners love from their favorite carols, all given a comedic spin by Watts’ encyclopedic, uninhibited stream-of-consciousness. These are carols for people who find holiday cheer in singing about a grandparent being trampled by a hoofed animal.

Jolly and bearded himself, Reggie Watts boasts the credentials needed to be today’s Kris Kringle. On Reggie Sings… he gives faithful renditions of the Peanuts chorus (“Christmas Time Is Here”) and Christmas ghosts (“God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”), each role played with his own idiosyncratic delivery, while “White Christmas” lets Watts flex his chops as a singer, one with a voice deep enough to rattle chimneys. It’s something that appeals to anyone naughty or nice, especially those who are a little bit of both.

Watts created the EP with the help of guitarist Tim Young, who performed alongside the comedian as part of The Late, Late Show’s in-house band. Watts shared how the EP came quickly and smoothly to them both:

“I said ‘Hey Tim, I have this idea. Maybe you could help me with. I want to put together a small band or maybe it doesn’t have to be a band, but I wanna do a Christmas album that doesn’t have to be the full songs necessarily, but possibly the idea is to do traditional Christmas songs, but I’m just improvising the lyrics and it feels kind of classic in some way.’ Tim replied: ‘Christmas is only a few weeks away… this is crazy…but LET’S GO FOR IT!!’ So Tim made a couple of calls. The incomparable Larry Goldings kindly agreed to play piano and Scott Seiver shared his sublime musicality on the drums. Tim played bass and engineered it in his studio. They met at 11 am. The three songs were all recorded live, in one or two takes. The session ended at 11:37 am. This lovely little collection of new Christmas classics was created in 37 min, making it not only one of the most beautiful Christmas eps ever, but one of the most rapidly made!”

About Reggie Watts:

Reggie Watts is an internationally renowned Musician/Comedian/Writer/Actor who most recently starred as the bandleader on CBS’s The Late Late Show with James Corden. Using his formidable voice, looping pedals, and his vast imagination, Watts blends and blurs the lines between music and comedy, wowing audiences with performances that are 100% improvised. He was the DJ at the 2021 Emmy Awards, which saw a 15% ratings boost from 2020.  

Reggie’s memoir, Great Falls, MT was recently released by Penguin’s highly curated Tiny Reparations imprint, founded by Phoebe Robinson. His latest special, Never Mind, is now available to stream on Veeps.   

Watts’ first Netflix special Spatial released to massive critical acclaim, with the New York Times calling it “a giddy rush of escapist nonsense” and dubbing Watts “the most influential absurdist in comedy today.” The A.V. Club described Spatial as “signature Watts, meaning it’s alternately exhilarating, silly, exhausting and transcendent,” and Exclaim! Magazine called his performance “engaging, absurd, thoughtful and, most importantly, wholly unpredictable.” As a solo performer, Watts brand of musical/comedy fusion has led to sold out headlining tours in the U.S. and Europe, including festivals such as Bonnaroo, SXSW, Bumbershoot, Just For Laughs, Pemberton and more. 

In 2020, Watts released his own content app called, WattsApp, a techno-savvy look into his life, work, and techno junk drawer. WattsApp has all original content including a show called Droneversations, where he interviews guests while it’s filmed by drones along with other fun content. 

In 2010, Watts released his debut comedy special, Why s So Crazy? on Comedy Central Records, and is now available to stream on Netflix. Why s So Crazy? featured Watts in live performances at New York venues such as Galapagos, The Bellhouse, and Le Poisson Rouge, bookended with brief sketches and music videos. Later that year, at the invitation of Jack White, Watts recorded Reggie Watts: Live at Third Man Records which was released on limited edition vinyl. In 2012, Watts  recorded his second comedy special, Reggie Watts: A Live At Central Park, which was released by Comedy Central. Watts was born in Germany, raised in Montana, and currently resides in Los Angeles.

Photo credit: Katherine McCullough

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