James Gunn Releases Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special Original Track by Old 97's

By Patrick Cavanaugh

Music has always been a key component of every Guardians of the Galaxy adventure, with the upcoming The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special being no different. Filmmaker James Gunn already released the tracklist for the upcoming Special Presentation from Marvel Studios, which included the confirmation that he co-wrote an original song with Old 97's, with Gunn taking to Twitter to share a link to the original track. The new song, "I Don't Know What Christmas Is (But Christmastime Is Here)," is now available on Spotify and will be included on the Special Presentation's soundtrack. The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special hits Disney+ on November 25th.

"When I wrote a song for the [Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special], I asked my pal [Rhett Miller] to write with me & then said, 'What the heck, why don't you and the [Old 97's] play the band?!' Some of the most fun days on set ever," Gunn shared on Twitter alongside a photo of the band dressed up as intergalactic musicians. 

In The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, the Guardians, who are on a mission to make Christmas unforgettable for Quill, head to Earth in search of the perfect present. The Marvel Studios' Special Presentation stars Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, and Pom Klementieff, featuring Vin Diesel as Groot and Bradley Cooper as Rocket, Sean Gunn and The Old 97's with Michael Rooker, and Kevin Bacon.

The rest of the songs on the soundtrack are as follows:

  • "Dead By X-mas" – Hanoi Rocks
  • "Christmas Treat" – Julian Casablancas
  • "Mrs. Claus" – Little Jackie
  • "Just Like Christmas" – Low
  • "Christmastime" – The Smashing Pumpkins
  • "Fairytale of New York" – The Pogues feat Kirsty MacColl
  • "Christmas Wrapping" – The Waitresses
  • "Is This Christmas" – The Wombats
  • "I Want An Alien For Christmas" – Fountains of Wayne
  • "Here It Is Christmastime" – Kevin Bacon and Old 97's

Along with the endearing music in the Holiday Special, the special also sees Kevin Bacon making his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut as himself years after first being namedropped in the original Guardians of the Galaxy as being a fabled hero of Earth.

"I went to the first Guardians movie on opening weekend. For one thing, It looked great. I had worked with James Gunn, so I wanted to see what he could do with this crazy comic book franchise," Bacon recently recalled to Yahoo! of realizing his signifiance in the MCU. "So, there I was, all alone in the theater and all of a sudden they're talking about me. That's a pretty out of body experience. Especially when its such a…It's one thing if a drama or a regular comedy does. But, they're in a whole other universe. A whole other world."

He continued, "I called my wife afterwards and said, 'You're not gonna believe what just happened. But, I'm not gonna tell you, we're gonna go back to this movie with you. It's a great movie, you're going to get a big kick out of it.' So, I took her back and didn't tell her what was going to happen. She had the same experience I did."

The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special hits Disney+ on November 25th.

What do you think of the song? Let us know in the comments!  

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