My name is John Legend, and
these were my inspirations
for a song called "Make It Work" for our film,
Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey.
♪ You’ve got to make it work ♪
David E. Talbert is our film's writer and director.
He is the visionary behind this film,
along with his wife Lyn Talbert,
and David came to our house and sat with me at the piano,
and talked about what he wanted from this song,
and I started writing it right there.
♪ He says he wants to make it work again ♪
♪ Let the long road back to love begin ♪
♪ He thinks that we can make, we can make it work again ♪
Well, I think one of the iconic Black musical films
is The Wiz, and I definitely was thinking about
some of the references from The Wiz
that would kind of excite me,
and push me in a certain direction.
♪ Tighten every screw, turn every gear ♪
♪ I hope this time you'll see me ♪
♪ Working on this formula for years ♪
♪ Wonder if this time it could be real ♪
♪ I'm gonna make it work again ♪
♪ Try to fix every part that's broken ♪
♪ I'm gonna make, I'm gonna make it work again ♪
The music from Jingle Jangle, I think,
is a cool fusion of soul music, gospel music,
Broadway, kind of musical theater music,
all kind of put together.
♪ Forgiveness sure ain't easy ♪
♪ Don't know what I'm gonna do ♪
I had basically come up with the structure
for this song within a few minutes of sitting with David.
I had written a completely different song
for the scene where "Make It Work" is,
but it was more of like a ballad,
and more, kind of emotional,
and he was thinking he wanted something with more energy.
♪ Make it work now, it ain't easy ♪
♪ Make it work ♪
♪ Make it work now, it ain't easy ♪
♪ Make it work ♪
♪ You've got to make it work ♪
The essence of this song was composed
within, you know, 15, 20 minutes,
sitting there on the piano with David,
and understanding what he wanted for the song,
and trying to give that to him.
♪ You've got to make it work, yeah ♪
♪ Make it work now ♪
♪ It ain’t easy ♪
♪ Make it work now ♪
♪ It ain’t easy ♪
We've added the Sunday Service choir
to several of the songs throughout the film.
We wanted it to feel, you know, powerful
and inspirational, and we wanted a great choir,
and so we got one.
♪ Gotta make it work ♪
You just try to capture the story,
and the moment, in the right way.
♪ Gotta make it work again, again, again ♪
♪ Work, work, work ♪
Well, we wanted it to kind of build
like a rousing gospel song.
We wanted it to feel like it had energy,
and momentum, and rhythm.
♪ Make it work again, got a say in how my story ends ♪
♪ I'm gonna make it work again ♪
We're so proud that it features so many
Black actors and producers and writers and team members,
musicians. I think it's really, a triumph
of Black excellence, that this film exists.
♪ Make it work again ♪
Check out Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey,
now streaming on Netflix.
♪ If we can make it work again ♪