Touch Me (Smash song)
| "Touch Me" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Smash cast feat. Katharine McPhee | ||||
| from the album The Music of Smash | ||||
| Genre | Dance-pop | |||
| Length | 3:50 | |||
| Songwriter(s) |
Ryan Tedder Bonnie McKee |
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| Smash cast singles chronology | ||||
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"Touch Me" is an original song introduced in the eighth episode of the first season of the musical TV series Smash, entitled "The Coup". It is written by Ryan Tedder and Bonnie McKee. In the show's universe, the song is written by Tedder, who plays himself.
In the episode, because the Bombshell musical about Marilyn Monroe is having some trouble with direction, choreographer and director Derek Wills (Jack Davenport) and producer Eileen Rand (Anjelica Huston) seek a new direction for the show (without telling songwriting duo Tom Levitt (Christian Borle) and Julia Houston (Debra Messing) first) and Derek enlists Karen Cartwright (Katharine McPhee) to help him. He has gotten Tedder to write a song that shows a more contemporary and edgy side of Marilyn Monroe, and Karen, with help from some dancers enlisted by Derek, along with Tedder and his band, performs the song in front of Tom and Julia, on a bed and wrapped in a bedsheet while dancers playing paparazzi swirl around her.
The song is currently available on the cast album The Music of Smash.
The song has sold 18,000 digital copies as of May 9, 2012.
Tedder made a cameo on the series in "The Coup" as himself and within the show gives the song to Karen to perform after Derek (Jack Davenport) asks him to and work on the Marilyn Monroe project for him.
The scene, described by The Smoking Gun, is as follows: "Karen appears wrapped in a white sheet, singing and thrashing while surrounded by masked men. By the end of the song, she's completely caged in and looks a bit like a 'scared bird'".
The Hollywood Reporter suggested that the spot, which first aired during the Super Bowl, was deliberately seductive (e.g. with McPhee only wearing a sheet) in "an attempt to entice male viewers".
Prior to its release, the song drew comparisons with the Max Martin-produced Glee song "Loser Like Me" which peaked at #6 on the Hot 100, and it was questioned whether it would have the same success as a single.
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