Kelly Clarkson’s New Song Was Inspired by Martin Short for Some Reason

Not many popular songs have been written about cast of Three Amigos — with the possible exception of Paul Simon’s “You Can Call Me Al,” which, judging from the music video, was all about hanging out with Chevy Chase in a windowless, purgatorial room.

But pop star and talk show host Kelly Clarkson just dropped a new track that was reportedly inspired by comedy legend Martin Short. Which is no small feat considering how few words there are in the English language that rhyme with “Jiminy.” 

At first listen, the song, “Where Have You Been,” may not seem like it has any connection to Short whatsoever. It’s a pretty straightforward romantic ballad, containing sentimental lyrics like “Where have you been? What took so long?” and “Nothing could keep my eyes from driftin’ over to you,” but there are zero references to Clifford, and absolutely no Steve Martin put-downs. 

Per US Weekly, on Clarkson’s SiriusXM channel, the former American Idol star revealed that the song was specifically inspired by a scene featuring Short as washed-up Broadway producer Oliver Putnum from one of her favorite TV shows. 

“I’ve rarely done something like this, but I was watching Only Murders in the Building — it’s Martin Short’s face,” Clarkson explained. “He says to Meryl Streep’s character in the show, ‘Where have you been?’ He’s, like, in awe and I was like, ‘Has there been a — has anyone written a song?’ Because the song is happy. It’s like you found something that you thought was almost basically a unicorn and did not exist.”

Short and Streep’s romantic chemistry, which has seemingly spilled over into real life, is obviously one of the most affecting aspects of Only Murders in the Building. So it kind of makes sense that one of their early scenes together would inspire Clarkson. It would be far stranger had her fandom compelled her to record a track about trying to give Sting a turkey.

This isn’t the first time that Clarkson has benefited creatively from her love of Only Murders in the Building cast . As we’ve mentioned before, Steve Martin played banjo on her 2023 song “i hate love.” And the lyrics specifically cite Martin’s performance in It’s Complicated, which also featured Meryl Streep: “I hate love. And The Notebook lied. It's Complicated is more like what happens. So you can keep Gosling, and I’ll take Steve Martin.”

Learning that the song dropped a reference to him being more attractive than Ryan Gosling may have helped convince Martin to the recording.