Who is This Enchantress? Seth MacFarlane’s Love Letter to Anne Murray

There’s an episode of Family Guy from 2013 titled “Chris Cross,” in which Stewie, the baby of the Griffin family, becomes enamored with the music of Anne Murray and shares it with their dog, Brian. Over the next 20 minutes, various musical numbers featuring Murray’s work appear, until the episode’s big conflict hits: Brian and Stewie disagree over the meaning of Murray’s hit song, “Snowbird.”

I watched the episode live when it first aired, and felt moved by the sentimental animations accompanying the musical moments. Every time Stewie or Brian hear one of Murray’s songs, their bodies transcend and enter a creative animated state, like a psychedelic music video or a cosmic drug trip. For laughs, Stewie absorbs a rainbow, splits into six copies of himself and blossoms into a flower, while Brian is evocatively swept up in memories of being a puppy and living with his mom (before she’s taxidermied and turned into a table in Season 2). 

While these snippets feature some of Family Guy’s more creative animation excerpts, the songs stand on their own for being so evocative and passionate. The rest of the “Chris Cross” focuses on a forgettable story about Stewie’s siblings, but as the credits rolled, I found myself wondering, like Stewie, “My God, who is this enchantress??”

Undeniably, this episode celebrating Anne Murray hits differently, and not just for me. According to Google analytics, when the episode aired, searches for Anne Murray hit an all-time high. If you check the comments of any of Murray’s greatest hits on YouTube, the section is full of praise from Family Guy fans who have fallen in love with Murray’s music:

“Who is here for Stewie and Brian?” @gustavo33039 writes. “Family Guy thank you…,” types another. @maxblay5308 says, “Good job Stewie got me hooked on Anne Murray,” but @brockdaul6241’s proverb strikes deep: “I got off my anxiety meds a few months ago. Was watching Family Guy and this episode came on. I had never heard Anne Murray before this. This has never happened before but for some reason, this scene had me crying happy tears. I think I realized that I didn’t have the crutch of being on meds anymore and was able to let go, worry less, and feel happy again. All from a f***in Family Guy episode…go figure.”

While it’s easy to argue that Family Guy is the Del Taco of television, in this instance I find myself defending the show because of Anne, because it turned a new generation onto her music. Showrunner Seth MacFarlane has been known to use Family Guy as a vehicle for highlighting his pop-culture passions, such as Flash Gordon, 1950s era showtunes and, most famously, Star Wars. Some of those passions, like Star Wars,  have been received warmly, leading to Family Guy parodying the entire original trilogy, while others, like the extended cutaways of Conway Twitty, have led to fan disdain. 

After “Chris Cross” was released, MacFarlane posted his inspiration behind the episode on X: “In answer to you all: my dad always played Anne Murray in the car on the way to the dump when I was a kid. Inspiration for the episode.” Whether or not his comment was sardonic, there’s no doubting the power of nostalgia—especially nostalgia for the music we listened to growing up. It affects everyone differently and, if Stewie and Brian’s reaction is any indication, MacFarlane’s affection for Murray may not entirely be consigned to its association with the dump. 

“Chris Cross” features three of Murray’s greatest hits: “I Just Fall in Love Again,” “Snowbird” and “You Needed Me,” all of which can be conveniently found on Capitol Records’ 1980 collection, Anne Murray’s Greatest Hits, which sold more than 4 million copies in North America alone. I have owned the compilation two separate times (both instances ended in me giving the records away to people who had never heard of Murray), and bought it a third time after it was taken off streaming services. 

Born in Springhill, Nova Scotia in 1945, Murray reached mainstream popularity in the 1970s, eventually earning four Grammy Awards and selling 55 million albums worldwide. She was also the first Canadian female singer to reach the #1 spot on the US charts (and the first to earn a Gold record for her efforts). Her musical style has been labeled as pop, country and adult contemporary, with many peers comparing her to the likes of Olivia Newton-John and Glen Campbell. 

Murray retired from the music industry in 2008 after recording her seventh Christmas album and completing a farewell tour. When asked in an interview with CBC if she ever regretted retiring, she responded, “I did it for 40 years and that’s long enough to do anything… I wanted to go out still singing well, and not having to make excuses.” Since retiring, Murray has been relatively quiet. She was briefly a mentor on Canadian Idol in 2008, published a memoir in 2009, participated in the 2010 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony and three years later, guest-starred on Family Guy. Although her time in the limelight has passed, she still retains a strong audience, with 1.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify.

Despite being an incredible singer, Murray is not a songwriter herself. This is discovered by Stewie and Brian when they argue over interpretations of “Snowbird.” At the end of the episode, the pair travel to Murray’s log cabin for an answer, and she tells them her interpretation of the song, and that it was in fact written by Gene MacLellan. In the wake of such a revelation, Stewie crashes out, ties Murray to a chair and forces her to sing the song while being held at gunpoint. For added laughs, Anne Murray is voiced by the woman herself. And while her guest appearance on Family Guy seems a little out of left field, she isn’t the first musical celebrity to voice themselves on the show, joining the likes of Frank Sinatra Jr., Barry Manilow and every member of KISS. 

As a cartoon baby—and for the sake of an animated cable television show’s plot—Stewie gets a pass for confounding Murray as both a singer and a songwriter, but I think his confusion speaks to Murray’s talent as an interpreter. A compelling example is Anne Murray’s cover of “Danny’s Song,” originally penned and recorded by Kenny Loggins and Jim Messina. The song, released by Loggins and Messina on their debut album Sittin’ In in 1971, was written by Loggins for his brother Danny, who had recently become a father. The song received considerable radio airplay, but didn’t chart and was considered a B-side track on the record. Yet, Murray fell in love with the song and released her own rendition in 1972, scoring a Top 10 hit and a Grammy nomination.

The original track is not bad by any means. The bare-bones recording is a testament to Loggins’ evocative songwriting and Messina’s tasteful production, beginning tenderly with Loggins’ singing and the accompaniment of a finger-picked guitar melody in the left channel and an occasional shaker in the right. Almost imperceptibly, a second guitar joins in and a piano fleshes out the rest of the instrumentation. Eventually a violin, notes of percussion and bass arrive for the final leg of the song, but, admittedly, the mix begins to feel a little cluttered. By the end of the final verse, when Loggins sings, “And if you find she helps your mind / Better take her home, home, yeah / Don’t you live alone / Try to earn what lovers own” the lyrics are buried by the instrumentation, losing the tenderness first fostered by Loggins’ performance.

Murray and her producer Brian Ahern flip the original mix, instead opening the song with the guitar on the right channel, a faster tempo, and omitting the shaker entirely. In her performance, the band enters immediately on the first chorus, blooming warmly and gently like a sunrise. The instrumentation also has a subtle country flair characterized by crooning guitars and softly swaying drums. Compared to the original, the tone of the track is more consistently balanced and the instrumentals linger in the background, creating a comfy set dressing for Murray’s voice to rest against, which is, ultimately, what makes it a better rendition. Loggins is a good singer, but Murray is a great singer, and her ability to interpret the song with a better voice is what makes it superior.

As a singer, Murray utilizes her emotional and vocal ranges to sprinkle a little something extra into all her recordings. Like Judy Garland or Celine Dion, her voice takes center stage and eclipses the instrumentation with its rich, ambrosia-like texture. Her songs “You Needed Me,” “I Just Fall In Love Again” and “Could I Have This Dance” continue to rack up listens on Spotify and views on YouTube, and a lot of that is thanks to, oddly enough, Family Guy. But how could you resist? Stewie says it best: “She sounds like an angel. It’s like her voice is putting my entire body inside her mouth.”

Tony Le Calvez is a music journalist for The Needle Drop and Amplified SD. You can find him skating around Ocean Beach looking for snacks or DM him on Twitter.