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Last night at a campaign fundraiser at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, President Obama took the stage, crooning a line from Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" during his speech.
Between busting out his falsetto register for a taste of the Al Green 1971 classic "Let's Stay Together" and shouting out the in-attendance Reverend Green, color us impressed. So we asked a few major label A&R executives if they think Obama has a post-politics career in music, and naturally, asked Al Green and other soulful crooners for their thoughts on Obama's rendition.
After singing the first line of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together," the song got a significant sales boost.
Before we go back to analyzing our president's political track record instead of his record collection, we'd like to point out the five most surprising selections on the official Obama Campaign 2012 Playlist, released today.
President Barack Obama and the Rev. Al Green on tour? Obama was joined by the soul singer at a Democratic fundraiser on Thursday, a month after the president launched into a brief, impromptu version of Green's "Let's Stay Together" at New York's Apollo Theater.
First soul, now blues. A month after enjoying his Al Green moment at a fundraising event, President Obama busted out the presidential pipes again on Tuesday (Feb. 21) and sang a few frames of "Sweet Home Chicago" during a blues explosion at the White House.
In what appears to be the final moments of a PBS special scheduled to air Feb. 27, Obama thanks the All-Star band (members include B.B. King, Booker T. Jones, Mick Jagger and Derek Trucks) for a great night of music, but receives a bit of peer pressure in return.
"We were trying to get you to sing that," Buddy Guy is overheard saying. "Because I heard you had sung Al Green, so you started something so you gotta keep it up!"
Obama's initial look of embarrassement quickly erodes and he proceeds to sing along to the raucous band, "Come on, baby don't you wanna go… Come on, baby don't you wanna go… (hands mic to B.B. King who sings "Back to that same old place")… Sweet home, Chicago."
With that, Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama exit stage left (is that Don Was in the hat?).
"Sweet Home Chicago," a blues standard credited to the legendary Robert Johnson, has been covered by a large swath of the blues community, including Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Robert Cray, Junior Parker and of course The Blues Brothers.
According to PBS.org: "In Performance at the White House: Red, White and Blues" will honor the musical form that sprang from the Mississippi Delta and flourished in the Westside of Chicago with deep roots in Africa and slavery. The performances will explore those roots and pay homage to the great figures of the Blues and the songs they made famous… Airing on your local PBS station Monday February 27 at 9 p.m. ET.
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