President Obama Boosts Al Green’s ‘Let’s Stay Together’ Sales by 490%

2012-01-27

Story by Anne Erickson

President Barack Obama’s spontaneous take on Al Green’s ‘Let’s Stay Together’ hikes the song’s sales

Al Green’s classic soul song “Let’s Stay Together” got a sales boost last week after President Barack Obama surprised an unassuming crowd by singing a few lines from the song at a fundraiser in New York last Thursday (Jan. 19).

A video of President Obama singing a piece of the song at the event went viral the next day, generating a 490% weekly sales increase for the single. “Let’s Stay Together” sold 16,000 downloads in the week ending Jan. 22, reports Nielsen SoundScan. That’s the song’s best sales week since SoundScan started tracking downloads in 2003. Now we’d like to see the president take on a Pearl Jam or Metallica jam!

The president sang the song at New York’s Apollo Theater, after spotting Green in his crowd of supporters. The spontaneous jam shocked the president’s aides: “Those guys didn’t think I would do it,” President Obama joked, motioning to his aides and staff at the side of the stage. “I told you I was going to do it. The Sandman did not come out.” President Obama then paid tribute to Green and assured him that he’s not after his gig: “Don’t worry Rev, I cannot sing like you, but I just wanted to show my appreciation.” Green is no doubt pleasantly surprised by the resulting sales jump the spur-of-the-moment performance, too.

Several videos of the singing are up on YouTube, but the most popular clip has been viewed over 4 million times. Watch the most-viewed clip of the performance, below. (Photo via YouTube.)

Watch President Obama Sing Al Green’s ‘Let’s Stay Together’:

http://youtu.be/T-hDt2E8MoE

 





Anne Erickson
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