President Obama Needs to Sing One of My Songs

We should start a movement or something.

A day after President Obama sang a bit of Al Green's classic "Let's Stay Together" from the podium at a January 19th fundraising event in Harlem, videos of the crooner-in-chief went viral on YouTube, racking up millions of views. But it wasn't just Obama's version of the song that the web's music fans sought out: according to Nielsen (via Billboard), digital download sales for Green's version of the song jumped up 490% in the period ending on January 22nd.

With 16,000 downloads, the song had its most successful online sales week since Nielsen began keeping track of web transactions in 2003. It's good news for Green's wallet, just as the President's cover was music to his ears.

I'm thinking "Relish."
 

Obama would nail that song...

Email From a Fan in Thailand

Just noticed an email in ye olde email receptacle. I thought it was spam, naturally, but turns out it wasn't:

Dear Little Thom,

Hi. This is Kiattisak from Thailand. I found one of your songs 'Inside Joke' from a podcast of The Word Nerds, and liked it very much. I bought the song from iTunes Store last year, so it's been a while but I can sing along only roughly. May I ask you for its lyrics, please?

Best Wishes,
Kiattisak

Kiattisak is in Thailand, singing along, if unintelligibly at the moment, with one of my songs, possibly right now. Take that, Bob Dylan!

Oh, wait...

Thank you Kiattisak. (And yes, I sent him the lyrics.)