Al Green to perform for Obama
SAN FRANCISCO — Those hoping for a crooning President Obama — or at least an encore of his rendition of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” — could get their wish Thursday night.
Green will perform at an Obama fundraising dinner for about 70 people at a private residence in San Francisco, according to a campaign official, just a month after Obama belted part of the soul legend’s famous tune at the famed Apollo Theater in New York.
{mosads}The reverend happened to be in the New York audience when Obama serenaded more than 1,400 supporters at a fundraising event, but he didn’t join the president on stage for a duet.
Still, Obama did give the singer a nod after he hit the high notes: “Don’t worry, Rev, I cannot sing like you but I jut wanted to show my appreciation.”
The president’s singing moment became a YouTube sensation, and the Obama campaign rushed to make it into a cellphone ring. (Green also benefited from Obama’s riff: Billboard Magazine reported that sales of the 1972 hit rose by 490 percent.)
Green won’t be Obama’s first run-in with a celebrity on his three-day-fundraising junket, where he is expected to collect checks totaling $3 million.
George Clooney, Jim Belushi, Jack Black and Rashida Jones appeared at Tinseltown fundraisers for Obama on Wednesday evening.
“I’m going to need you,” Obama told a crowd in Los Angeles, packed with the glitterati at one event. “You’re going to carry this thing like you did in 2008.”
—This story was posted at 11:30 a.m. and updated at 1:20 p.m.
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