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Obama's 'Let's Stay Together' Leads to Huge Sales Increase for Al Green

Posted Jan 27th 2012 2:15PM by Theo Spielberg
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AP Photo/WireImage

Calling all musicians! Here is a great, outside-the-box sales technique: Get President Barack Obama to slip in a couple lines of your song during one of his speeches.

As Spinner reports, last week, Obama delivered several lines from Al Green's classic 'Let's Stay Together' at a fundraising event in Harlem, and the song has now enjoyed a 490 percent sales increase after the video of the President/crooner went viral. According to Nielsen Soundscan (via Billboard), Green's 1972 classic sold 16,000 digital downloads in the week ending January 22. If only singing about boosting the economy or bettering public education had the same way of "making it rain."

However, tying your music to a political figure doesn't always pay off in spades like it did for Al Green. After Kelly Clarkson's unofficial endorsement of Republican Candidate, sales of her album 'Stronger' reportedly shot up 442 percent on Amazon, according to CNN. Alas, this was not the case. The singer actually suffered a 40 percent loss in weekly sales, Billboard reports, proving Ron Paul doesn't have the same magical musical powers as Barack Obama.

The moral of the story? Support a President who can sing. It will pay off massively.

Watch 'Obama Sings Al Green's 'Let's Stay Together'