A film about Republican President Ronald Reagan, titled “Reagan” and starring Dennis Quaid as the 40th president, is getting an “inspired by” album with a host of artists who created new songs for the effort.
One of the contributors, a member of the soul-funk band The Commodores, told Just the News he’s not even a fan of Reagan, the president, though he was taken by his love story with the former first lady, Nancy Reagan.
The CD will also feature tracks from country artists Alabama, Travis Tritt, Tanya Tucker and Marty Stuart, as well as pop artists Wayne Newton and Josh Turner & Kathie Lee Gifford, as well as Christian artist Sweet Comfort Band.
The songs will hit the Internet by month’s end and the CD, “Reagan: Songs Inspired by the Film,” will follow shortly thereafter.
The song by Tucker, who has two Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2023, is dubbed, “Do We Want to Win” and it appears to include some political overtones.
“We’re crying while we’re buying what they’re selling for progress; Standing in line with our sign at the protest; Daddy’s home, working on a letter to Congress,” she sings.
In another section, she sings: “Trying to get woke, waking up sleeping; Hoping, praying, that Jesus ain’t keeping my score.”
Tucker said her song was written by Regie Hamm and Chuck Cannon and that it is about “winning by finding the common ground we all stand on. When I heard it, I wanted to share this message with the world.”
She also said that “it helps that Quaid is one of my besties,” and that the two of them have a song and video coming out soon, called “On My Way to Heaven.”
Also planned on the Reagan album is a song from rocker Gary Cherone, former lead singer of Van Halen and currently of Extreme, and the filmmakers also might include an unreleased track from a high-profile artist who wrote a song for the project before his death.
Cherone told Just the News that his song is called, “America’s Dream,” and he described it as “a profession of faith in the great American experiment, that perpetual work in progress in forming a more perfect union. In short, a love letter.”
William King, who founded The Commodores with Lionel Richie and others, wrote a song that will be performed by Cody Orange, the son of Walter Orange, another founding member of the band famous for 1970s hits like “Brick House,” “Three Times a Lady” and “Sail On.”
King told Just the News that while he was not a fan of Ronald Reagan, he loved the film, especially the romance between him and wife Nancy, played by Penelope Ann Miller in the film.
“I saw a screening, and a song just clicked in my head. All I had to do was get to my keyboards,” said King of his contribution, a track called, “Always.”
He described it as a love song with the theme that, “No matter how far I am from you, you’re always near. It’s the way I feel about my wife, so I could relate.”
King didn’t say what he disliked about Reagan’s presidency, nor what his politics are today. He said the song he wrote for the soundtrack borrowed a piece from a different one he wrote a decade earlier for a friend’s wedding.
“You don’t have to be a fan of President Reagan. I’m not even a fan of some people in my own family,” he quipped. “Nancy had what he didn’t have, and he had what she didn’t have. Together, they were a force to be reckoned with.”
He added: “I wasn’t expecting the movie to be as together as it was. visually. My wife and I agreed that it was one of the best movies we have seen. Politics is not my game, but this was a story I wanted to write about.”
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