Dear Doug,
When I got the call in June to meet you at my local New York City deli, Russ & Daughters, for an hour of chatting about Big Oil, music, and copyright in a tiny, Secret Service-infested kitchen, I was ready to grab a bagel! Who would have thought that Kamala’s trajectory would change in a matter of weeks and that you will hopefully soon be America’s first First Gentleman. Congratulations, Doug!
I was deeply touched to learn that you have played “You Get What You Give” hundreds of times since 2020 as your campaign walk-on song—especially when you told me you chose the song merely as a music fan and didn’t even know that the Biden family has an emotional connection to the song through Beau.
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Of course, we were thrilled to receive your personal invitation to play our song live again (as we did at Biden’s inauguration in January 2021), this time at the DNC, just before Kamala’s introduction and acceptance of the Vice Presidential nomination. Of course, Kamala suddenly had bigger problems when she became a presidential candidate, but thank you for playing the record as your “walk-on” song at the DNC instead!
I am writing you this letter to send an SOS to all artists and musicians across America: the clock is ticking to save our democracy.
NOW is clearly the time for everyone to get involved and use their influence for the common good and support the candidate who is not “oddly enough” (I love that, Coach Walz!) advocating for curtailing women’s rights and freedoms for all people. Or bragging that he will cancel the 2028 American presidential election!?
With that in mind, let’s talk about music for a minute: we’re releasing the first New Radicals music in 25 years to support the cause of democracy and encourage all artists to vote. This isn’t a “comeback,” but rather our small contribution to supporting the fight for freedom!
As a musical gift to you, Doug, and our other fans, we release our version of “Murder On The Dancefloor” as well as our version of the Oscar-nominated hit “Lost Stars” from John Carney’s greatest musical film Start again. Co-written by New Radical Danielle Brisebois, who gave the world Unwritten and brought her powerful female perspective to our film and to the songs of Keira Knightley’s character.
Listen to “Lost Stars” by the New Radicals here and “Murder On the Dancefloor” here.
Interestingly, we learned from our mutual friends that Start again is coming to Broadway. We’re honored to have co-star Adam Levine’s friends adapt what Adam called “the perfect song” in Train and hope Train adds even more for Carney’s Broadway follow-up Once!
Many people may not know that “Murder On The Dancefloor” was almost our debut single, but ended up being a smash hit for Sophie Ellis-Bextor, reaching the top 10 twice worldwide (this year with the final nude dancing scene in the often sadly “lifelike” Saltburn).
When we spoke in New York, it was clear that you are a conscientious family man who cares about your country and its people. That makes Kamala and you true “new radicals” of the best kind. And anyone who knows that Hall & Oates covered our “Someday We’ll Know” or that the king of critics, Robert Christgau, gave our album an “A” is pretty cool in my opinion!
At a time when a third of “Pizzagate” Republicans think Taylor Swift is a psycho victim of the Democrats (who knew?), it will be a refreshing change to see the Harris administration pass important things for the middle class, like funding mental health care for families and “frenemy” village roles in the states where it is most needed, or limiting overpriced drugs that often “cost” more than a teacher’s salary.
For the record, New Radicals refuses any request from pharmaceutical companies or anyone else to alter our writing (ever!), and our publishers support this with a “no problem” statement. We would never, on moral grounds, support an industry that could contribute to an opioid epidemic that has already killed a million Americans.
Doug, I wonder what song those Silicon Valley jingle masseuses will try to push next, “Celebrex Sadness”? Well, just one month after our July 12th, our 25th anniversary – to all the FDA big banker drug companies out there… come on over, we’re STILL going to kick your ass!
We are grateful that our music still inspires some young “new radical” athletes and musicians who also enter the competition. BRAT Charli XCX loving Kamala’s politics (and we absolutely love Charli’s “1999” video tribute to the New Radicals!), or Travis Kelce tweeting, “I have the dreamer’s disease!” which touched me because that’s just fighting for what you believe in!!
In closing, Doug, unfortunately violence from toxic politics, borderline personality disorder, and Covid isolation has triggered many of today’s mental health crises that lead to conspiratorial family crime. But if anyone can cure or “prosecute” that, it’s President Kamala Harris – starting with RFK and Donald J. Trump! Sorry, I had to throw in a joke.
Democracy is at stake, not just in the United States, but in much of the world that is watching. With grieving artistic testimony for my beloved father who died unjustly in the Korean War in mid-May, and for my immobile, frail mother in dementia care in Florida – do not let the darkness obscure the light of the mothers and grandchildren we will lose in this fight. Save democracy for the next generation and vote with your soul!
And to all the DJs and TikTokers out there around the world, feel free to play and use these songs anytime to support and celebrate women’s, minorities’ and LGBTQ+ rights and the spirit of freedom that thrives and survives all over the world!
Doug, Kamala – you have the music in you. Go Lions!! Gregg
PS Doug, since Broadway is next to our favorite deli when you are in New York, if Start again opens, we grab the bagel and head over with Adam and Train, Keira and John, Kamala and Danielle to sing “Lost Stars” together!
PPS VOTE!!!
“Lost Stars,” released on Flatiron Records, is pre-ordered here; “Murder On The Dancefloor” is pre-ordered here. Both are out tonight at midnight ET on DSPs.
