Barack Obama Tops the Charts

Los Angeles, March 14, 2008 -- It is nothing new for popular musicians to throw their support behind a presidential candidate. Waldo Brumholder and the Whigettes were on the campaign trail for President William Henry Harrison. Frank Sinatra crooned for President John F. Kennedy. Toby Keith wailed in his own patriotic way for President George W. Bush in 2004. However, none of these examples can compare to the massive outpouring of support provided to Barack Obama in his 2008 bid for the presidency.

Not only is the support huge, nearly 40 bands/artists signed on to the project, the content itself is certainly worth a listen and it gets the message out there. Remember this is all about a presidential campaign and the appearance of Barack Obama's compilation collection, entitled Barackin' 44, at #1 on the Billboard Album Chart assures that those people who may have been snuggled up with their iPod whilst hiding under a rock during the past year of presidential campaigning will now be introduced to Barack Obama's name at the very least.

The 3 disc compilation includes such remakes as Neil Young's Barackin' in the Free World, Elton John's Baracket Man, The B-52's Barack Lobster and the Ramones' Sheena Is a Punk Baracker, to mention a few.

The producer of Barackin' 44 for the candidate's RockPAC label, Akon Daughtry said, "The level of support for Senator Obama from the music industry has been phenomenal and we believe this compilation album may be just enough to put us over the top."

Phenomenal, indeed! Mr. Daughtry explained that while some Republican music critics have labeled the compilation a piece of 'cut and paste propaganda', there is much more to it than that. RockPAC technicians, through the use of the latest digital music mixing technologies, were able to seamlessly change certain portions of songs in order to properly reflect the new title and give the song an entirely new feel.

Not surprisingly, each artist/group/estate manager consented and approved their respective track(s) prior to the album's release last week. What is surprising, however, is the apparent ease in which this process moved forward.

"The bands were very eager to listen to what we did and everything went remarkably well considering we were dealing with artists," Mr. Daughtry stated. "For example, take the song by The Clash, Rock the Casbah. Catchy tune. Now all we did was add an extra ¼ beat along with the sampled in sound of a Joe Strummer 'buh' in front of the word 'rock' to get 'Barack the Casbah', which even the remaining members of the band agree is much more catchy to scream out."

Amongst other surprises when making this album was the enthusiasm displayed by non-American artist.

Mr. Daughtry noted, "Of course, we had a lot of Yanks on board, but we also had quite a few Brits [The Clash, Elton John, Rolling Stones, etc.] and Germans [Def Leppard, Scorpions] too. Bush sure pissed off a lot of people." Mr. Daughtry continued, "Hell, even the Swedes [ABBA] wanted in on the action."

The breadth of musical genres covered on Barackin' 44 is nearly all-encompassing with music ranging from rap to rockabilly, punk to funk, trance to classic rock, disco to metal, soul to house, and everything in between.

As for the title, Mr. Daughtry explained the significance of the number 44 as, "Senator Obama was 44 the year he became a Senator, but more importantly we expect him to be the 44th President of the United States of America."

The track list as well as information regarding additional songs is provided below:

Barackin' 44

Disc 1:

1. Barack of Ages - Def Leppard
2. You Dropped Obama on Me - The Gap Band
3. Barackin' in the Free World - Neil Young
4. We Will Barack You - Queen
5. Good Barackin' Tonight - Wynonie Harris
6. Barack & Roll All Nite - KISS
7. The Barackafellar Skank - Fatboy Slim
8. Baracky Mountain Way - Joe Walsh
9. It's Only Barack N' Roll (But I Like It) - Rolling Stones
10. Baracket Man - Elton John
11. Barack You Like A Hurricane - Scorpions
12. I Love Barack Obama - Joan Jett & The Blackhearts
13. Lyte As A Barack - MC Lyte
14. Barack'n Me - Steve Miller
15. Clash City Barackers - The Clash

Disc 2:

1. Barack Lobster - The B-52's
2. Planet Barack - Afrika Bambaataa and The Soul Sonic Force
3. Barack Island Line - Lonnie Donegan
4. I Wanna Barack - Twisted Sister
5. Baba O'Bama - The Who
6. Barack Around the Clock - Bill Haley & Comets
7. Barack and Roll - Led Zeppelin
8. Sheena Is a Punk Baracker - Ramones
9. Baracket Reducer - MC5
10. Drop the Obama - Trouble Funk
11. Barack Box - Run DMC
12. Barack This Town - Stray Cats
13. Detroit Barack City - KISS
14. Castle Barack - Barefoot Jerry
15. Barack Steady - Aretha Franklin

Disc 3:

1. Barack the Casbah - The Clash
2. Barackin' Into The Night - .38 Special
3. Barackit - Herbie Hancock
4. Solid (As a Barack) - Ashford and Simpson
5. Long Live Barack - The Who
6. Baracket 88 - Jackie Brenston
7. BodyBarack - Moby
8. For Those About to Barack (We Salute You) - AC/DC
9. Barackin' Pneumonia and the Boogie-Woogie Flu - Huey "Piano" Smith & His Clowns
10. Old Time Barack & Roll - Bob Seger
11. The Obama (These Sounds Fall into My Mind) - The Bucketheads
12. Barack The Boat - Hues Corporation
13. Barack Me - ABBA
14. Make My Body Barack - Jomanda

Other songs that didn't make the album, but are available for download from iTunes and RockPAC's website include:

Barack Creek Park - The Blackbyrds
Jailhouse Barack - Elvis Presley
Barack n' Roll Ain't Noise Pollution - AC/DC
Rattlesnake Barack 'N' Roller - Blackfoot
Barack Bottom - The Dickey Betts Band
Barack Your Baby - George McCrae
Chinese Baracks - Heartbreakers
Barack the Funky Beat - Natural Born Chillers
Atom Obama - Fluke
Barack And Roll Part 2 - Garry Glitter
Red River Barack - Johnny & the Hurricanes

By Raoul Thibodeaux, Avant News Staff Writer