Friday, July 31, 2026

Barack Obama Summer Music List: Sam & Dave, Tribe Called Quest, Beatles, Marvin Gaye, The Police, Last Minute Glen Hansard

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Barack and Michelle Obama’s summer music list is out.

Talk about reading the room: they chose a Glen Hansard song, “Song of Good Hope,” and put it right at the top.

The Obamas have good taste. Their classic choices include Sam & Dave, the Beatles, Marvin Gaye, Chaka Khan, The Police, Nina Simone, Johnny Cash, Neil Young, Sonny Rollins, and The Temptations.

But they also get edgy, with acts like Yebba, Temper City, and Baby Rose & Leon Thomas.

 

I’d love to know who their curator is. Building the Obama Library, making weekly podcasts, speaking all over the world — who has time for this? Even their daughters must be in awe of their choices.

I’m particularly impressed they took back Sam & Dave’s “Hold On I’m Coming” from the dark side. Trump was using it at his rallies until Isaac Hayes’s estate stopped them. Check mate! The late, great Sam Moore, btw, performed at the White House for the Obamas.

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedman
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009, where he covered Michael Jackson, and previously wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine in the mid-1990s, where he covered the O.J. Simpson trial. He also edited Fame magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

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