Ronald Reagan Gets a Songwriting Credit from Grave as Lee Greenwood Records Tune Penned in 1970s
The late President Ronald Reagan, formerly a Hollywood actor, has received a songwriting credit posthumously on a new song recorded by Lee Greenwood. The track, titled “Start The World Over Again,” was co-written by Reagan and music executive Mike Curb and is featured on the album “Reagan: Songs Inspired by the Film,” released by Curb Records. This album follows the soundtrack of the 2023 film “Reagan.”
Several renowned artists, including Travis Tritt, Marty Stuart, Tanya Tucker, Ricky Skaggs, the Commodores, Kathie Lee Gifford, Alabama, and Wayne Newton, also appear on the album. The song originated during the 1970s when Reagan and Curb collaborated, with Curb completing the lyrics and composing the melody. Lee Greenwood revised and recorded the song, giving it a contemporary spin reminiscent of his famous patriotic hit “God Bless the USA.”
The lyrics reflect Reagan’s vision of America’s renewal during a time of political and economic turmoil following Watergate and the Vietnam War. The theme of starting anew echoes Thomas Paine’s call from his pamphlet “Common Sense” about the chance to rebuild a free and just society. The song underscores reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign message of revitalizing America, which influenced later political slogans. The album is available on major music platforms.
The late President Ronald Reagan, who many know was a Hollywood actor before shifting into politics in his 50s, now has a songwriting co-credit for a new tune recorded by Lee Greenwood.
On Friday, Curb Records released the album, “Reagan: Songs Inspired by the Film.” It is a follow-up to the popular original soundtrack to the movie “Reagan,” which hit theaters last year.
Artists on the new album, in addition to Greenwood, include Travis Tritt, Marty Stuart, Tanya Tucker, Ricky Skaggs, the Commodores, Kathie Lee Gifford, Alabama, and Wayne Newton, among others.
Greenwood recorded the song, “Start The World Over Again,” which Reagan penned with Mike Curb, a top recording industry executive who also served as California’s lieutenant governor in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Curb has several songwriting credits for artists like Hank Williams Jr., Debby Boone, Donny and Marie Osmond, Irene Cara, Wayne Newton, Anne Murray, Andy Williams, Roy Orbison, and Sammy Davis Jr.
His label, Curb Records, released multiple No.1 singles in the mid-to-late 1970s, including the Four Seasons’ “December 1963 (Oh What A Night),” The Bellamy Brothers’ “Let Your Love Flow,” Shaun Cassidy’s “Da Doo Ron Ron,” and Debby Boone’s “You Light Up My Life.”
It was during this timeframe that Curb co-wrote “We Can Begin The World Over Again” with Reagan, a title which Greenwood tweaked slightly.
Curb told The Western Journal in an ed statement, “The song ‘We Can Begin The World Over Again’ means a lot to me because it was Ronald Reagan’s idea and he wrote most of the lyrics. I completed the lyrics and put a melody to it.
“It is so exciting, many years later, to have Lee Greenwood take the song and change the title to ‘Start The World Over Again.’ He definitely rewrote the song in a much more contemporary fashion, and he has recorded the song for the Ronald Reagan soundtrack album.”
“Reagan” movie producer Mark Joseph told The Western Journal that the song is inspired by the line in Thomas Paine’s Revolutionary War pamphlet, “Common Sense.”
“We have it in our power to begin the world over again,” Paine wrote.
“A situation, similar to the present, hath not happened since the days of Noah until now. The birthday of a new world is at hand, and a race of men, perhaps as numerous as all Europe contains, are to receive their portion of freedom from the events of a few months.”
The song musically has a similar feel to Greenwood’s highly successful “God Bless the USA,” which was released in 1984 in the heart of Reagan’s presidency. Greenwood, in fact, performed the song at the 1988 Republican Convention with the president and first lady Nancy Reagan standing by his side.
A poignant lyric in the new Reagan-penned song is, “Could we start the world over again? Would we stand strong or fall? To go back to a time we believed in what’s right and a promise of freedom for all.”
Reagan wrote that line at a time when many felt that America had lost its way in the immediate aftermath of the Watergate scandal and the Vietnam War. Economically, the country was experiencing stagflation, i.e., little or no economic growth with high inflation and unemployment.
So the whole message of the song is that the USA needed a reset, which Reagan was able to accomplish with the strong backing of the American people in the 1980s. His campaign slogan for the 1980 presidential race against Democrat Jimmy Carter was “Let’s Make America Great Again,” which President Donald Trump shortened to “Make America Great Again” for his own White House runs.
Curb also co-wrote with Reagan the 1980 Republican National Convention theme song, “Together A New Beginning,” he told Fox News in January.
Greenwood said to the outlet regarding “Start the World Over Again” that Curb sent him the incomplete song that he and Reagan had written.
“The idea was to make the world over, and how naive that is, but what a beautiful thought that is,” Greenwood recalled.
“And I knew Ronald Reagan quite well, I knew Mike Curb pretty well — I was on his label for a while, and it gave me a chance to redo the song,” he said. “And I redid the song for them. They loved it [at Curb Records].”
The album “Reagan: Songs Inspired by the Film” is available on Apple Music and other places music is sold.
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