Janet Reno has a new album. To be more specific, she has a three-CD, 50-song compilation called Song of America. Yes, that’s this Janet Reno.
Remember her? First female Attorney General of the United States, often lesbian-baited, regularly parodied — most famously on Saturday Night Live. (“Janet Reno’s Dance Party,” anyone?)
That’s the Janet Reno I mean.
Are you as confused as I was when I first read about this?
I’ll clarify. I was flipping through Entertainment Weekly yesterday and noticed the following story: “Jan, You Did It? Ex-attorney general Janet Reno finds her inner DJ to kick out some rather patriotic jams.” It seems that in 2005, Reno was impressed by music producer David Macias’ Grammy-winning tribute to Stephen Foster and decided to create an educational tool to help American History teachers.
“There are so many students who just tune American history out … But if they had music with it, I thought they could have an understanding and appreciation for our history.”
So, she accompanied Macias to the Grammys to recruit talent. And two years later, she’s officially in the music business.
Now, I should clarify that she does not sing any of the 50 tracks in the collection. As some of you may remember, her last public-singing exhibition was a little bit, um, unpolished.
(If you really want to be disturbed by the sight of a former Attorney General Singing, check out the video of John Ashcroft singing his original song, “Let the eagle soar.”)
But back to Janet Reno. She recruited 50 artists to record covers of 50 Americana songs — covering themes and events in American history from 1620 to the present. The tracks range from “Yankee Doodle” (Harper Simon) to “Rosie the Riveter” (Suzy Boguss) to “Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning” (The Wrights). It also includes a version of “Little Boxes” — which I can only hear as the Weeds theme song. Click here for a full song list.
Although I was quite perplexed at first, I quickly came around to thinking that this compilation was a great idea. Regardless of whether it actually gets incorporated into curricula as a teaching aid, it’s certainly interesting — at least to history geeks like me. (And my girlfriend thought it sounded fun, too, so I’m not entirely alone in this.)
You can check the Song of America MySpace page for more information.
