Reunion

Album: Reunion (2024)
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Songfacts®:

  • This reunion takes place in the afterlife. John Oates wrote it about his father, who was 100 years old when he died. When he was ready to make his transition, he told John, "I'm ready for my reunion," meaning he would be reunited with his wife (John's mother), who died years earlier.

    "I wanted to write about the idea of reconnecting with the most essential part of our soul and our spirit," Oates explained.
  • Oates wrote this song with A.J. Croce, who was 2 years old when his famous father Jim Croce died in a 1973 plane crash. The two met when they performed together at a tribute to John Prine held at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. A few weeks later they got together to write and came up with the song in just a few hours.

    "He's a wonderful collaborator - a great lyricist but he also really understands music and what can happen when you get to a place as a songwriter and don't want to repeat a chord," Croce told Songfacts. "We finished the song and immediately went into the studio and recorded it."
  • The song is the title track to John Oates' 2024 solo album, Reunion. By this time, he and Daryl Hall were on the outs, in a legal dispute over Oates selling his share of their partnership.
  • The song's co-writer A.J. Croce released his own versin of "Reunion" on his 2025 album Heart Of The Eternal. "He did it in a sort of Americana style, and I wanted to treat it a little bit more like a gospel, soul song," Croce told Songfacts. "A Garnet Mimms, Solomon Burke kind of vibe from the early '60s."

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