Dennis Quaid is continuing his foray into music alongside the Bellamy Brothers, joining the country duo for a cover of Billy Swan’s “I Can Help.” The song was released on Friday, June 9 along with a music video and is the lead single from David and Howard Bellamy’s upcoming covers project, Covers From the Brothers.
“It couldn’t have been more fun recording ‘I Can Help’ with David and Howard Bellamy,” Quaid told PEOPLE. “I felt like I was a kid skipping school and jamming with a band. It’s the kind of moment dreams are made of.” David and Howard added that working with Quaid on the song “was a whole lot of fun” for both of them. “We thought Dennis would be a great collaborator on ‘I Can Help’ because he’s really animated and has that rockabilly style that fits a track like this so well,” David said.
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David told The Boot that the Bellamy Brothers and Quaid share the same publicist, Scott Adkins, so they asked Adkins to see whether Quaid would be interested in working with them. “We’d met Dennis a few times previously and knew he was really into music,” David said. “When we decided to do this covers project, it was a very natural fit.”
The trio’s version of “I Can Help” finds all three men swapping vocals and harmonies, and the cover stays true to Swan’s original song, which was released in 1974 and went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Quaid actually knew Swan from working with the musician on the 1989 film Great Balls of Fire!, which starred Quaid as Jerry Lee Lewis and saw Swan serve as assistant musical director. That connection proved useful for “I Can Help,” according to David. “When we came into the studio to do the vocals, Dennis was on the phone talking to Billy Swan getting his blessing for the session,” he recalled.
Covers From the Brothers will be released this fall after David and Howard initially swore they would never record a cover song. “After swearing we would never record any cover songs, we found ourselves recording some covers for a label we worked with in Germany a few years back,” the duo shared. “When Dennis agreed to do the duet on ‘I Can Help,’ it just seemed to be the perfect fun track for this project.”
