Some songs are simply too good to sing only once. Ronnie Bowman’s “The Healing Kind” has already made its rounds — cut first by Dan Seals in 1995 and later given a definitive country turn by Lee Ann Womack — but the tune finds fresh life today in a duet that quietly bends the rules of time.

Out now, the late Dan Seals and singer-actress Katharine McPhee share a new version of “The Healing Kind,” pairing Seals’ unmistakable, weathered baritone with McPhee’s crystalline, powerhouse phrasing. The result is less a cover than a conversation across decades — two singers trading verses about heartbreak that refuses to loosen its grip.

Listen to “The Healing Kind” here: https://open.spotify.com/search/Dan%20Seals%20Katharine%20McPhee%20The%20Healing%20Kind

“Singing ‘The Healing Kind’ was both emotional and beautiful,” McPhee said of the session. “Dan’s voice and spirit are still so present in the music, and I’m honored to have been part of keeping that legacy alive.”

That legacy is a deep one. Born and raised in Texas, Seals famously played a right-handed 12-string guitar with his left hand — “upside down and backwards,” as he liked to say — and lived his career the same way. He first landed on pop radio as one half of England Dan & John Ford Coley (“I’d Really Love to See You Tonight,” “Nights Are Forever Without You”), then quietly reinvented himself as one of the great country vocalists of the 1980s with eleven No. 1 Billboard country hits, including “Bop,” “Everything That Glitters (Is Not Gold),” and the Marie Osmond duet “Meet Me in Montana.” Seals passed away in 2009 and was posthumously inducted into the Texas Heritage Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2025.

For McPhee, the pairing is another feather in a genre-hopping cap. Since her breakout run on American Idol in 2006, she’s charted across pop, jazz and adult contemporary, starred on SMASH, Scorpion and Country Comfort, made her Broadway debut in Waitress, and toured the globe with her husband, 16-time GRAMMY winner David Foster. She’s currently in Nashville working on new music of her own, and was just featured at Melody Place’s Sunset Lounge showcase at the Four Seasons, where she talked fans through the story behind the recording.

“The Healing Kind” is the latest taste of Dan Seals & Friends: The Last Duet, a full-length tribute album arriving August 28 via Melody Place Records. Produced by longtime Seals collaborator Kyle Lehning, the record pulls Seals’ original vocals from his acclaimed solo catalog and pairs them with today’s most compelling voices, including Jamey Johnson, Luke Bryan, Tanya Tucker and many more.

It’s a rare kind of project — a posthumous duets record that actually feels earned, built out of songs Seals loved and voices that clearly love him back. On the evidence of “The Healing Kind,” it’s shaping up to be one of the more quietly powerful country releases of the year.

Stream “The Healing Kind” now, and pre-save Dan Seals & Friends: The Last Duet before it lands on August 28.