Forget picking a veep; get a good song

Published 10:20 pm Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Campaign theme songs seem like a modern invention — if you consider 1789 modern.

That’s when George Washington took the presidency with “Follow Washington,” a little ditty urging, “Lads, march on and follow Washington.”

At least “Follow Washington” made sense at the time. The portly William Howard Taft — known to friends as “Big Lub” — had “Get on a Raft with Taft,” an invitation most might decline.

The least-inspiring song might be William Henry Harrison’s tepid endorsement of himself, “He’s All Right.” Other classics: “Grant, Grant, Grant;” “Wilson, That’s All;” “Buckle Down With Nixon;” and the timeless “Jimmy Polk of Tennessee.”

In recent years some musicians have asked that their songs not be used, most famously Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA,” which was briefly adopted by Ronald Reagan in the 1984 presidential election.

Other songs that artists have asked to be removed in recent campaigns were Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down,” John Mellencamp’s “Pink Houses,” Boston’s “More Than a Feeling” and John Hall’s “Still the One.” Most bizarrely, Isaac Hayes demanded his “Soul Man” back but only after Bob Dole’s 1996 campaign had reworked it to “Dole Man.”

This year Hillary Rodham Clinton had Celine Dion’s “You and I,” Barack Obama has “Better Way” by Ben Harper and John McCain, for some unknown reason, has used ABBA’s “Take a Chance on Me.”

Past campaign ditties

1960

John F. Kennedy: “High Hopes”

Sample lyric: “All problems just a toy balloon / They’ll be bursted soon / They’re just bound to go pop / Oops there goes another problem ker-plop.”

Richard M. Nixon: No song found.

Upshot: By ‘68 Nixon wised up and followed Washington’s custom-tune lead with “Nixon’s the One.”

1976

Gerald R. Ford: “I’m Feeling Good About America” (custom-written)

Sample lyric: “I’m feeling good about America / And I feel you ought to know.”

Jimmy Carter: “Why Not the Best?” (custom-written)

Sample lyric: “He talked about the government / and how it used to be for you and me.”

Upshot: In the year of America’s Bicentennial, this is the best they could come up with? They made Wings’ “Silly Love Songs,” the No. 1 hit that year, seem profound by comparison.

1992

Bill Clinton: “Don’t Stop” by Fleetwood Mac

Sample lyric: “I know you don’t believe that it’s true / I never meant any harm to you.”

Ross Perot: “Crazy” by Patsy Cline

Sample lyric: “I’m crazy for tryin’, crazy for cryin’.”

Upshot: Hey Ross, perhaps a song that reaffirms what much of the electorate already suspects about you isn’t such a good thing.

2000

George W. Bush: “We the People” by Billy Ray Cyrus

Sample lyric: “We the People of the United States / In order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice.”

Al Gore: “Let the Day Begin” by The Call

Sample lyric: “Here’s to the winners of the human race / Here’s to the losers in the game.”

Upshot: Cyrus offered his song to both campaigns and was chagrined when Bush accepted. The lifelong Democrat told the Los Angeles Times, “It’s a working people’s song, y’know, and I’ve never really thought of the Republicans as the party of the working people. Am I wrong?”

2004

George W. Bush: “Only in America” by Brooks &Dunn

Sample lyric: “We all get a chance / Everybody gets to dance / Only in America.”

John Kerry: “No Surrender” by Bruce Springsteen

Sample lyric: “‘Cause we made a promise we swore we’d always remember / No retreat, baby, no surrender.”

Upshot: Regardless of your politics, sometimes the best song doesn’t win.