Campaign songs, part two

Last week, we discussed campaign songs of the 19th century that were circulated on sheet music and sung in Taverns. Those methods continued in the early 20th century, but new ways to deliver campaign messaging emerged before the century was over.

One of the more noteworthy campaign songs of the early 20th century was for William Howard Taft. Taft’s camp created the song in 1908 to emphasize Teddy Roosevelt’s choice of Taft as his successor–as opposed to Nebraska’s William Jennings Bryan, who had already lost two presidential bids and was well on his way to losing a third. The Taft camp's strategy was to present their candidate as the inevitable winner (which he was), but Taft's physical size, considered corpulent by 1908 standards, unintentionally made the metaphor used in the song a source of amusement.

“Get on the raft with Taft, boys
Get on the winning boat
The man worthwhile with the big glass smile
Will get the honest vote.”

Maritime safety notwithstanding, Herbert Hoover’s 1928 campaign also cashed in on an endorsement. In 1927, Charles Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic, flying non-stop and solo, immediately becoming an international celebrity. Long before his antisemitic, isolationist political stances were known, Lindbergh’s endorsement packed a punch equalling a Michael Jackson or Elvis endorsement in our lifetimes. His noteworthy endorsement of Hoover inspired the song “If He’s Good Enough for Lindy.”

“Charles Lindbergh flew his plane
All the way to France
Most of the way he flew
By the seat of his pants
Good old American know-how
That's the right way to be
And if he's good enough for Lindy,
He's good enough for me!”

In the early days of the depression, no popular song captured a spirit of hope (or irony) better than the theme from the Lucky Strike radio show, "Happy Days Are Here Again.” The song had been played as a walk-on theme for Franklin D. Roosevelt at the 1932 Democratic Convention and stayed with Roosevelt for the rest of his career.

“Happy Days are here again
So long sad times, Go long bad times
We are rid of you at last.
“Happy days are here again
The skies above are clear again
So let's sing a song of cheer again
Happy days are here again.”

Although radio indirectly influenced the Roosevelt campaigns, paid political advertisements didn’t take off until the post-war era. By then, politicians were eager to capitalize on the new medium of television, so for his 1952 campaign, General Dwight D. Eisenhower enlisted the help of Madison Avenue’s Rossier Reeves. Reeves had notably marketed an obscure chocolate confection developed by the army during the Spanish Civil War, coining the now familiar phrase, “melts in your mouth, not in your hand.” Rossier was a big hitter, and for Eisenhower, he produced a series of cartoonish ads incorporating the infectious song “I Like Ike.”

“You like Ike, I like Ike, everybody likes Ike (for President)
Hang out the banner and beat the drum
We'll take Ike to Washington.”

In 1960, John Kennedy combined the value of an endorsement, like those in the songs of Taft and Hoover, with an infectiously hopeful pop tune and the star power of a Lindbergh when a variation on Sammy Cahn’s “High Hopes” was sung by Frank Sinatra himself.

“Everyone is voting for Jack
Cause he's got what all the rest lack
Everyone wants to back -- Jack
Jack is on the right track.
'Cause he's got high hopes
He's got high hopes
Nineteen Sixty's the year for high hopes.”

In the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, when the generational divide was at its widest, Richard Nixon reached out to the generations with two versions of the same song. For the older demographic, Connie Francis sang “Nixon’s the One” in classic big band fashion. To court the younger vote, his television ads featured a more upbeat version performed by an unnamed chorus with a San Francisco-ish sound that landed somewhere between the New Seekers and Up with People.

Today, more often than not, artists frequently disapprove of popular songs co-opted by right-leaning political campaigns. Bobby McFerrin famously asked George H.W. Bush (41) not to use “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” Isaac Hayes requested that Bob Dole stop using “Soul Man,” and Al Green asked Mitt Romney not to use “Let’s Stay Together.” While Republicans are more apt to be targeted by the artistic community, it’s notable that Sam and Dave would not authorize Barack Obama to use “Hold on I’m Coming” and that Cindi Lauper prohibited the Democratic Party from using “True Colors.”