Presidential Campaign Song Flashback on Classical 89

Classical 89 urges you to vote on Tuesday, November 4th to make your voice heard in electing our next President.

41st President George H. W. Bush

Ronald Reagan’s vice president for 8-years, the father of the current President was elected to the White House in 1988. His approval ratings soared after the Persian Gulf War forced Iraq’s Saddam Hussein to retreat from his invasion of Kuwait. But a softening economy cost him a second term in the White House.

3rd President Thomas Jefferson

The campaign song that accompanied Thomas Jefferson’s run for the presidency mentioned gags, inquisitors, and spies … likely a reference to President John Adams’ Alien and Sedition Acts … designed to temporarily suspend some liberties during an undeclared naval war with France.  Thomas Jefferson spoiled Adams’ re-election plans of 1800 to become our third President.  Jefferson held the acts as unconstitutional and void.  He pardoned and ordered the release of all who were convicted of violating them.

One of Jefferson’s more striking contributions is the Louisiana Purchase … which more than doubled the size of the United States.  Often at odds with Adams, who assigned Jefferson to write the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson died on the same day as Adams… July 4th, 1826.

22nd & 24th President Grover Cleveland

Party unity was a rallying cry for Democrats in the election of 1884. Of the past six presidents, five had been Republicans. Just two decades out from the Civil War, supporters hailed Grover Cleveland as a man who could carry the South and the North … reflected in the lyrics from his campaign song, “He is a statesman brave and true. He’ll get the gray, he’ll get the blue”. Cleveland might best be remembered as our only president to serve two terms that were not back to back. That’s right. Grover Cleveland was our 22nd and 24th president. When he ran for a second term the first time, he was defeated by Republican Benjamin Harrison. Cleveland beat Harrison handily 4-years later. Under Cleveland’s watch … Utah achieved statehood in 1896. Classical 89 urges you to vote on Tuesday, November 4th to make your voice heard in electing our next President.

1st President George Washington

It should come as no surprise that the first presidential campaign song was written for the father of our country, George Washington … sworn in for the first of two terms as President in 1789. Washington had been Commander in Chief of the Continental Army that defeated the British in the Revolutionary War. The song that accompanied his presidency repeated the phrase, “Follow, follow Washington” … an easy charge, since Washington had no opposition. One of the quirks about being America’s first president was the confusion over how George Washington should be addressed … Suggestions included His Excellency, his High Mightiness and His Highness. “Mister President” won out.

13th President Millard Fillmore

It should come as no surprise that the first presidential campaign song was written for the father of our country, George Washington … sworn in for the first of two terms as President in 1789. Washington had been Commander in Chief of the Continental Army that defeated the British in the Revolutionary War. The song that accompanied his presidency repeated the phrase, “Follow, follow Washington” … an easy charge, since Washington had no opposition. One of the quirks about being America’s first president was the confusion over how George Washington should be addressed … Suggestions included His Excellency, his High Mightiness and His Highness. “Mister President” won out.

34th President Dwight D. Eisenhower

The song that followed Dwight David Eisenhower from Supreme Allied Commander of World War Two into the White House was simple and straight forward … much like the man himself. It declared, “I like Ike, I’ll shout it into the mike.” Both political parties courted Ike to run for president as early as 1948. He refused them both, until the Republican Party prevailed in 1952, just after the start of the Cold War. Eisenhower served two terms as president.

9th President William Henry Harrison

Our 9th president, William Henry Harrison, had two campaign songs. “Tippecanoe & Tyler Too” referred to the hero of the Battle of Tippecanoe and his running mate, John Tyler. But the song that seems to have most helped Harrison the most, originated with his political opponent. When President Martin Van Buren ran for re-election in 1840, he characterized Harrison as a provincial, out-of-touch old man who would rather “sit in his log cabin drinking hard cider” than lead a country. The strategy backfired, when Harrison adopted the log cabin and hard cider image for himself. His victory, however, was all too short. Harrison delivered the longest inaugural address in history … two hours … on a cold, rainy day, without an overcoat. He died one month later from pneumonia, making John Tyler the first vice president to achieve the White House following the death of a president.

15th President James Buchanan

James Buchanan was the only bachelor to occupy the White House. The 15th president of the United States never married. Elected in 1856, Buchanan inherited a nation marching toward Civil War, as the debate over slavery intensified. His campaign song urged voters to win the White House chair to keep the nation united. Buchanan didn’t want to see the South secede from the union, but he didn’t want to go to war over the matter either, so he did nothing. Instead of re-nominating Buchanan for a second term, the Democratic Party chose Stephen Douglas, who went on to lose the 1860 presidential election to Abraham Lincoln.

11th President James K. Polk

The campaign song for James K. Polk extolled him as Jimmy Polk of Tennessee, the man to cope with Clay. Our eleventh president, Polk defeated Henry Clay in 1844 … one of Clay’s many failed attempts to win the White House. Polk saw America’s Pacific coast grow unlike any president before. The nation acquired a good part of what would later become the states of Idaho, Oregon and Washington. And a war with Mexico resulted in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, opening up the expansive American Southwest … including what would become the Utah Territory. James K. Polk was also America’s first president to voluntarily step down after one term, and not seek re-election.

5th President James Monroe

James Monroe’s campaign song was a bouncy melody asking, “In peace and in war, who can act, who can plan. Monroe, yes Monroe, he indeed is the man.” A Boston newspaper called the presidency of James Monroe, “The Era of Good Feelings.” In both 1816 and 1820 Monroe ran almost unopposed. Partisan bitterness had abated. Even the issue of slavery had cooled for a time under the Missouri Compromise. James Monroe … our 5th president, is probably best remembered for the Monroe Doctrine … a belief that America was forever free from European colonization.

33rd President Harry S. Truman

The campaign song for Harry Truman is a natural. African-American songwriter Eubie Blake wrote new lyrics for his 1921 hit tune, “I’m Just Wild about Harry”. Vice President Harry Truman became president when Franklin D. Roosevelt died in office in 1945. The song declares, “FDR had his new deal and Harry will follow through.” Truman’s toughest decision came early in his presidency when he approved the use of the atomic bomb against Japan to end World War Two. Truman was elected to a second term in 1948.

20th President James A. Garfield

In 1880, James A. Garfield continued a long streak of Republicans in the White House that started with Abraham Lincoln. But, just 16-years after the end of the Civil War, supporters predicted, if the Democrats, or as they were derisively called, “the Johnnies” won the Presidency, the Confederacy would rise again. To the tune of “When Johnny Comes Marching Home”, Garfield’s campaign song declared, “If the Johnnie’s get into power again, ah ha, ha, Jeff Davis’s name, they’ll proudly praise and Lincoln’s tomb will be disgraced.” Our 20th President, James A. Garfield was shot by an assassin, just 4-months after taking office.

38th President Gerald R. Ford

Elected by none of the people … Loved by all of the people. That’s one phrase used by many to describe the presidency of Gerald R. Ford, who said of himself … I’m a Ford, not a Lincoln. A Republican congressman from Michigan, Gerald Ford was selected by President Nixon to be his vice president when Spiro Agnew resigned in disgrace, early in Nixon’s second term. In 1974, Ford became president when Richard Nixon resigned in the wake of the Watergate scandal. One of Ford’s first acts as president was to issue a blanket pardon for the former president … a decision that sent his approval ratings plummeting. That move, plus a softening economy, led to Ford’s loss of the Presidency to Democrat Jimmy Carter in 1976.

6th President John Quincy Adams

John Quincy Adams is only one of two father-and-son duos to be president, the other of course being George H.W. Bush, and our current president. This January, the nation will have (for the first time ever) a father and son who are both former presidents. John Quincy Adams didn’t get that opportunity. John Adams died in 1826, during the first year of his son’s presidency. John Quincy Adams would be the last President to run under the “Democratic-Republican” party. He switched part-way through his term and became part of the “National Republican” party. After losing the election of 1828 to Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams spent the remainder of his life serving in the U.S. House of Representatives … the only president to do that.

26th President Theordore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt achieved fame as a Rough Rider during the war with Cuba. His campaign song of 1904 was an old Scottish rallying tune. Four years earlier, Roosevelt had been elected President McKinley’s vice president … succeeding him when McKinley was assassinated in 1901. Known as T.R. and “Teddy”, Roosevelt was a reformer who pushed many progressive ideas during his presidency … creating the Food and Drug Administration, breaking up monopolies, and establishing the national parks. He was admired for his skill with foreign affairs, adopting the African proverb, “Speak softly and carry a big stick.”

36th President Lyndon B. Johnson

Composer Jerry Herman wrote new lyrics to the title tune of his musical comedy hit, “Hello, Dolly”, when Lyndon Johnson sought the presidency in 1964. Elected vice president, 4-years earlier, Johnson became president as the result of tragedy, when John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22nd, 1963. During his first year in office, Johnson achieved success with the passage of the civil rights act and by declaring a war on poverty. But it was the escalation of the war in Vietnam and his resulting drop in popularity that caused Johnson to declare he would not seek re-election in 1968.

19th President Rutherford B. Hayes

The Republican Party settled on Rutherford B. Hayes to run for president in the election of 1876. The selection of Congressman William A. Wheeler as Hayes running mate was a surprise to both men. Coming eleven years after the end of the civil war, his campaign song encouraged voters to elect “the boys in blue of Hayes and Wheeler too.” Hayes declared early on that he would not run for re-election. Our 19th President, Rutherford B. Hayes signed the Compromise of 1877 … removing federal troops from former Confederate States. He also appointed a southerner to his cabinet. Hayes signed the Desert Land Act which opened up much of the west to settling … if farmers could find water. His wife, Lucy Hayes, was the first, First Lady to hold a college degree, and it was she who began the tradition of the annual Easter-egg roll on the White House Lawn.

37th President Richard M. Nixon

Republican Richard Nixon’s campaign song was a football-type anthem taken from the Broadway musical, “One Step Forward”. Nixon lost his first run for the White House in 1960, but came back 8-years later to win. Nixon got the U.S. out of Vietnam and scored foreign policy victories in the Soviet Union and China. He was re-elected in 1972, but soon became embroiled in allegations over a cover-up of the Watergate scandal. In November, 1973, Nixon denied any involvement. But less than 9 months later, Nixon took the unprecedented step of resigning the presidency, rather than face possible impeachment.

35th President John F. Kennedy

There was a lot of excitement in 1960 over the candidacy of Democrat John F. Kennedy and a national spirit of optimism when our nation’s 35th president … just 43-years old, delivered his inaugural address, with a famous line asking Americans to “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.” In a presidency tragically cut short by assignation in November, 1963, Kennedy challenged NASA to send a man to the moon, called for civil rights legislation, and faced down the Soviet Union to defuse the Cuban Missile Crisis.

28th President Woodrow Wilson

The popularity of ragtime music is reflected in the campaign song that accompanied Democrat Woodrow Wilson’s run for the White House in 1912, declaring, “Wilson, that’s all.” Wilson won, by splitting the Republican vote between incumbent President William Howard Taft and Taft’s predecessor, Theodore Roosevelt, who ran for a non-successive third term as a progressive third party candidate. Woodrow Wilson led the country through a flu epidemic … and World War I, which broke out after Wilson won a second term, on the slogan, “He kept us out of war.” After the war, he pushed to create a League of Nations, where countries could settle their disputes peacefully. Congress never approved joining the organization, although it did lead the way for today’s United Nations.

40th President Ronald Reagan

A former Hollywood actor and governor of California, it was only natural that “California Here we come” would be the campaign song for Republican Ronald Reagan, who, in 1980 became our 40th president. Reagan was known for an almost magical ability to sell the American people on his policies, and for standing up to The Soviet Union. In 1987, President Reagan gave one of his most memorable speeches in Berlin, where he urged Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to do away with the barrier that had divided Berlin for over 25 years. In the years following his two terms as president, Ronald Reagan became a symbol for modern political conservatism.

25th President William McKinley

Republican William McKinley became president in 1896, under the slogan, “Prosperity at Home and Prestige Abroad.” McKinley would later dispatch the U.S.S. Maine to Cuba. A boiler explosion led to the Maine’s demise, but Congress declared the explosion an act of war. A group of “rough riders” led an ill-prepared army into battle under the leadership of Teddy Roosevelt … McKinley’s running mate in 1900. McKinley was elected President twice … defeating the same Democratic opponent … one of the great orators of his time … William Jennings Bryan. But McKinley would serve only 6-months of his second term. He was shot by an assassin, on September 6th, 1901 … sending Theodore Roosevelt to the White House as our 26th president.

32nd President Franklin D. Roosevelt

A distant cousin of Republican President Theodore Roosevelt, Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected to the presidency four times. He was first elected in 1932, when America was suffering through the depression. His 1936 campaign song declared, “Since Roosevelt’s re-elected we won’t be neglected. We’ve got Franklin D. Roosevelt back again.” Roosevelt’s New Deal created jobs. But the focus of his presidency changed when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. FDR declared war on Japan and Germany. He died in office in 1945… leaving his vice president, Harry Truman, to bring World War Two to a close, by ordering the dropping the atomic bomb on Japan.

16th President Abraham Lincoln

The year 1860 was a period of intense political debate. “Lincoln & Liberty Too” was one of the most famous songs of the period. We’ve all heard this of Lincoln … Born in Kentucky, raised in Indiana. He lived in Illinois. Abraham Lincoln was a self-made lawyer who achieved mythical status as arguably our greatest president. Staunchly opposed to slavery, Lincoln had barely been inaugurated, when the Civil War began. His 1863 Emancipation Proclamation led to the end of slavery. Elected to a second term, Lincoln lived just long enough to see the Civil War end, before falling victim to an assassin’s bullet in 1865.

Election Day Wrapup

Today is Tuesday, November 4th … Election Day, when Americans go to the polls to elect the 44th President of the United States. Classical 89 urges you to cast your ballot today, for the person you want to lead our nation for the next 4-years. We hope you’ve found our campaign song features entertaining and informative. But more importantly, we encourage you to perform your civic duty by voting. Remember your vote is your voice. You’ve still got time. The polls are open until 8 o’clock tonight. Then, join us tonight for election updates on the half hour from 9 to 11.