Campaign Songs

CAMPAIGN SONGS

CAMPAIGN SONGS are partisan ditties used in American political canvasses and especially in presidential contests. In the nineteenth century the words of these songs were commonly set to established melodies, such as "Yankee Doodle," "Marching through Georgia," "Rosin the Bow," "Auld Lang Syne," "John Brown's Body," "Dixie," and "O Tannenbaum" ("Maryland, My Maryland"). They were also set to tunes that were widely popular at the time, such as "Few Days," "Champagne Charlie," "Wearing of the Green," or "Down in a Coal Mine" (which served for the campaign song "Up in the White House").

Perhaps the best known of them was "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too," in which words by Alexander C. Ross were adapted to the folk tune "Little Pigs." First heard at Zanesville, Ohio, this song spread rapidly across the country, furnishing a party slogan. The North American Review stated that what the "Marseillaise" was to Frenchmen, "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" was to the Whigs of 1840. In 1872 an attempt was made to revive "Greeley Is the Real True Blue." Glee clubs were often organized to introduce campaign songs and to lead audiences and marchers in singing them. The songs were real factors in holding the interest of crowds, emphasizing issues, developing enthusiasm, and satirizing opponents.

In the twentieth century, with changes in campaigning methods, particularly the use of first radio and then television, the campaign song declined as a popular form of expression. In his 1932 presidential campaign, Franklin D. Roosevelt adopted the nonpolitical melody "Happy Days Are Here Again." By the 1960s campaign songs no longer introduced issues; instead, they presented an emotional feeling attached to a campaign. John F. Kennedy's campaign song was adapted from the popular tune "High Hopes" and for Lyndon Johnson's 1964 campaign, the theme song from the Broadway show Hello, Dolly became "Hello, Lyndon." A significant trend in the last twenty years of the twentieth century was the use of rock music by presidential candidates, such as the adoption of Fleet-wood Mac's 1977 hit "Don't Stop" by Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign. This tactic, however, caused difficulties for some candidates, especially Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, because musicians protested that using their songs inaccurately implies that the artists themselves support the political positions of those candidates.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Boller, Paul F., Jr. Presidential Campaigns. New York: Oxford University Press, 1984.

Silber, Irwin. Songs America Voted By. Harrisburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 1971.

G. S. Bryan / a. g.

See also Canvass ; Elections ; Elections, Presidential ; Era of Good Feeling ; "Full Dinner Pail" ; Jingoism ; "Tippe-canoe and Tyler Too."