8/3/2023 0 Comments Politicats theme song![]() Bush, Sarah Palin, and John McCain all rocking out to the hit that was MTV's 1992 Video of the Year. ![]() Bush and Others: "Right Now"įor a few years, beginning in 2006, Van Halen’s rousing jam “Right Now” became the unofficial theme song of the Republican party, with George W. The jangly tune was such a hit, Democratic candidates used it for the next few decades, forever associating it with the party. The chirpy ditty, “Happy Days Are Here Again,” from the 1930 musical Chasing Rainbows, just happened to be lying around. At a campaign rally one day, the man charged with introducing Roosevelt did such a terrible job, the soon-to-be president’s advisors wanted to play something-anything-to get the bad taste out of the audience’s mouth before FDR took the stage. It wasn’t until 1932, during Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s presidential campaign, that a pre-existing campaign song was used-and it happened rather by accident. Franklin Delano Roosevelt: "Happy Days Are Here Again" Despite the threats, Adams lost the 1828 race to Andrew Jackson. But Washington’s vaguely pro-royalist jam is nothing compared to John Quincy Adams’ campaign song a few decades later, which unlike most campaign songs that try for a more positive approach, actively threatened voters if they didn’t vote for him: "Fire's a-comin', swords a-comin'/pistols, guns and knives are comin'/.if John Quincy not be comin'," the singer crooned. George Washington also went with an original tune, “God Save Great Washington,“ a rather thinly veiled knock-off of “God Save the Queen”-an interesting choice for the Redcoat-vanquishing general. John Quincy Adams: "Little Know Ye Who's Coming" Silvio Berlusconi: "Thank Goodness for Silvio"įor nearly a decade, Italy’s playboy-president, Silvio Berlusconi, had been campaigning to an original tune, the title of which loosely translates to “Thank Goodness for Silvio.” Anyone familiar with Berlusconi’s Bunga Bunga debacle won’t be surprised to find out that “Thank Goodness for Silvio” comes with a series of campaign music videos, which have played regularly over the years on Italian television, and feature beautiful women hanging out in beauty salons, walking on treadmills, and performing water aerobics, while singing longingly into the camera about how great Il Cavalere really is. David Brooks of The New York Times offered Hall & Oates’ “Maneater.” Jon Sanders of suggested R.E.M.’s “It’s the End of the World as We Know It,” and Rush Limbaugh struck below the belt with Sir Mix-a-Lot’s booty-lovin’ “Baby Got Back.”Ĭlinton ended up going with Celine Dion’s travel-themed love song, “You and I." 4. In 2000, she used Billy Joel’s “Captain Jack” at a rally-a song her opponent, Rudy Giuliani, gleefully pointed out is about things like getting high and masturbating.Įight years later, during the Democratic presidential primary, Clinton let her fans go online and vote on her campaign song-a nice, democratic idea that turned into a bit of a debacle when conservative pundits began offering their own suggestions. Hillary Rodham Clinton hasn’t had much better luck choosing her campaign ditties. military failures in Vietnam: “I had a buddy at Khe Sahn/Fighting off the Viet Cong/They’re still there, he’s all gone.” 3. ![]() Anyone who has actually listened to the lyrics knows it’s a seething anti-war anthem, delineating, among other things, U.S. When Ronald Reagan chose Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” as his campaign song in 1984, a collective gasp echoed across the nation. ![]() Syrian pop star Mayyada Bselees’ Arabic cover of the soaring love ballad (written and originally performed by Dolly Parton) was broadcast on dawn-to-dusk radio spots from Baghdad to Basra endorsing the mustachioed autocrat-just before the U.S.-led bombing campaign began in 2003. Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s selection of Whitney Houston’s "I Will Always Love You" for his sham campaign in 2002 is perhaps the most wonderful, if nonsensical, choice of a campaign song in political history. ![]() Here’s a list of a few of the most notable, scandalous, ridiculous, or downright brilliant campaign songs ever used. presidential candidates, world leaders, and even a few dictators have found themselves flummoxed, mocked, and, more often than you’d think, sued for selecting the wrong tune. The art of choosing the right campaign song is not as straightforward as it may seem. With presidential campaigns already gearing up for 2020, candidates are beginning to rally their bases, retool their talking points, and select their campaign songs-those upbeat little ditties that play at rallies, speeches and pretty much whenever a candidate walks on stage. ![]()
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