Campaign song

Campaign songs are songs used by candidates or political campaigns. Most modern campaign songs are upbeat popular songs or original compositions that articulate a positive message about a campaign or candidate, usually appealing to patriotism, optimism, or a good-natured reference to a personal quality of the candidate such as their ethnic origin or the part of the country they are from. In some cases, the campaign song can be a veiled attack on an opposing candidate or party. The use of a campaign song is primarily known in the quadrennial United States presidential election, where both major party candidates usually use one or more songs to identify with their campaign.

History in the United States

The origin of campaign songs were partisan ditties used in American political canvasses and more especially in presidential contests. The words were commonly set to established melodies like "Yankee Doodle," "Hail, Columbia," "Rosin the Bow," "Hail to the Chief" "John Brown's Body," "Dixie" and "O Tannenbaum" ("Maryland, My Maryland"); or to tunes widely popular at the time, such as "Few Days," "Champagne Charlie," "The Wearing of the Green" or "Down in a Coal Mine," which served for "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 spread rapidly over the country, furnishing a party slogan. It has been said: "What the Marseilles Hymn was to Frenchmen, 'Tippecanoe and Tyler Too' was to the Whigs of 1840." In 1872 an attempt was made to revive the air for "Greeley Is the Real True Blue." The words, sometimes with music, of campaign songs were distributed in paper-covered song books or "songsters." Among these were the Log Cabin Song Book of 1840 and Hutchinson's Republican Songster for the presidential campaign of 1860, compiled by J. W. Hutchinson. For many years national campaigns included itinerant stumpspeakers, live animals, fife-and-drum corps, red fire, floats, transparencies and rousing mass meetings in courthouses and town halls. Glee clubs were organized to introduce campaign songs and to lead audiences and matchers in singing them. The songs were real factors in holding the interest of crowds, emphasizing issues, developing enthusiasm and satirizing opponents. With changes in the methods of campaigning, the campaign song declined as a popular expression.

Source: Dictionary of American History by James Truslow Adams, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1940

Presidential campaign songs

Election Candidate Song Songwriter / Lyricist
1800 John Adams
(Federalist)
"Adams and Liberty" John Stafford Smith and Robert Treat Paine, Jr.
1808 James Madison
(Democratic-Republican)
"Huzzah for Madison, Huzzah"
1824 John Quincy Adams
(Democratic-Republican)
"Little Know Ye Who's Coming"
Andrew Jackson
(Democratic-Republican)
"The Hunters of Kentucky" Samuel Woodworth
1828 Andrew Jackson
(Democratic · campaign)
1840 William Henry Harrison
(Whig)
"Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" Alexander Coffman Ross
Martin Van Buren
(Democratic)
"Rock-a-bye Baby" Traditional
1860 Abraham Lincoln
(Republican)
"Lincoln and Liberty" Jesse Hutchinson
1864 "Battle Cry of Freedom" George F. Root
1928 Al Smith
(Democratic)
"Sidewalks of New York" Charles B. Lawlor and James W. Blake
1932 Franklin D. Roosevelt
(Democratic)
"Happy Days Are Here Again" Milton Ager and Jack Yellen
1948 Harry S Truman
(Democratic)
"I'm Just Wild About Harry" Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle
1960 John F. Kennedy
(Democratic)
"High Hopes" Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn
1964 Lyndon B. Johnson
(Democratic)
"Hello Lyndon" Jerry Herman
Barry Goldwater
(Republican · campaign)
"Go with Goldwater" Tom McDonnell and Otis Clements
1968 Richard Nixon
(Republican ·
1968: campaign)
"Nixon's the One" Moose Charlap and Alvin Cooperman
1972 "Nixon Now"
George McGovern
(Democratic · campaign)
"Bridge over Troubled Water" Paul Simon
1976 Jimmy Carter
(Democratic)
"Ode to The Georgia Farmer" K.E. and Julia Marsh
Gerald Ford
(Republican)
"I'm Feeling Good about America" Robert K. Gardner
1980 Ronald Reagan
(Republican ·
1980: campaign)
"California, Here I Come" Buddy DeSylva and Joseph Meyer
1984 Walter Mondale
(Democratic)
"Gonna Fly Now"
1988 George H. W. Bush
(Republican)
"This Land Is Your Land" Woody Guthrie
"The George Bush Song" Willie Barrow and Sylvia Johns Cain
Michael Dukakis
(Democratic)
"America" Neil Diamond
1992 Ross Perot
(Independent · campaign)
"Crazy" Patsy Cline
Bill Clinton
(Democratic ·
1992: campaign)
"Don't Stop" Fleetwood Mac
1996 "This Is the Moment" Frank Wildhorn and Leslie Bricusse
Bob Dole
(Republican)
"Dole Man" Sam and Dave
2000 Al Gore
(Democratic · campaign)
"You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet" Bachman–Turner Overdrive
"Let the Day Begin" The Call
George W. Bush
(Republican ·
2000: campaign ·
2004: campaign)
"I Won't Back Down" Tom Petty
"We the People" Billy Ray Cyrus
"Right Now" Van Halen
2004 "Only in America" Brooks & Dunn
"Wave on Wave" Pat Green
John Kerry
(Democratic · campaign)
"No Surrender" Bruce Springsteen
"Fortunate Son" John Fogerty
"Beautiful Day" U2
2008 Rudy Giuliani
(Republican · primary campaign)
"Take Us Out" Jerry Goldsmith
"Rudie Can't Fail" The Clash
Mike Huckabee
(Republican · primary campaign)
"More Than a Feeling" Boston
Dennis Kucinich
(Democratic · primary campaign)
"Give Peace a Chance" John Lennon
Chris Dodd
(Democratic · primary campaign)
"Get Ready" The Temptations
"Reach Out I'll Be There" Four Tops
John Edwards
(Democratic · primary campaign)
"Our Country" John Mellencamp
Hillary Clinton
(Democratic · primary campaign)
"Blue Sky" Big Head Todd and the Monsters
"Suddenly I See" KT Tunstall
"You and I" Celine Dion
"Takin' Care of Business" Bachman–Turner Overdrive
"9 to 5" Dolly Parton
"American Girl" Tom Petty
Cynthia McKinney
(Green · campaign)
"Power to the People" John Lennon
John McCain
(Republican · campaign)
"Take Us Out" Jerry Goldsmith
"Take A Chance On Me" ABBA
"Our Country" John Mellencamp
"Raisin' McCain" John Rich
Barack Obama
(Democratic ·
2008: campaign ·
2012: campaign)
"Yes We Can" will.i.am
"Better Way" Ben Harper
"Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours" Stevie Wonder
"City of Blinding Lights" U2
"Higher and Higher" Jackie Wilson
"Think" Aretha Franklin
"The Rising" Bruce Springsteen
"Only in America" Brooks & Dunn
2012 "We Take Care of Our Own" Bruce Springsteen
Mitt Romney
(Republican · campaign)
"Born Free" Kid Rock
"It's America" Rodney Atkins
2016 John Kasich
(Republican · primary campaign)
"Beautiful Day" U2
Bernie Sanders
(Democratic · primary campaign)
"America" Simon & Garfunkel
Donald Trump
(Republican · campaign)
"You Can't Always Get What You Want" The Rolling Stones
"God Bless the USA" Lee Greenwood
Hillary Clinton
(Democratic · campaign)
"Fight Song" Rachel Platten
"Roar" Katy Perry
Hunters of Kentucky
Jackson supporters used this Battle of New Orleans anthem as their campaign song.

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Tippecanoe and Tyler too
As used in the 1840 campaign.

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References

    External links

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