A political playlist: The fight over campaign songs

n 1960, the presidential campaign of John F. Kennedy featured the popular song “High Hopes,” with specially-written lyrics sung by Frank Sinatra:

K E Double-N E D Y
Jack’s the nation’s favorite guy
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 his high hopes

The right music can set a candidate apart from the pack, and that’s why it’s been part of the American political landscape since Day One. University of Michigan music history professor Mark Clague says campaign music goes back to the founding of our nation, “back to the time of George Washington, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Really even predates the time when we had broad, popular elections, when it really was the Electoral College. Music was still a part of the discourse, and it was a way to bring passion into politics.”

Talk about passion: The 2024 election has become a Battle of the Bands, starting with Kid Rock at the Republican National Convention in July:

And a few weeks later, the Democrats turned their roll call into a dance party, led by DJ Cassidy:

Dem

A catchy song can be a campaign’s calling card, a free ad that plays indefinitely. Take Bill Clinton with Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop,” or Ronald Reagan with Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.” That song took on special meaning in the days after 9/11.

Greenwood said he wrote it for all Americans, and initially he did not want it used as part of any political campaign: “No, that bothered me at first. The Democratic Party had called me in 1984 and wanted me to perform ‘U.S.A.’ at their convention in San Francisco, and I said no. I declined. The Republicans also called me for their convention in Dallas; I also declined.”

But when President Reagan asked Greenwood to sing it in 1988, he did, and it’s since become a Republican anthem.