John McCain wants you to take a chance on him. Every little thing Hillary Clinton does is magic. Supporting Mike Huckabee is more than a feeling.
Campaign songs, intended to set the mood and provide a memorable catch phrase for candidates, have riled a few musicians during the current presidential race.
Tom Scholz, of the band Boston, spoke out recently about Mike Huckabee using Boston’s hit More Than a Feeling on the campaign trail.
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He said Huckabee’s use of his band’s most famous song sends the message that Boston supports Huckabee.
“Boston has never endorsed a political candidate, and with all due respect, would not start by endorsing a candidate who is the polar opposite of most everything Boston stands for,” Scholz said in a public letter to Huckabee. “Although I’m impressed you learned my bass guitar part on More Than a Feeling, I am an Obama supporter.”
While Huckabee didn’t have Scholz’s support, the use of More Than a Feeling was sanctioned by former Boston member, Barry Goudreau, who joined Huckabee in performing the song at a Huckabee rally.
However, Scholz argued that Goudreau didn’t have any involvement recording More Than a Feeling, and should not be allowed to give permission for the song’s use.
Scholz pointed out, “I wrote and arranged More Than a Feeling, engineered and produced the recording, and actually played all the guitars on that Boston hit as well as most of Boston’s songs, not the person holding a guitar in your promotion who identified himself as being ‘of Boston.’ Your claim that this was ‘the guy who originally did it’ is a bit mystifying since he never played on that recording, nor has he been ‘of Boston’ since he left my band over a quarter century ago, after performing with us for only three years.”
Goudreau left Boston in 1980. He later sued Scholz, claiming Scholz had damaged his solo recording career. The musicians settled out of court.
In a similar situation, John Mellencamp, an avid Democrat, ended John McCain’s use of his song Our Country. Mellencamp supported John Edwards, and did allow him to play both Our Country and Small Town while he was still in the presidential race. McCain recently changed his tune to Abba’s Take a Chance on Me.
Hillary Clinton doesn’t have to worry about other candidates using one of her campaign songs. She often plays Every Little Thing She Does is Magic, by the Police. However, Clinton’s official campaign song is Celine Dion’s You and I.
Obama plays U2’s Grammy-winning hit, City of Blinding Lights. Independent of the official campaign, musician will.i.am created an original song for Obama, the Yes We Can song.
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