Presidential Play: U.S. Presidents in Billboard’s Archives, From the 1900s to Today

For the Record, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Jon Bon Jovi, John F. Kennedy

From left: Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Jon Bon Jovi and John F. Kennedy.

Illustration by Barbara Gibson

When Billboard began releasing in 1894, Grover Cleveland was head of state of the United States of America– all 44 of them. Parsing national politics has actually never ever been this magazine’s key function, however over the years given that, every POTUS has actually turned up in our web pages. So, in advance of Election Day (Nov 5), Billboard ideas its press reporter’s hat to the u.s. presidents whose plans and social prestige assisted form the songs organization.

No 1 With a‘Bullet’

The Sept 21, 1901, concern of Billboard covered “an almost prophetic incident” that happened at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, N.Y., the day an assassin shot President William McKinley at the Temple of Music (Sept 6). (He passed away from the injury a week later on.) “Only a moment or two before the shot rang out,” a good friend of McKinley’s informed Billboard, the “orchestra had played a German piece of music entitled ‘The Cursed Bullet.’ ”

Not ‘Ike’ Us

“Election year brought tangible results in revenue to Madison Square Garden,” reported theFeb 16, 1952, Billboard, “as an Eisenhower-for-President rally, backed by entertainment names, drew 15,000.” Luminaries consisted of songwriting fantastic Irving Berlin, whose 1950 Broadway song “They Like Ike” ended up being the project motto “I Like Ike.” The exact same concern consisted of a tale regarding an “overzealous Eisenhower supporter” in Dallas that disrupted a show by “RCA Victor songbird” Mindy Carson and “demanded pinning an ‘I Like Ike’ switch on her shoulder.

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Family Values

The Nov 24, 1962, Billboard hummed regarding John F. Kennedy imitator Vaughn Meader’s cd The First Family, calling it a “comedy smash” that “electrified the industry.” The title’s success assisted heat the marketplace cool that complied with the Cuban projectile situation, among the specifying minutes of Kennedy’s presidency.The Dec 8, 1962, concern stated the cd increased “a gradually improving sales situation following the partial solution of the Cuban scare.” “I had someone come in for a copy of The First Family the other day and they left the store with $32 worth of records,” a Miami store clarified. “That’s what one of these smashes can do.”

Get Carter

Soon after the 1976 political election, theNov 13 concern defined Jimmy Carter as “a friend in the White House who’s sympathetic… to the music industry.” The Allman Brothers Band had actually played a fundraising duty in his key project, and the songs organization “got a lot of early support for him both through contributions and performances when cash was critical,” Capricorn Records head of state Phil Walden stated. It had not been simply Southern rock that brought Carter:The Sept 18, 1976, concern reported on “a mobile disco operation in Atlanta” that was “discoing around the country” to elevate assistance forCarter

Bills, Bills,Bills

The Nov 14, 1992, Billboard covered a CMJ Music Marathon panel in New York labelled “Are We Really Voting Tipper Gore Into the White House?”– a then-controversial concept, considering she had actually refuted songs with specific verses marketed to kids. Panelists had “an ‘anti-Tipper-but-voting-for-Clinton-anyway’ theme.’ ” More than twenty years later on, Bill Clinton presented with Jon Bon Jovi for the cover of theNov 5, 2016, concern, to highlight their philanthropy. “This is Bon Jovi’s Be Kind to a Senior Night,” the previous head of state joked throughout the picture shoot.

This short article shows up in theOct 26, 2024, concern of Billboard.

For theRecord

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