Presidents in Parody: Tippecanoe and Tyler Too
Jacksonian Democrats held the White House from 1829 to 1841, with Andrew Jackson himself serving two full terms and his hand-picked successor Martin Van Buren serving the following term. The election of 1840 was a pivotal one as anti-Jackson forces sought to recapture the White House. The Whigs rallied behind their candidate, former General William Henry Harrison, who had been hailed as the "Hero of (the battle of) Tippecanoe". To garner enthusiasm for Harrison and his running mate John Tyler, and to lampoon their opponent, the incumbent Van Buren, the Whigs used a very popular campaign song, entitled "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too".
The song had been originally published under the name "Tip and Ty". It became very popular and influential among prospective voters during the campaign, one that was dubbed the "Log Cabin Campaign" in the 1840 presidential election. The song's lyrics sang the praises of Whig candidates William Henry Harrison (the "hero of Tippecanoe") and John Tyler, while denigrating incumbent Democrat Martin Van Buren and portraying him to be a prissy aristocrat, born with a silver spoon in his mouth.
The song had twelve verses, but the ones more commonly sung go as follows:
Oh who has heard the great commotion, motion motion
All the country through?
It is the ball a-rolling on
For Tippecanoe and Tyler too
And with him we'll beat Little Van, Van
Van is a used up man
And with him we'll beat Little Van
Sure, let 'em talk about hard cider (cider cider)
And log cabins too
T'will only help to speed the ball
For Tippecanoe and Tyler too
And with him we'll beat Little Van, Van
Van is a used up man
And with him we'll beat Little Van
Like the rush of mighty waters (waters waters)
Onward it will go
And of course we'll bring you through
For Tippecanoe and Tyler too
And with him we'll beat Little Van, Van
Van is a used up man
And with him we'll beat Little Van
The song appears to be the first effective use of singing as a campaign device in the United States. It was written by Alexander Coffman Ross, a jeweler from Zanesville, Ohio, in 1840. It was sung to the tuneof the minstrel song, "Little Pigs". Ross first performed it at a Whig meeting in Zanesville, and it came to national attention when, traveling on a business trip, he introduced it to a Whig rally in New York. Ross never copyrighted the song. Many local campaigns added their own verses to the song
Ross's version had twelve verses and a rousing chorus. The repeated reference to rolling balls and constant motion, refers to rolling these hugs balls of canvas which became a physical prop in the campaign pageantry. Other props included hard cider barrels.
The song was part of the score of the 1968 Off-Broadway musical "How to Steal an Election". The song has been recorded in a traditional form at least twice; in 1978 by Peter Janovsky on the album Winners and Losers: Campaign Songs from the Critical Elections in American History, Vol. 1 for Folkways Records, and in 1999 by Oscar Brand on the album Presidential Campaign Songs: 1789 – 1996 for Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, the successor label to Folkways Records. The band They Might Be Giants recorded an alternative rock version of the song for the 2004 compilation album Future Soundtrack for America, using the three verse lyric adapted by Oscar Brand (the lyrics quoted above). These are taken from the first, eighth and second verses in Ross's original version.John Flansburgh of They Might be Giants has called the song "the 'Rock Around the Clock' of campaign songs".
Here is a YouTube version of the song sung by Oscar Brand:
The song also appears in the third episode of season 7 of the NBC show "Parks and Recreation" entitled "William Henry Harrison". In the episode, series hero Leslie Knope (played by Amy Poehler) lobbies a wealthy local land owner to turn a piece of their land into a National Park by claiming that William Henry Harrison once had a cottage on the land. The song is played as part of the presentation by a group called "Jug or Nots". Unfortunately I can't find a video of it.
The song had been originally published under the name "Tip and Ty". It became very popular and influential among prospective voters during the campaign, one that was dubbed the "Log Cabin Campaign" in the 1840 presidential election. The song's lyrics sang the praises of Whig candidates William Henry Harrison (the "hero of Tippecanoe") and John Tyler, while denigrating incumbent Democrat Martin Van Buren and portraying him to be a prissy aristocrat, born with a silver spoon in his mouth.
The song had twelve verses, but the ones more commonly sung go as follows:
Oh who has heard the great commotion, motion motion
All the country through?
It is the ball a-rolling on
For Tippecanoe and Tyler too
And with him we'll beat Little Van, Van
Van is a used up man
And with him we'll beat Little Van
Sure, let 'em talk about hard cider (cider cider)
And log cabins too
T'will only help to speed the ball
For Tippecanoe and Tyler too
And with him we'll beat Little Van, Van
Van is a used up man
And with him we'll beat Little Van
Like the rush of mighty waters (waters waters)
Onward it will go
And of course we'll bring you through
For Tippecanoe and Tyler too
And with him we'll beat Little Van, Van
Van is a used up man
And with him we'll beat Little Van
The song appears to be the first effective use of singing as a campaign device in the United States. It was written by Alexander Coffman Ross, a jeweler from Zanesville, Ohio, in 1840. It was sung to the tuneof the minstrel song, "Little Pigs". Ross first performed it at a Whig meeting in Zanesville, and it came to national attention when, traveling on a business trip, he introduced it to a Whig rally in New York. Ross never copyrighted the song. Many local campaigns added their own verses to the song
Ross's version had twelve verses and a rousing chorus. The repeated reference to rolling balls and constant motion, refers to rolling these hugs balls of canvas which became a physical prop in the campaign pageantry. Other props included hard cider barrels.
The song was part of the score of the 1968 Off-Broadway musical "How to Steal an Election". The song has been recorded in a traditional form at least twice; in 1978 by Peter Janovsky on the album Winners and Losers: Campaign Songs from the Critical Elections in American History, Vol. 1 for Folkways Records, and in 1999 by Oscar Brand on the album Presidential Campaign Songs: 1789 – 1996 for Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, the successor label to Folkways Records. The band They Might Be Giants recorded an alternative rock version of the song for the 2004 compilation album Future Soundtrack for America, using the three verse lyric adapted by Oscar Brand (the lyrics quoted above). These are taken from the first, eighth and second verses in Ross's original version.John Flansburgh of They Might be Giants has called the song "the 'Rock Around the Clock' of campaign songs".
Here is a YouTube version of the song sung by Oscar Brand:
The song also appears in the third episode of season 7 of the NBC show "Parks and Recreation" entitled "William Henry Harrison". In the episode, series hero Leslie Knope (played by Amy Poehler) lobbies a wealthy local land owner to turn a piece of their land into a National Park by claiming that William Henry Harrison once had a cottage on the land. The song is played as part of the presentation by a group called "Jug or Nots". Unfortunately I can't find a video of it.