With the smashing victory of the Republican Party in yesterday's elections (and not just RINO's -- but mostly Constitutionalist, Reaganite conservatives) I think it is time to recall the top 40 anthem of Republican normalcy.
If you want to win money in a bar bet, just ask this question.
"Who was the only Vice-President of the United States to have written a Top-40 rock hit -- in what party was he -- and under which President did he serve?"
The libs will all recommend long-forgotten nitwits like Walter Mondale, Al Gore (well he says he invented the internet) and Hubert Horatio Humphrey.
But the answer is Vice President of the United States, Charles G. Dawes of Evanston, Illinois.
In fact, there is now an elementary school named after Vice President Dawes at the corner of Dodge and Oakton, in Evanston (see photo below)
-- and a huge park there named after him, and his mansion off Sheridan Road in Evanston is now an historic landmark (see photo below left.)
He was the Vice President of the United States under the great Republican President, Calvin Coolidge -- who presided over what was, perhaps, the greatest period of American economic prosperity ever to be seen until the eighth decade of the century when the esteemed Ronaldus Magnus, worked his conservative magic from 1980 to 1988.But how did this 1920s old-timer, Mr. Dawes, have a rock n roll hit in the 1950s?
It turns out that the debonaire Republican Vice President from Evanston was something of a Renaissance man.
For fun, he was an amateur violinist and composer.
So in 1912, in his leisure hours, he composed a work for violin, which he entitled: "Melody in A Major." They liked it back then and it became his signature campaign tune.
In 1951, some pop musicians rediscovered it, appreciated its soft, romantic strains and put words to it.
It was recorded that year by the great, melliflous, black crooner, Tommy Edwards.
It flopped on the charts.
But in 1958, they put 50s- styled do-wop piano strains to it and Tommy Edwards re-released it.
It became the #1 national pop hit.
Listen to it below. You can almost see formally dressed college kids at an Eisenhower-era Sorority or Fraternity formal dance, quietly swaying cheek-to-cheek to this as the slow dance interlude between rollicking bits by Elvis and Buddy Holly.
Interesting that when it was released in 1951, it didn't catch on.
Then the silly Democrat haberdasher from Missouri, Harry Truman, was in the White House.
It only succeeded in 1958, during the calm, prosperous days presided over by the Republican President and former liberator of Europe and North Africa, Dwight D. Eisenhower.
I would guess that GOP Vice President Dawes, would see the cosmic righteousness in that.
We've not yet attained the desired and likely inevitable plateau of Conservative/Republican normalcy. But with yesterday's election results, we just got a whole helluva lot nearer.
Hey -- It's all in the game!!
