On Campaign Songs, Don’t Be Petty

Published May 27, 2015 3:04pm ET



With so many Republican candidates announcing their bids for the presidency these days, one our most hallowed election-year rituals can’t be far behind. I refer, of course, to when fading musical acts attempt to prove their progressive bona fides by making a stink when a candidate they disagree with plays their music at a rally.

This wearying spectacle has become something of an epidemic over the past several elections. Tom Petty carped when Michele Bachmann played his ‘American Girl’ in 2012. That particular gambit has apparently joined ‘Mary Jane’s Last Dance’ as one of Petty’s greatest hits – he also objected when George W. Bush used ‘I Won’t Back Down’ back in 2000. Woe unto the 2016 contender who plays ‘Runnin’ Down a Dream’ at a rally.

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