John F. Kennedy and his listening habits

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Mechanical Man, Jun 10, 2014.

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  1. hbbfam

    hbbfam Forum Resident

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  2. duggan

    duggan Senior Member

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    sydney
    During the late fifties Harry Belafonte was fairly popular with the educated, travelled and progressive section of society born in the period from about 1915 to 1930.

    I'd imagine that JFK would have enjoyed Harry's Calypso album.
     
  3. Bill Lettang

    Bill Lettang Forum Resident

    From the Kennedy library, he lists a few tunes he liked and went on to say he thought "Hail to the Chief has a nice ring to it..." How wonderfully witty. Met him on a school trip to the UN and was forever influeneced (to this day) by his intelligence and magnetism. My favorite jfk'ism is when he's honoring a group of (I think)Pulitzer Prize winners (my memory is a little vague as to the exactness) and he refers to them collectively as the most intelligence to be in the white house at one time save for when Thomas Jefferson dined alone...Now THATS'S COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
     
  4. Scope J

    Scope J Senior Member

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    Eddie Fisher ?
     
  5. Scope J

    Scope J Senior Member

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    Michigan
    Checker
     
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  6. Another:

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  7. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower

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    For when he had guests.
     
  8. varispeed

    varispeed what if?

    Location:
    Los Angeles Ca
    This is a cool topic as I was alive, conscious, and wondering various JFK-musical things realtime in those days.

    Where I was, Vaughn Meader's First Family clips were actually played on my local am pop stations in fairly regular rotation. I vividly remember those in 2-3 minute snips. Sort of along with massive numbers of Tom Thumb jokes (which I never got the humor of). And sandwiched in between stuff like "Hello Muddah".

    I agree the Camelot thing was basically an invention by Life magazine in terms of turning a quote into a definition of a presidency. I remember it felt a little tacky at the time. The JFK years didn't seem like Camelot... as short as they were. I remember the daily cold war overtones, Cuba, the air-raid drills at school (alright, everyone under your desk for the incoming missiles). The debatably better/more complete picture of those days is certainly now in focus what with detailed interviews from the past decade from women/aides/inner circle people who cast a total non-Camelot light on the short presidency. I feel we all now have a much more balanced insight in to the JFK years being just as routed in reality as now. I prefer the stark reality info.

    Music....

    I can see the JFK interest in the tune Camelot performed by Burton ..... maybe simply for how big the play was....and.....or.... even possibly moreso because of how big Burton was ......no.......how HUGE Burton and Liz Taylor were at that moment.....PARTICULARLY from the MASSIVE storyline of 1962 or so of the over-runs, od's, breakdowns, breakups, affairs and other tabloid juicy stuff regarding the production of "Cleopatra". We mere mortals didn't often get such intense mainstream feedings of such debauchery and inner celebrity/Hollywood workings. Thank you once again Life/Look magazines. Huge high-rez photos of Liz being carted offset on a stretcher from exhaustion etc. Very not-1962. I was massively entertained by this. I couldn't even spell voyeur.

    No matter how much JFK had access to Marilyn Monroe, I'm sure he was eagerly eating up all this juicy Burton/Taylor stuff as it spilled out in realtime...... just like the rest of us ate it up. That would tend to anchor Burton's "hit" in my head too. I can also dig the Judy Garland show connection. That show was a big deal for a bit..... and media-d to death regarding its sophistication. I watched it too.

    Then.... there is the question of the Beatles.....

    I have vivid memories of the day of the JFK assassination and then the Beatles' appearance ten weeks later, conquering the US in less than one hour. Beginning in March or so 1964, I began dwelling on, not if JFK knew of the Beatles, but what he may have commented on regarding them since I'm POSITIVE he did in fact about them. Why do I figure he knew?

    Because even though he was two generations ahead, into the Sinatra/Broadway/light jazz/Garland/show tunes mode..... no doubt stemming from his music routes/world of wwII, he WAS surrounded with massive numbers of 20-something aged employees. And there was plenty of media warning in the summer of 1963 that this thing called the Beatles was doing massive mind control of kids in Europe. JFK was an avid newspaper reader...... so was I. There were plenty of articles.... with Beatles pics. I thought the band looked goofy (eight months before Sullivan and then night they captured me)..... so.... I always wondered what JFK thought.

    Did he read the articles and shake his head? Chuckle? Roll his eyes? Did any number of 20-something-year old aides say, "look at this Mr. President, they are so interesting looking". Were there conversations?

    There was the appearance of "Please Please Me" in the spring of 1963. I personally didn't like it much the four or five times I heard it but then, I hadn't yet been captured. Did JFK hear it? Comment on it? Maybe not as he probably was rarely tuned to a pop am station. But lots of his 20-something employees were.

    I'll always wonder what crossed JFK's mind as he took in news articles of the Beatles.... if he didn't just skim and move on to some other printed topic. I supposed I wouldn't really have expected Kennedy to comment on the Beatles publicly, even if he did really check out the stories. LBJ never talked about pop music. Nixon never did. Pop music wasn't really a point of discussion by presidents in those days. No doubt because all our parents were WWII people and not expecting a Prez to get into a discussion of "Take Good Care of My Baby" etc. Different generations by far.

    I can't tell you how many times I wonder about JFK's inner analysis of Beatles news, especially considering JFK and Beatles eventually missed paths by only ten weeks. I sort of equate it to the early morning breakfast Kennedy was at on November 22 1963. Someone handed a huge Texas cowboy hat to JFK as a gift and the catcalls came out for him to put it on. I was even sitting there, wondering what the hat would look like on him on tv. He deferred, saying he'd put it on at the White House on Monday.
     
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  9. JamieC

    JamieC Senior Member

    Location:
    Detroit Mi USA
    Think about this. JFK was probably aware of this group called the Beatles, if only on a vague level. He read a number of newspapers daily, including British press. Beatlemania was in full effect in England before November of 63. Just sayin'.
     
  10. AppleCorp3

    AppleCorp3 Forum Resident

    I seem to remember Peter Yarrow recalling having a conversation he had with JFK that seemed to intimate that the president was at least familiar with some of their material - limited as it was at the time.
     
  11. wave

    wave Forum Resident

    Location:
    Allen Park, MI
    I'm currently reading Nigel Hamilton's JFK: Reckless Youth and apparently Kennedy's favorite song while he was serving in the South Pacific was Sinatra's "All Or Nothing At All" (which was also the subchapter title).
     
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  12. noyoucmon

    noyoucmon Forum Resident

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  14. Ophelia

    Ophelia Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York, New York
    I know it's off-topic, but Lyndon Johnson, toward the end of his life, loved and repeatedly listened to the song Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon & Garfunkel. He also attended the first Kerrville Folk Festival in 1972.
    His favorite songs includes: Battle Hymn of the Republic, Onward Christian Soldiers, America The Beautiful,, Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head, Carolina Moon, Stormy Weather , Tumbleweed , Wagon Wheels , Don’t Fence Me In, High Noon , Navajo Trail , Hills of Home , Songs from: "Oklahoma", "Hello Dolly", and the "The Sound of Music


    Nixon was a huge fan of the Victory At Sea soundtrack; it can be heard blasting on one of the Nixon tapes; he also loved Jazz and had Duke Ellington perform at the White House and he himself made an appearance at the Grand Ole Opry in 1974. He also loved Earl Hines. He invited Merle Haggard to the White House in 1973.

    Gerald Ford apparently liked Jim Croce, and danced at a State Dinner to 'Leroy Brown' in August 1974 just after becoming President. He also had Captain & Tennille perform for the Queen during America's Bicentennial.

    Carter loved Jazz, especially Dizzy Gillespie, and hung out with David Crosby aboard Air Force One in 1977. He loved Willie Nelson.
     
  15. Another shot:

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