At Least Michele Bachmann Didn't Use Tom Petty's 'I Won't Back Down'
Rep. Michele Bachmann announces her presidential run, Waterloo, Iowa, June 27, 2011. Charlie Neibergall/AP hide caption
Rep. Michele Bachmann announces her presidential run, Waterloo, Iowa, June 27, 2011.
Charlie Neibergall/APMichele Bachmann's official announcement Monday of her bid for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination ended with the 1970s song "American Girl" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
That musical choice by her campaign is worth noting, if for no other reason, because of what happened during the 2000 presidential race when another Republican presidential candidate used a popular Petty song.
Petty told the campaign of then-candidate George W. Bush campaign to stop using his rock hit of defiance and courage: "I Won't Back Down" which politicians and sports teams have been wearing out for years. (A blog post on Denver Westword lists a few examples where politicians have gotten crosswise of the owners of hit songs.)
The rocker's music publisher Wixen Music Publishing Inc., wrote the Bush campaign saying demanding that it cease playing the famous song. "...The impression that you and your campaign have been endorsed by Tom Petty, which is not true," the letter said, according to a Rolling Stone report.
Petty later showed up at the vice president's official residence the night Al Gore conceded for the political version of an Irish wake that featured other iconic superstars --Jon BonJovi and Stevie Wonder.
Already, at least one Democratic activist, Matt Ortega, is doing his part to prod Petty to give Bachmann the Bush treatment. He tweets:
Hey @TomPetty, just wanted to let you know that Michele Bachmann is using "American Girl" at her campaign rallies...
Meanwhile, Liz Mair, a did communications at the RNC and is a vice president at Hynes Communications tweeted:
@MattOrtega Isn't that what the kidnapped politician's daughter was singing in "Silence of the Lambs?"
And, sure enough, it is.