By John Lindstrom
Publisher
Posted: March 9, 2017 11:26 AM

Pink Martini is a hard band to categorize. The simplest way is to say they are jazz-pop, but that fails to bring in the Afro-Cuban styles, the upbeat tempo of remade folksongs from it seems half the world’s nations, the swing versions of composers such as Schubert and Ravel, the quirky kind of free verse songs they compose, and the fact they sing in at least a half-dozen languages fluently. Let’s see, they sing in English, French (they first gained world notoriety for a French song they composed), Spanish, German, Japanese and Turkish. Yup, half a dozen.

Well, they also sing in Yiddish. And Arabic. And Armenian. And Russian. They may also sing in Esperanto for all that, though nothing has shown up in their recordings. Who cares if you don’t understand the lyrics, do you understand “La Traviata?” It’s the music, guys, the music.

To make sense of the rest of this post, if you have not heard Pink Martini, here is their lead singer China Forbes and the band in one of their most popular tunes, “Hey Eugene,” when the band performed on the Dave Letterman show:

What does all this have to do with the unsuccessful 1976 campaign of former President Gerald Ford? Well…..

Before presidential campaigns decided to appropriate top hits for their campaigns, they actually had their own campaign jingles. Great tunes like “Keep Cool and Keep Coolidge,” “Buckle Down With Nixon,” and “I Like Ike.” There was a time when these had value, when politics was more entertainment than blood sport. They would be played in parades and rallies, and supporters would sing and get inspired.

And Mr. Ford had a campaign song in 1976, so did the winner that year, former President Jimmy Carter. Mr. Ford’s largely forgettable song was “I’m Feeling Good About America,” (Mr. Carter’s tune was just as forgettable) heard here in a folk version:

Mr. Ford lost a close race in 1976 and the song vanished from memory.

Until this week. Pink Martini had a concert in Grand Rapids. The band leader and pianist Thomas Lauderdale said the band actually got started in part for political reasons. He was thinking of running for mayor of Portland, Oregon, where the band is centered, and he played a lot of fundraising events. How the band went from playing fundraisers in Portland to being a hit in Paris is another story.

During the Grand Rapids show, Pink Martini did an arrangement of the Ford campaign song. They put it up-tempo, changed the key, added some dynamite rhythm, and with Ms. Forbes belting out the lyrics, trust me, if the GOP had played this version of the song the results in 1976 might have been different.

There is no authorized recording of Pink Martini’s “I’m Feeling Good About America.” Plenty of audience members had their phones out to capture the concert, but this reporter respects copyright law too much for that. One can hope it will show up on a future album.

In one ethereal way, one could say Mr. Ford and former First Lady Betty Ford might have heard the song, since their resting place is about a half-mile from the concert hall.

Mr. Lauderdale, though, did draw applause from all political sides – supporters of President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton were at the concert – when he said wouldn’t it be nice if we had Gerald Ford now.