Sing Along with Keef: “Estes Is Bestes”

If Estes Kefauver had a theme song, it was probably “The Tennessee Waltz.”

I suppose it was inevitable, given Kefauver’s home state and the fact that the song was popular at the time. (It originally came out in 1948, the year Kefauver was first elected to the Senate, and the definitive Patti Page version posted above was released in 1950. Tennessee adopted it as an official state song in 1965.)

As political anthems go, it isn’t exactly “Happy Days Are Here Again.” The song kind of drags, and the lyrics – in which the singer introduces her boyfriend to an old friend, who winds up stealing him – are downright depressing. (When used to introduce Kefauver, the song was typically performed as an instrumental, with a somewhat faster tempo than Page’s version.) On the bright side, it isn’t “Dixieland.” But it’s not the song I personally would choose as my political trademark.

The song became particularly associated with Kefauver during the 1956 campaign. When he captured the Vice Presidential nomination at the Chicago convention, he ascended the stage to the strains of “The Tennessee Waltz.” And while he was criss-crossing the country on Adlai Stevenson’s behalf, there was inevitably a band or a sound truck waiting to serenade him with the song each time he stepped out of the “Kefauver Mainstreeter,” as his campaign plane was called.

However Kefauver and his campaign staff felt about the song at the start of the campaign, they grew heartily sick of it by the end. In October 1956, the New York Times reported that Kefauver winced every time he heard the song. His staffers were so tired of it that they composed a ditty of their own:

Maybe some day, if we’re lucky

They’ll think he’s from Kentucky

And they won’t play that Tennessee Waltz

The first time Kefauver ran for President in 1952, he had a different campaign song. A hillbilly band from Johnson City, Tennessee called Larry Dean and His Virginia Playboys came up with a sprightly little ditty called “Estes Is Bestes (Kefauver for President Fight Song)”. Enjoy:

Now, this is a campaign song! Bright, up-tempo, and singing the praises of the candidate in question. Larry Dean turns “crime-bustin’ Estes” into a downright folk hero, putting away criminals “from Maine to Miami.” Without question, the second verse is my favorite:

They sent him to the Cap’tol as a country boy

Now he’s the nation’s pride and joy

Estes is the best, I been tellin’ you

He’ll be our President in ‘52

They know about him all over the map

Let’s swap the mink coat for the coonskin cap

In fairness, I can understand why Kefauver didn’t try to take this song nationwide: even in 1952, I don’t think hillbilly music was going to win over big-city voters. But come on, the song slaps! It’s way better than “The Tennessee Waltz.”

If I had to hear the same song over and over every day on the trail, I’d much rather hear “Estes Is Bestes.”

Believe it or not, this wasn’t the only song written about Estes Kefauver. But ypu’ll have to wait for future installments of this series to hear about those.