Timely Tunes Archive

Musicologists hand-pick songs related to the season or current events.

For ease in planning, we archive them here!

 

Holidays and Observances

 

January  

Martin Luther King Day

We Shall Overcome

Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing

February

Black History Month

Desponding Negro

Michael Row the Boat Ashore

Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child

Darling Nelly Gray

Get Off the Track

Go Down Moses

John Brown’s Body

No More Auction Block for Me (Many Thousand Gone)

Deep River

John Henry

Mule Skinner Blues

Arwhoolie

What Did I Do to Be So Black and Blue

Boll Weevil Song

We'll Understand It Better By and By

Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out

I'm Marching Down Freedom Road

We Shall Overcome

Respect

Say It Loud I'm Black and Proud

Get a Job

Gangsta's Paradise

Chocolate City

Living for the City

Presidents Day

Jefferson & Liberty

American Commerce & Freedom

Hail Columbia

President's March

We’re Coming, Father Abraham

Battle Hymn of the Republic

Campaign songs

March

Women's History Month

Rights of a Woman

Address to the Ladies

Song of the Shirt

The New America

Going to the Polls

Women's Doxology

Rosie the Riveter

Respect

Wives and Lovers

At Seventeen

I am Woman

Workin' Nine to Five

St. Patrick's Day

Thousands Are Sailing to Amerikay

No Irish Need Apply

I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen

April

Earth Day

Greenland Whale Fishery

Roll on Columbia

This Land is Your Land

Big Yellow Taxi

Traffic Jam

From a Distance

May

May Day (traditional labor day before communist scare)

Song of the Shirt

John Henry

Drill Ye Terriers

Solidarity Forever

The Preacher and the Slave (Pie in the Sky)

Which Side Are You On?

Sixteen Tons

Deportee

Memorial Day

Taps

Some Gave All

The Unknown Soldier

June

Flag Day, D-day

Star-Spangled Banner

Stars and Stripes Forever

For the Dear Old Flag I Die

You're a Grand Old Flag

There's a Star Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere

July

4th of July

Star-Spangled Banner

Stars and Stripes Forever

God Bless America

This Land is Your Land

Hail Columbia

President's March

August

Woman's Equality Day

Rosie the Riveter

Rights of a Woman

Going to the Polls

Women's Doxology

Respect

I am Woman

September

Labor Day

Song of the Shirt

John Henry

Drill Ye Terriers

Solidarity Forever

The Preacher and the Slave (Pie in the Sky)

Which Side Are You On?

Sixteen Tons

Deportee

October

Columbus Day

Hail Columbia

November

Veteran's Day

Born in the U.S.A.

Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag

When Johnny Comes Marching Home

The Navy Hymn

 

 

Election Day

Campaign Songs:

Follow Washington (Washington)

Adams and Liberty (Adams)

Jefferson and Liberty (Jefferson)

Huzzah for Madison, Huzzah (Madison)

Monroe is the Man (Monroe)

Little Know Ye Who's Coming (John Q. Adams)

Jackson and Kentucky (Jackson)

Hunters of Kentucky (Jackson)

Rockabye, Baby (Martin van Buren)

The Harrison Yankee Doodle (Harrison)

Tippecanoe and Tyler Too (Tyler)

Jimmy Polk of Tennessee (Polk)

Rumadum Dum (Taylor)

The Union Wagon (Fillmore)

Pierce and King (Pierce)

Buchanan and John Breckenridge (Buchanan)

Lincoln and Liberty (Lincoln)

Just Before the Election, Andy (Andrew Johnson)

Grant, Grant, Grant (Grant)

For Hayes and Wheeler Too (Hayes)

If the Johnnies Get Into Power Again (Garfield)

Democrats, Good Democrats (Cleveland)

He's All Right (Harrison)

Marching with McKinley (McKinley)

Roosevelt the Cry (Teddy Roosevelt)

Get on a Raft with Taft (Taft)

Wilson, That's All (Woodrow Wilson)

Harding, You're the Man for Us (Harding)

Keep Cool and Keep Coolidge (Calvin Coolidge)

If He's Good Enough for Lindy (Hoover)

Happy Days Are Here Again (Roosevelt)

Franklin D. Roosevelt's Back Again (Roosevelt)

I'm Just Wild About Harry (Truman)

I Like Ike (Eisenhower)

Marching Down to Washington (Kennedy)

Hello, Lyndon (Lyndon Johnson)

Buckle Down with Nixon (Nixon)

I'm Feeling Good About America (Ford)

Why Not the Best (Carter)

California Here We Come (Reagan)

This Land is Your Land (Bush, Sr.)

Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow (Clinton)

We Take Care of Our Own (Obama)

December

Christmas

I'll Be Home for Christmas

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

Christmas in the Trenches

Anniversary of Pearl Harbor

Remember Pearl Harbor

"We're Gonna Have To Slap The Dirty Little Jap (And Uncle Sam's The Guy Who Can Do It)"

 

News and Current Events

 

September 11, 2001

September 11th Tragedy: A Musical Gallery

"Grand Central Station" Mary Chapin Carpenter

"Land of the Living " by Lucy Kaplansky

"September 11th" by Keith McHenry and Barry Watson

"Can't Cry Hard Enough" by Victoria Williams
" Freedom" by Paul McCartney
" Half Your Angels " by Graham Nash
"Let's Roll" by Neil Young
"Let's Roll" by Barry Preston
"The Rising" by Bruce Springsteen
" Where Were You" by Alan Jackson

Hurricane Katrina Songs for Hurricane Katrina
The War in Iraq

War in Iraq songs (explicit language)

"American Idiot" Green Day

Top Ten Songs Protesting Bush and the War in Iraq

Immigration

"No Irish Need Apply"

"Deportee or Plane Wreck in Los Gatos"

"Thousands Are Sailing to Amerikay"

"The Argentines, the Portuguese and the Greeks"

"Galveston Bay" (Bruce Springsteen)

"Matamoros Banks" (Bruce Springsteen

BP Oil Spill

"God's Counting on Me, God's Counting on You" (Pete Seeger)

"Sorry Ain't Enough No More" ( Shamarr Allen, Dee-1, Paul Sanchez, and Bennie Pete)

Landry Stone at the Presidential Oil Spill Commission Meeting

Same Sex Marriage various songs for same sex marriage
Haitian Earthquake

"Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour)" (Bono, Jay-Z, Rhianna)

 

Recession

"Cough up the Bucks" (Neil Young)

"Hard Times" ( Jadakiss)

"I Hate My Job" (Cam'ron)

"Bout My Money" (Joell Ortiz)

"In the Red" (Willie Isz)

"Shuttin' Down Detroit" (John Rich)

"Prayer of a Common Man" (Phil Vassar)

"I'm Changing My Name to Fannie Mae" (Tom Paxton)

Protests in Egypt

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHgzJIkFP7s

Climate Change

Big Yellow Taxi (Joni Mitchell)

Impact (Orbital)

Salt Water (Julian Lennon)

Where Are We Going to Go (David Todd)

The Shadows (Sandel)

I Need to Wake Up (Melissa Etheridge)

Earth Song (Michael Jackson)

 

Syrian Refugee crisis Help is Coming (Crowded House)
Black Lives Matter

"To Pimp a Butterfly" (Kendrick Lamar)

"Hell You Talmbout” (Jenelle Monae)

“Cry No More” (Rhiannon Giddens)

 

Suggest a Song

If you'd like to suggest a song for inclusion in one of our month by month listings, or suggest a topic for us to locate songs for, please email us now.

 

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