Buddy Song.(The Talk of the Town)(campaign songs)

Several weeks ago, John McCain revealed his love for Abba, a confession that produced a campaign theme song ("Take a Chance on Me") and a number of parodies (one, on the Web site Jezebel, went "Gimme gimme gimme McCain after midnight"). The choice of Abba--brilliant or terrible?--was a reminder of how in political music (as in politics and in music) there can be a thin line between a flop and a sensation. Song selections have a way of backfiring, because of the lyrics ("Mambo No. 5," briefly in the running for the 2000 Democratic Convention, turned out to refer to a girl named Monica), or the songwriter's politics (Reagan/Bruce Springsteen), or something in between (Chaka Khan on her appearance at the Republican Convention in 2000: "I'm trying to forget about that").

So what about the prospects for "Headed Home," a tribute composed, this summer, by Senator Orrin Hatch (R., Utah) for Senator Ted Kennedy (D., Mass.)? The song, written to herald Kennedy's return to the Senate after he was given the diagnosis of a brain tumor, was reported to be under consideration for the Democratic Convention by the Boston Globe, which called it "lilting." Hatch, who has written more than three hundred songs, mostly religious music and patriotic numbers, came up with the lyrics to "Headed Home"; Philip Springer ("Santa Baby") wrote the music. In a demo recording, the jazz vocalist Tony Middleton--who has a deep, warbly voice, not unlike James Earle Jones's--sings of a metaphorical boat journey that ends with a call on Americans to honor Senator Kennedy: "Through the rain and fog / We can find a clear day / Shoo the shadows and doubts away / And touch the legacy that is ours."

Last week, Hatch released the song as an MP3 (with a warning: "I am respectfully requesting that, if you choose to post the song on your company's Web site, you do so in a protected, streaming-only, non-downloadable format"), and the experts were divided on its chances. Greil Marcus, the music critic, said, "When it started, I thought, This isn't half bad. I like 'halfway to the stars' instead of 'all the way.' But"--he read the line about the storm--" 'touch the legacy that is ours'? You just can't use 'legacy' in a song. It's like a ...