Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick – "We Can Do It" (2005)

What did Lewis say to Clark

When everything looked bleak? . . .

We can do it!  We can do it!

The last 2 or 3 lines featured a report on the Lewis and Clark Expedition, which I wrote at the behest of my junior-high history teacher.  I was expecting an easy A+ on my report, but I only got an A.  But what really hurt was her damning the report with faint praise as "pretty good."

Just "pretty good"?  Really?

My report had it all.  I talked about my visit to the spot where Lewis and Clark camped before heading up the Missouri River and about the patent laxative (Rush's "Thunderclappers") they took on the trip.  I threw in some obscure stuff about Daniel Boone.  I topped it all off by describing the amazing air rifle Lewis and Clark used to impress hostile Indians they met on the journey.  Plus I illustrated the report with a bunch of great photos.

On top of all that, I found a song with lyrics about Lewis and Clark to quote at the beginning of my report!

My former teacher said I would have gotten an A+ if I had read Lewis and Clark's journals.  Was she serious?

The standard edition of the Lewis and Clark journals comes in THIRTEEN volumes and is over 5300 pages long, for cryin' out loud.  Does she not know I have a thriving law practice, and that I post three times a week to my wildly popular music blog?

I'm determined to get the A+ I deserve.  So this and the next 2 or 3 lines are all about Meriweather Lewis's dog, Seaman – complete with lots of quotes from Lewis and Clark's dumb ol' journals.  You'll laugh, you'll cry . . . and if you don't want my parents to make a stink with your principal, you'll give me an A+.

Captain Lewis's Dog, Seaman: "The Greatest Traveller of My Species"

Captain Meriweather Lewis was 28 years old when President Thomas Jefferson appointed him to lead an expedition exploring the recently purchased Louisiana Territory.

Meriweather Lewis

The Corps of Discovery commanded by Lewis consisted of himself, Lieutenant William Clark, five NCOs, 30 enlisted men, and several civilians – including Sacagawea (the Shoshone wife of a French-Canadian trader) and York (a slave who had been Clark's companion since boyhood, and who Clark freed in 1811).

The Corps of Discovery also included a dog – a 150-pound black Newfoundland named Seaman.

Newfoundlands are big-ass dogs

Lewis had purchased Seaman in Pittsburgh while he was waiting for a boatbuilder to complete the construction of a large keelboat that would carry his expedition up the Missouri River.  

He paid $20 for the dog, which seems like a very large sum for that era.  But Seaman began to demonstrate his value to Lewis a few days after they departed from Pittsburgh.

Lewis, Clark, and Seaman
(St. Charles, MO)

As they were floating down the Ohio River, Lewis saw a number of squirrels swimming across the river from north to south.  Stephen Ambrose, describes what happened next in his biography of Lewis, Undaunted Courage:

Seaman started barking at them; Lewis let him go; Seaman swam out, grabbed a squirrel, killed him, and fetched him back to Lewis, who sent the dog out for repeated performances.  Lewis had the squirrels fried and declared "they were fat and I thought a pleasant [sic] food."

While continuing down the Ohio, Lewis encountered a "a respectable looking Indian" who offered him three beaver skins for Seaman.  The offer was clearly inadequate in Lewis's mind.  "Of course, there was no bargain," he later wrote.

One of several historical
novels that feature Seaman

As the expedition's boats made their way up the Missouri River in the summer and fall of 1804, Lewis often walked on the shore, seeking new plant and animal species, looking for game, and making notes about the region's mineral resources and soil fertility.  He was often accompanied only by Seaman on these wilderness  rambles. 

In May 1805, one of Lewis and Clark's men wounded a beaver, and Seaman jumped into the river to retrieve it.  "[T]he beaver bit him through the hind leg and cut the artery; it was with great difficulty that I could stop the blood; I fear it will yet prove fatal to him," Lewis wrote.  But Seaman quickly recovered thanks to Lewis's surgical skills.

Later that summer, as the Corps of Discovery was portaging from the Missouri to the Columbia River, they encountered a number of grizzly bears, some of whom came uncomfortably close to their camp after dark.

Lewis wrote in his journal that Seaman "keeps constantly paroling [sic] all night," and "gives us timely notice of [the bears'] visits."  Thanks to Seaman's vigilance, Lewis said, the bears "have never yet ventured to attack us."

In April 1806, as the Corps of Discovery was on its way back to St. Louis, three Indians stole Seaman.  

Lewis was furious.  From Undaunted Courage:

[Lewis] called three men and snapped out orders to follow and find those thieves and "if they made the least resistance [sic] or difficulty in surrendering the dog to fire on them."  The soldiers set out; when the thieves realized they were being pursued, they let Seaman go and fled.  Lewis may have been ready to kill to get Seaman back, but the Indians weren't ready to die for the dog.

In July 1806, while in what is now western Montana, Lewis saw a large creek which he named Seaman's Creek to commemorate his steadfast canine companion.  (That creek was later renamed Monture Creek.) 

A few days later, Lewis wrote that "the musquetoes [sic] continue to infest us in such manner that we can scarcely exist . . . . [M]y dog even howls with the torture he experiences from them."  

That's the last mention of Seaman in the expedition's journals.  Most historians believe that means that Seaman made it back to St. Louis with the rest of the Corps of Discovery; they reason that his death or disappearance would almost certainly have been noted in those journals.

A monument to Seaman
(Cairo, IL)

What happened to Seaman after the Lewis and Clark Expedition was over?

Read the next 2 or 3 lines to find out.  (It's an amazing story.)

"We Can Do It" is from Act I of the musical version of The Producers.  Here's the version of "We Can Do It" that is included on the soundtrack of the 2005 film of The Producers.

It features Nathan Lane as Max Bialystock and Matthew Broderick as Leo Bloom.  Lane and Broderick had played the same roles in the Broadway musical.

Click below to buy the song from Amazon:

Nice Peter and EpicLLOYD – "Lewis and Clark vs. Bill and Ted" (2015)

I've seen your future, Mr. Lewis 

And I don't wanna be rude

But spoiler alert:

You totally kill yourself, dude!

Last month, while I was in Joplin, Missouri for my high-school reunion, I saw my 7th-grade history teacher.  

When she heard that I was going to spend the next four days riding a bike along the Katy Trail – a rail trail along the Missouri River that follows the route of the Lewis and Clark Expedition – she suggested that I write a report about Lewis and Clark.

*     *     *     *     *

As noted in a previous 2 or 3 lines, the starting point for my first day's ride was St. Charles, Missouri, which is on the west bank of the Missouri River just a few miles from where it joins the Mississippi River.

Captain Meriweather Lewis and Lieutenant William Clark and the 30-odd members of the Corps of Discovery camped in what is now Frontier Park in St. Charles before setting off on their expedition at about 3:30 pm on May 21, 1804 – a little more than a year after the American government purchased the Louisiana Territory from the French.

Today, Frontier Park has a handsome statue of Lewis, Clark, and Lewis's black Newfoundland dog, Seaman.  (There will be more about Seaman in the next 2 or 3 lines.)

Lewis and Clark (and Seaman)

A few days after leaving St. Charles, Lewis and Clark passed Boone's Settlement, near present-day Matson, Missouri.  Daniel Boone had moved his family there from Kentucky in 1799 after suffering legal and financial setbacks.  At the time, Missouri was Spanish Territory, and Spanish officials appointed Boone to serve as a judge.

While riding my bike on the Katy Trail, I passed "Daniel Boone's Original Judgment Tree Park," where Boone heard and adjudicated disputes between the local settlers:

From Stephen Ambrose's history of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Undaunted Courage:

Did Lewis and Clark meet Daniel Boone?  Did they shake his hand?  Did he wish them luck, or offer advice, or a drink? 

Ambrose thinks not, because Clark did not write about meeting Boone in the journal he kept.

The next day, Lewis and Clark camped near the small French settlement of La Charrette, which was just a few miles east of current-day Augusta.  At that time, La Charrette was the last European settlement on the Missouri. 

The westernmost point I rode on the Katy Trail was Rocheport, which is about 115 miles west of the site of La Charrette.  Lewis and Clark passed the site where Rocheport is today -- perhaps the most scenic stretch of the Katy Trail thanks to the stone bluffs that tower over the the trail -- on June 7, 1804.  

Clark's journal reports seeing some Indian pictographs on those bluffs.  There are a few faded pictographs still visible on the bluffs east of Rocheport today.

*     *     *     *     *

The members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition did not include a physician.  However, Meriweather Lewis's mother, Lucy Marks, was a noted herbalist.  In addition, before leaving on his voyage of discovery, Lewis consulted with the most prominent doctor of that era, Benjamin Rush (who was also a signer of the Declaration of Independence).   

According to a marker on the Katy Trail between North Jefferson and Hartsburg, the Corps of Discovery was equipped with calomel (for fevers), laudanum (a tincture of opium used to combat pain and sleeplessness), tartar emetic (to induce vomiting), mercurial ointment (for venereal disease), Glauber's salt (a laxative), and Peruvian bark (which contains quinine, a treatment for malaria).  

The expedition also had 50 dozen "Rush's Thunderclappers," a patented laxative whose name testified to its explosive qualities.

In any event, only one member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition died during the two years, four months, and ten days it took the Corps of Discovery to travel from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean and back to St. Louis again – a distance of about 7000 miles.  That one casualty, Sergeant Charles Floyd, died in current-day Sioux City, Iowa, about two months after the expedition left St. Charles.  The cause of Floyd's death was likely acute appendicitis.

*     *     *     *     *

Another bike rider I met on the Katy Trail told me that he had read that Lewis and Clark had an air rifle that was capable of bringing down a deer.  This seemed very unlikely to me, but it turns out to be true.

An Italian named Girardoni invented an air-powered rifle in 1779 that was used in the Austrian army for 25 years.  It could shoot 30 or more .46-caliber balls before its air reservoir was exhausted, which gave soldiers equipped with the Girardoni rifle a tremendous rate-of-fire advantage over soldiers equipped with conventional single-shot, muzzle-loading muskets.

Girardoni air rifle

The Lewis and Clark Expedition was equipped with one Girardoni rifle, which can be seen in the National Rifle Association's National Firearms Museum in Fairfax, VA. 

Click here to watch a video about the Girardoni rifle, which was of crucial significance in the expedition's success.

*     *     *     *     *

Lewis and Clark returned to St. Charles in September 1806, over two years after debarking on their journey.  President Thomas Jefferson appointed Lewis as the governor of the Louisiana Territory, and named Clark as the U.S. agent for Indian affairs in the territory.

Lewis set out for Washington in September 1809 in hopes of resolving a dispute with War Department bureaucrats over the reimbursement of Lewis's expenses.  

The night of October 10, Lewis was spending the night at an inn on the Natchez Trace called Grinder's Stand, which was about 70 miles southwest of Nashville.

Meriweather Lewis

Early the next morning, the innkeeper's wife heard gunshots and found Lewis bleeding from gunshot wounds to his head and abdomen.  He died shortly after sunrise.  

William Clark and Thomas Jefferson believed Lewis had committed suicide.  But Lewis's family insisted he was murdered.  Most historians believe today that the cause of death was suicide – Lewis had serious financial and personal problems, and had attempted suicide earlier on his journey.

The grave of Meriweather Lewis

Click here to read what one prominent historian wrote about the death of Meriweather Lewis.

*     *     *     *     *

Peter Shukoff ("Nice Peter") and Lloyd Ahlquist ("EpicLLOYD") are the creators of "Epic Rap Battles of History," a series of videos that airs on the ERB channel on YouTube and has attracted more than 7 million subscribers and 1.2 billion views.  (Yes, I did mean "billion.")

The most popular of the fifty-odd "Epic Rap Battles of History" released to date include "Justin Bieber vs. Beethoven," "Dr. Seuss vs. Shakespeare,' and "Darth Vader vs. Adolf Hitler."

Click here to watch the "Lewis and Clark vs. Bill and Ted" video, which was released in May 2015.

Eric Burdon and War – "Spill the Wine" (1970)

In her hand was a bottle of wine

In the other, a glass

We'll get to that wine eventually.  But first, let's squeeze in one more Katy Trail bike ride.

After lunch in Columbia on day four on my "Tour de Missouri," I hotfooted it to Rocheport (population 239), an old Missouri River town.

In 1804, Lewis and Clark spent some time exploring the area, and Zebulon Pike dropped by in 1806 on his way to Pikes Peak.

Lewis and Clark

I found out after returning from the "Tour de Missouri" that William Least Heat-Moon, the author of Blue Highways, resides in Rocheport.  If I had known that when I was there, I would have looked him up and said hello.

(In 2008, Heat-Moon wrote a book called Roads to Quoz, which attempts to explain the famous Joplin "Spook Light.")

Renting a bike in Rocheport turned out to be something of an ordeal.  The local bike rental store had some nice Raleigh hybrids, but the only one that was the right size for me had a maladjusted saddle that the guy at the store wasn't able to fix.

So I ended up with a "comfort" bike.  It wasn't a terrible bike, but it had "bike for old guys" written over it – especially the wide and heavily padded saddle.  Riding that saddle felt like what I imagine it would feel like to ride a bike while wearing a fully loaded diaper:

Does this saddle make
my ass look fat?

On the bright side, the bluffs along this stretch of the Missouri were particularly scenic:

And there was an old railroad tunnel – the only tunnel along the entire Katy Trail:

Not to mention this small herd of alpaca, who were grazing along the trail in the heart of Rocheport:

I made sure I ended my ride in plenty of time to visit Rocheport's prime attraction, Les Bourgeois Vineyards, which began producing wine 30 years ago and is now Missouri's third-largest winery.  

I spent a very pleasant hour tasting and chatting with Austin Gacich, the assistant tasting room manager, who had 22 wines available for tasting that day.  For me, the best wine I sampled at Les Bourgeois was its Norton, which any fan of red wines would enjoy.

If you saw the movie Gone Girl, you might remember the scene where the Margo Dunne character (played by Carrie Coon) is drinking a bottle of wine while talking on the phone with her twin brother Nick (Ben Affleck).  That bottle of wine was a Les Bourgeois Norton.

In addition to its tasting room, Les Bourgeois offers a sophisticated lunch and dinner menu at its Blufftop Bistro, a popular spot for weddings and other special events. 

The Blufftop Bistro at Les Bourgeois Vineyards

I left Les Bourgeois around 6 PM and took Interstate 70 to Kansas City, where I would spend the last night of the 2 or 3 lines "Tour de Missouri."  

As usual, I overplanned this trip.  I have a tendency not to get started each day as early as I should, which makes it even harder to work my way through my overstuffed itineraries.  (For example, I cut it too close when visiting the State Capitol, and ended up missing out of the famous Thomas Hart Benton murals in the House of Representatives Lounge there.)

I'm trying to leave myself more opportunities for spontaneity and improvisation.  The highlights of my trip were the people I met and talked with – ranging from the guys who rented me bikes, to the people who manned the tasting rooms at the wineries I visited, to the young soil engineer I bought a beer for in Hermann (the most charming town I passed through).  

Let's hope I've learned to spend less time on my future trips rushing from attraction to attraction, and more time getting to know the people I meet along the way.

Eric Burdon and War

Eric Burdon was the lead singer of the Animals, whose body of work was the equivalent in quality of any of the "British Invasion" bands, but who didn't last long enough to match up with the Beatles, Stones, Kinks, and Who when it came to quantity.  (I challenge you to name a pair of songs by any of those groups that are clearly superior to "House of the Rising Sun" and "It's My Life.") 

Burdon reformed the Animals after having a falling out with the brilliant Animals keyboardist, Alan Price.  The second version of the band produced a number of more psychedelic hits, including "San Francisco Nights" and "Sky Pilot."

Burdon later joined forces with the California funk band, War.  "Spill the Wine," which made it to #3 on the Billboard "Hot 100," was War's first big hit.

Here's "Spill the Wine":

Click below to buy the song from Amazon:

Ann Peebles – "I Can't Stand the Rain" (1974)

I can't stand the rain
Against my window

I don't mind a little rain against my window – at least not when I'm on the inside of that window.  

When I'm outside and a big-ass thunderstorm lets loose on me . . . well, boys and girls, that's a different story.   

Just as I arrived at the cheap chain motel where I was spending the night after my third day riding the Katy Trail, the heavens opened over Columbia, Missouri.

It could have been worse, of course.  About an hour west of that hotel, three tornados touched down in the Kansas City suburbs.  (By the way, is saying "It could have been worse" really supposed to make you feel better?  If so, it doesn't work for me.)

Here's some video of the tornado that hit Lee's Summit that night:

It rained almost two inches in Columbia that night.  The Katy Trail isn't paved, and I figured it would be such a mess the following day that a bike ride would be out of the question.

But I had nothing better to do, so I decided to give it a shot.  I headed to a downtown Columbia bike store, where I took out a sweet Giant hybrid for an exploratory ride on the MKT Trail.

The MKT Trail follows the right-of-way of a spur rail line that ran nine miles north from the main Katy line into Columbia.  While the Katy Trail is a state park, the part of the MKT Trail that I rode is maintained by the city of Columbia.

Thanks for cleaning up the trail, guys!

Other than the occasional puddle, the MKT was in surprisingly good condition.

Hinkson Creek, which the trail crosses several times, was well out of its banks.  But the trail itself was relatively firm and dry.

Hinkson Creek (Columbia, MO)

After a couple of hours on the MKT, I returned my bike and grabbed a quite bite at Flat Branch Pub & Brewing.

I should have a pint of Flat Branch's Katy Trail Pale Ale, but it was only 2 PM.  I just don't feel right drinking quite so early in the day.

Anyone care to guess what the metal device in this photo is?

The "Footpull"

It's the "Footpull," a hands-free way to open restroom doors.  No more using your hand to open the door to a public bathroom.  After all, a lot of other hands have touched that bathroom door handle . . . and we all know what those hands touched before they touched that door handle!

Click here to learn more about the Footpull.

Music writer Dorian Lynskey explained what inspired today's featured song in a 2014 article in The Guardian:

One evening in Memphis in 1973, soul singer Ann Peebles was meeting friends, including her partner, Hi Records staff writer Don Bryant, to go to a concert.  Just as they were about to set off, the heavens opened and Peebles snapped: "I can't stand the rain."  As a professional songwriter in constant need of new material, Bryant was used to plucking resonant phrases out of the air and he liked the idea of reacting against recent R&B hits that celebrated bad weather, such as . . . Love Unlimited's "Walking in the Rain (With the One I Love)."

So he sat down at the piano and started riffing on the theme, weaving in ideas from Peebles and local DJ Bernie Miller.  The song was finished that night and presented the next morning to Hi's studio maestro, Willie Mitchell, who used a brand new gadget, the electric timbale, to create the song's distinctive raindrop riff.  It really was that easy.  "We didn't go to the concert," Bryant remembers.  "We forgot about the concert."

Ann Peebles

Peebles and Bryant were married the next year.  Shortly after the wedding, she met John Lennon:

[Lennon] was not having such a great year.  This was during his infamous 18-month "lost weekend", when he swapped New York and Yoko Ono for a messy new life in L.A.  Lennon had excitably dubbed "I Can't Stand the Rain" "the best song ever" and went with friends to see Peebles perform at the Troubadour that February, where he proceeded to get hammered, stick a Kotex sanitary towel to his head and express his attraction to the singer in hair-raisingly graphic terms during her set.

"I don't think I was angry," says Peebles, amused by the memory. "I think I just smiled and kept singing."

Click here to read the entire Guardian article.

"I Can't Stand the Rain" made it only to #38 on the Billboard "Hot 100."  It was a perfectly produced record and should have been much more popular.

The organist on "I Can't Stand the Rain" was Charles Hodges, who also played the Hammond B3 on a number of Al Green's records.  (Green was the biggest star in the Hi Records stable of recording artists.)

The Hi Rhythm Section

Hodges, his two brothers (Leroy played bass and "Teenie" played guitar), and drummer Howard Grimes formed the Hi Rhythm Section, which never got the credit it deserved.

Here's "I Can't Stand the Rain."  Name a better Memphis soul record if you can.  (Don't waste your time – there isn't one.)

Click below to buy the song from Amazon:

Elsie Baker – "The Missouri Waltz" (1917)

Way down in Missouri
Where I heard this melody
When I was a little child
Upon my Mommy's knee

I finished my third Katy Trail bike ride just in time to hotfoot it over to the Missouri State Capitol for a look around.

Missouri's Capitol, which was completed in 1917, is a handsome building that generally resembles the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC.  No expense was spared when it came to the quality of the Capitol's art and sculpture.

The Missouri State Capitol

One of the main attractions in the Capitol is the House of Representatives Lounge, the walls of which are covered by a mural painted by Thomas Hart Benton.  Benton (who was named after a great-uncle who was one of Missouri's first two U.S. Senators, and who eventually served 30 years in the Senate) was born in Neosho, Missouri (also my father's birthplace) and worked as a cartoonist for a newspaper in Joplin when he was young.

Part of the Benton mural

Unfortunately, the House Lounge was locked up when I went to view the Benton murals.  I assumed that was because the House was not in session, but that wasn't the explanation.

The Benton mural: the James Gang robs a train

"We lock that room up at 4:45 because we close at 5:00," I was told by one of the people manning the Capitol gift shop.  

Perhaps the gift shop sold a book with reproductions of the murals?

"Yes, we do," I was told, "but all the copies are in that display case, which we lock up a little early so we're ready to leave at 5:00 sharp."

The Benton mural: Frankie and Johnny

I almost went into a rant about government clock-watchers who are more interested in their own convenience than in customer service, but I bit my tongue.  What good would it have done me?

(I worked for a federal government agency for almost 15 years, which I figure gives me the right to complain about the shortcomings of government employees.  But this kind of thing is not exclusive to government workers – customer service ain't what it used to be.)

Here's a trailer for a documentary movie about the Benton murals:

I may have missed out on the Benton murals, but I was able to view the "Hall of Famous Missourians," which features bronze busts of 44 prominent Missourians, is situated on the Capitol's third floor.

"Hall of Famous Missourians" inductees include (in alphabetical order) Jack Buck, Dale Carnegie, George Washington Carver, Walt Disney, Scott Joplin, John J. Pershing, Ginger Rogers, Sacajawea, Dred Scott, and Laura Ingalls Wilder.

The inductees also include the ten Missourians whose busts appear below.  How many of thsse famous Missourians can you identify from their busts and the clues below?

1.  The first Missourian to be inducted into the "Hall of Famous Missourians" was the greatest of all American writers.  (This is an easy one.)

2.  This man served in World War I, was elected twice to the U.S. Senate, and then was elected to the Vice Presidency.  (Another easy one.)

3.  One of the largest retail chains in the United States was founded by this Missourian, who was born with the perfect middle name for a businessman.

4.  This famous entertainer, who is one of the eight women in the "Hall of Famous Missourians," became a French citizen but remained active in the American civil rights movement.

5.  This man, who created the "Weary Willie" character, was the most famous circus clown in history.

6.  This son of German immigrants, who became a nationally prominent theologian, ethicist, and political philosopher, was the author of the "Serenity Prayer" that is identified with Alcoholics Anonymous.

7.  He was the best-known broadcast journalist of all time, and was called "the most trusted man in America."

8.  This St. Louis Cardinal great was a three-time Most Valuable Player and a seven-time batting champion, and no one ever played in more All-Star games.

9.  This man, who was a popular game-show host for half a century, moved to Missouri from a Sioux Indian reservation when he was eight and later became a vegetarian and animal-rights activist.

10.  The youngest and most controversial member of the "Hall of Famous Missourians" is the most-listened-to radio talk show host of the past two decades.

Here are the answers:

  1.  Mark Twain

  2.  Harry Truman

  3.  James Cash ("J. C.") Penney

  4.  Josephine Baker

  5.  Emmett Kelly

  6.  Reinhold Niebuhr

  7.  Walter Cronkite

  8.  Stan Musial

  9.  Bob Barker

10.  Rush Limbaugh

If you correctly identified 9 or 10 of those famous Missourians, congratulations – Missouri is proud to claim you as a native son or daughter.

If you got 6, 7, or 8 correct, don't feel bad – those are above average scores.

If you scored a 3, 4 , or 5, you obviously weren't paying attention back in your 7th-grade Missouri History class.

And if you scored, 0, 1, or 2, please go back to Arkansas immediately.

"The Missouri Waltz" was first published in 1915.  The original lyrics were bowdlerized when "The Missouri Waltz" became Missouri's official state song in 1949.  

I chose to print the cleaned-up version of the lyrics quoted at the beginning of this post.  Listen to Elsie  Baker's 1917 recording of the song – which feature the original lyrics – and you'll understand why.  (I'm not so stupid that I would print lyrics that include offensive words like . . . well, never you mind.)

Elsie Baker

Missouri native Harry Truman played "The Missouri Waltz" on the White House piano when he was President, but it was far from being his favorite song.  "If you let me say what I think, I don't give a [expletive deleted] about it," he once said in a television interview.  "It's as bad as 'The Star-Spangled Banner' as far as music is concerned."

Here's Elsie Baker's 1917 recording of "The Missouri Waltz":

Click below to buy the song from Amazon: