Sixty-one years ago today, on November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. In honor of this anniversary, today’s classic song of the day is the reflective “Abraham, Martin and John.” The song references the senseless assassinations of four great leaders: Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy. All four fallen leaders are mentioned together in the final verse:
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he’s gone?
I thought I saw him walkin’ up over the hill
With Abraham, Martin, and John
The song could have come off as maudlin and exploitive, but it’s earnest enough to give you a little kick in the solar plexus. It seems the good do die young; you just look around and they’re gone.
“Abraham, Martin and John” was written by Dick Holler on the day that Bobby Kennedy died. He said it only took him 10 minutes to write the thing. At the time, Holler was in New York City recording an album with the Royal Guardsman, who’d had an earlier hit with “Snoopy vs. the Red Baron,” which Holler and his partner Phil Gernhard had written for them. On hearing the news, they immediately cancelled the recording session and flew back to their home in St. Petersburg, where Dick put pencil to music paper.
Holler, by the way, is a Hoosier boy, born and raised in Indianapolis. In the ’50s, he moved with his family to Louisiana and formed a group called Dick Holler and the Carousel Rockets. That group, at one time or another, included such soon-to-be famous musicians as Dr. John, Johnny Rivers, and Don Smith & Cyril Vetter (they later wrote “Double Shot (Of My Baby’s Love)” for the Swingin’ Medallions). Holler himself made a career as a songwriter, writing or co-writing tunes for Cher, the New Seekers, Glenn Yarbrough, Lobo, Wilson Pickett, Petula Clark, James and Bobby Purify, and other artists.
“Abraham, Martin and John” spoke to the sense of loss felt by an entire generation. You might think things are bad now, especially if you were on the losing side of the recent election, but the year 1968 was worse. Trust me, I was there. I was ten years old then and with the Vietnam War, Civil Rights protests, riots leaving cities in flames, and then the twin assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, it really felt like the world was coming apart. There was a sense that no one knew what was going to happen next, other than it would probably be worse than what just came before. You know, kind of like what we’re all feeling now. Somehow, however, we made it through that tumultuous year with our democracy and our souls intact, and the world became a slightly better place, at least for a few decades. It might all go to hell in a handbasket again, but if we made it through that year of chaos we can probably make it through anything—and we’ll be free, someday soon.
Dick Holler said that he wrote the song “with the Kingston Trio in mind, or Peter, Paul and Mary.” Dion DiMucci ended up recording it in a gentle folkish arrangement and it touched a nerve. Dion’s single was released in August of 1968 and went to #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #2 on the Cash Box Top 100.
Several other artists covered “Abraham, Martin, and John,” some more successfully than others. You may remember versions of the song from comedienne Moms Mabley (#35 in 1969), Smokey Robinson & the Miracles (#33 in 1969), Marvin Gaye (a top ten hit in the UK in 1970), and Ray Charles (on his 1972 album, A Message from the People).
Whoever performed the song, it was a powerful piece of music. It touched a nerve back then and it still packs an emotional punch today.
Which leads us to today’s daily bonus video of the day, Dion’s first public performance of “Abraham, Martin and John” from the November 17, 1968, episode of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. It’s a powerful piece of television.
