The Only U.S. Vice President to Compose a No. 1 Pop Song Later Covered by Merle Haggard, Elton John, Glen Campbell, and More 

In 1951, songwriter Carl Sigman took the 1911 instrumental composition “Melody in A Major” and put lyrics to it. The song was originally written by the U.S. Vice President (1924-1929) Charles G. Dawes, who served under the 30th President Calvin Coolidge. Decades earlier, Dawes, a successful banker, who was also a self-taught pianist and flutist, began composing music and wrote the instrumental “Melody in A Major” one day while home in Evanston, Illinois.

After writing the song, Dawes’ friend violinist Francis MacMillen took the sheet music to a publisher. Soon after, Dawes saw his picture and phonograph copies of his song for sale at a local music shop. “No one told me it had been published,” recalled Dawes of his musical break. “I was walking down State Street and came to a music shop. I saw a poster-size picture of myself, my name plastered all over the window in large letters and the window space entirely filled with the sheet music.”

Dawes continued, “I know that I will be the target of my punster friends. They will say that if all the notes in my bank are as bad as my musical ones, they are not worth the paper they were written on.”

The song gained popularity and by 1921, Dawes’ composition was performed by Marie Edwards, Austria, violinist and composer Fritz Kreisler, and the Adolf G. Hoffmann orchestra. Decades before Sigman put lyrics to the song, Dawes’ song was often played at some of the official events he attended.

Sigman the Songwriter

Throughout his career, Sigman, who died in 2000 at age 91, also composed music for Glenn Miller and Guy Lombardo and had his songs recorded by Frank Sinatra, the Righteous Brothers, Ella Fitzgerald, Elvis Presley, Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles, Barbra Streisand, Joni Mitchell, Linda Ronstadt, and more.

When Dawes died in 1951, Sigman took his composition and gave it a story following a see-saw love with some tears, and a happy ending.

Many a tear has to fall but it’s all in the game
All in the wonderful game that we know as love
You have words with him and your future’s looking dim
But these things your hearts can rise above

Once in a while, he won’t call but it’s all in the game
Soon he’ll be there at your side with a sweet bouquet
And he’ll kiss your lips and caress your waiting fingertips
And your hearts will fly away

With a sweet bouquet
Then he’ll kiss your lips and caress your waiting fingertips
And your hearts will fly away

“Anyone involved with songwriting,” said Sigman, “will testify to the fact that each song, no matter how pure, or from the heart, has its own story, its own peculiar way of getting written.”

[RELATED: Bob Dylan’s Decades-Long Bond to Former President Jimmy Carter: “He Was a Kindred Spirit to Me”]

Tommy Edwards Makes History; Dawes Ties Dylan

In 1958, singer Tommy Edwards released the most successful recording of “It’s All in the Game.” The new version of the song, which he originally recorded and released in 1951, went to No. 1 for six weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, making Edwards the first African American artist to top the chart. Edwards’ version also went to No. 1 in the UK.

Dawes also became the only U.S. vice president credited with a chart-topping pop hit. In 1926, Dawes was also awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for crafting the Dawes Plan, which eased tensions between France and Germany following World War I.

Bob Dylan and Dawes are the only two recipients of a Nobel Prize who have earned a No. 1 pop hit.

Since its popular release by Edwards, Dawes’ and Sigman’s hit became a pop standard, covered by multiple artists across different genres. In 1979, Van Morrison recorded a cover of the song for his album Into the Music. Merle Haggard also released his rendition of “It’s All in the Game” on his 1984 album of the same name.

Throughout the years, Nat King Cole, Glen Campbell, Art Garfunkel, Barry Manilow, Elton John, Isaac Hayes, the Four Tops, Rickie Lee Jones, and dozens of other artists have covered the classic by Dawes and Sigman.

Photo: The 30th President Calvin Coolidge (l) with Charles Dawes, the Republican Vice Presidential nominee at the White House. June 1924 / Shutterstock