Remembering the Bicentennial Minute During the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence

Those that remember the American Bicentennial in 1976 recall a national celebration that contrasts sharply with the America of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Americans celebrate the 250th anniversary of the adoption and signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 2026. But for those of us old enough to remember the United States celebration of the 200th anniversary in 1976, the current semiquincentennial celebration seems to pale in comparison to the 1976 Bicentennial.

In 1976, you could not escape hearing about the Bicentennial. In 2026, most of what we hear about the 250th celebration seems related to controversy and cancellations rather than celebrations. There are books about the American Bicentennial celebration on Amazon (and that is not counting things like Bicentennial cookbooks published in many communities in 1976). I don’t think there are many, if any, 250th celebration cookbooks, and it is hard to imagine a very long book for future generations to read about our current efforts to celebrate.

Why Did the Bicentennial Feel Different From America’s 250th Birthday?

What happened to our celebration? There are a number of reasons one may point to for the disappointment with the current anniversary, including the divisions on social media and other forms of entertainment that all make it more difficult for uniting Americans around anything. Maybe we lost something about our connections to our communities that fifty years ago did much of the 1976 planning. Also, it is easier to say “Bicentennial” than “Semiquincentennial,” so how do you celebrate something you can’t remember the name of?

Some argue that the government failed to plan properly. Or maybe the current White House resident hijacked the holiday to make it more about himself, making the Semiquincentennial partisan versus the more (but not completely) bipartisan Bicentennial.

So, instead of celebrating, for many, the this year’s anniversary is more for acknowledging the faults of the country and thinking of ways to heal. For many, they will have their barbeques and fireworks, but it will be just like any other Fourth of July.

Maybe 200 seems like a more important number than 250, or maybe people do not feel like celebrating. Yet,in 1976 we also also faced inflation, gas shortages, political scandals, and other issues but still found a way to reflect and party.

Maybe, a failure of commercialism is partly to blame. Whether good or bad, fewer media sources and less product access allowed companies in 1976 to create more focused marketing around the Bicentennial that continuously reminded us of the celebration. All of your favorite products, including soda and beer, included special versions labeled for the Bicentennial.

In our house, we bought Bicentennial medallions off television, giving them as gifts. I also remember drinking a lot of 7-Up to collect the Bicentennial cans, collecting a can representing each of the fifty states. When you stacked up the fifty cans they revealed an image of Uncle Sam.

Yes, today, you may buy 250 shirts and hats on Amazon or at your local store. I bought a shirt at Lowes. But anyone can make a shirt and sell it online these days. For better or worse, there is no official merchandise that any of us would recognize, in contrast to the well-recognized licensed Bicentennial symbol.

The Uniting Thread of the Bicentennial Minute

Finally, today’s more fractured entertainment universe means we do not have the daily reminders of the anniversary we had in 1976. In the mid-1970s, for more than a year, we watched the Bicentennial Minutes, remembered by most Baby Boomers and members of Generation Jones (like me). Every night on TV there was a favorite actor or personality who would tell us an important event that happened 200 years ago that night.

As July 4 and the Declaration signing approached, each episode reminded us of the approaching holiday. With no Netflix, no cell phones, no streaming options, and mostly just network TV, the Bicentennial Minutes were a communal event.

The Bicentennial Minutes ran for more than two years, beginning on July 4, 1974 and running through December 31, 1976. The last episode featured President Gerald R. Ford.

During that time, as a kid, I took out my blue tape recorder every night (audio only, we did not have VCRs in those days), waiting between CBS shows for a few minutes before 9pm. As the Bicentennial Minute started, I pushed the Record/Play button to record the audio off of the TV. We did not have the Internet so it was the only way to preserve the important history lessons we received every night on TV.

Here is actor Darren McGavin on April 2, 1976.

I don’t recall how many I recorded on my blue tape recorder. And I don’t know how often I ever listened to the audio cassette. I do not even remember what happened to those cassette tapes.

But creating the recordings seemed important to do at the time. It was an American thing to do.

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Keith Whitley’s Great Love Song He Never Finished Recording: “Tell Lorrie I Love Her”

Keith Whitley died on May 9, 1989, leaving us with a demo of a great love song to his wife, “Tell Lorrie I Love Her.”

Tell Lorrie I Love Her

On July 1, 1955, Jackie Keith Whitley — who would become known as the country music singer-songwriter named Keith Whitley — was born in Ashland, Kentucky. Whitley died at the age of 33 on May 9, 1989, reportedly from alcohol poisoning. But in his short life he left behind a lot of great songs such as his 1988 country hit recording of “When You Say Nothing at All.” One of my favorite Whitley songs, though, only survived as a demo and was first released after Whitley’s death in 1990 on Greatest Hits, “Tell Lorrie I Love Her.”

The Lorrie in “Tell Lorrie I Love Her” was Whitley’s wife, country singer Lorrie Morgan, who had struggled to help Whitley battle his alcoholism before being left a widow. The song is a strong statement of love with the singer recounting the ways he would try to tell his love about his feelings even in the face of death, whether in the desert or lost on the ocean.

Reportedly, he recorded the demo in his living room around two years before he died.

Jesse Whitley’s Performance of His Dad’s Song

Morgan and Whitley had been married in 1986, about two and a half years before his death. Whitley adopted Lorrie’s daughter, and the couple had their own child, Jesse Keith Whitley in June 1987.

Several years ago, Jesse brought his mom on stage to sing his father’s song. In the video below, you can see how moved Morgan was to hear her husband’s song from her son.

Relation to “Tell Laura I Love Her”?

The title of “Tell Lorrie I Love Her” reminds one of the 1960s hit song, “Tell Laura I Love Her,” which was written by Heff Barry and Ben Raleigh and became a hit in 1960 for Ray Peterson in the U.S. and for Ricky Valence in the U.K. Like “Tell Lorrie I Love Her,” the song is about someone facing death trying to get a message to his love.

Yet, where the “Lorrie” song imagines possible tragic scenarios, the “Laura” song is a specific story, recounting a teenager who wants to earn money for a wedding ring so he enters a stock car race, where he is killed. I do not know the extent that “Tell Laura I Love Her” inspired Whitley, but in some ways his song is the adult counterpart.

There are not many professional covers of Whitley’s “Tell Lorrie I Love Her,” perhaps because the song was so personal between two singers. But if you go on YouTube, you will find numerous amateur covers of the song. Apparently the song that Whitley never professionally recorded still resonates with fans. Rolling Stone lists it as one of Whitley’s ten greatest love songs.

Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • Marty Brown’s AGT Las Vegas Performance of “When You Say Nothing At All”
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  • Is Shane a Romantic Movie?
  • Sturgill Simpson Live at Paradiso
  • The Great AGT Rebirth of Marty Brown
    • (Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

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    U2: “City of Blinding Lights” at Obama Presidential Center

    In June 2026 at the opening of the Obama Presidential Center, U2’s performance of “City of Blinding Lights” rebutted a recent comment at the White House.

    On June 18, 2026, U2 performed “City of Blinding Lights” at the opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. The song has long been a favorite of President Obama, who used the song as his entrance theme when he announced his candidacy for the presidency in 2007, before his acceptace speech at the 2008 Democtratic Convention, and at other events. The performance at the center this week put a bow on the history of the song and its connection to the Obamas, including a subtle rebuttal of a recent hateful comment at a Trump White House event.

    U2 released the song from How to Dismantale An Atomic Bomb as a single in 2005. But Bono and the band had been working on the song since 1997. Eventually, part of the inspiration for the song came when U2 was playing in the United States following the September 11 attacks in 2001. Perhaps because of the long writing process, though, one may take different things out of the song, such as the inspiration found by former President Obama.

    I’ve seen you walk unafraid;
    I’ve seen you in the clothes you made;
    Can you see the beauty inside of me?
    What happened to the beauty I had inside of me?

    And I miss you when you’re not around;
    I’m getting ready to leave the ground.

    Oh, you look so beautiful tonight,
    In the city of blinding lights.

    Time, time, time, time, time;
    Won’t leave me as I am;
    But time won’t take the boy out of this man.

    The U2 performance this week at the Obama Prsidential Center added a new layer to the song. As the song ended, Bono added lines acknowledging the presence of four former presidents as well as a faith in democracy. In closing, without mentioning the current president — or the recent event held at the White House where one of the president’s guests insulted the former first lady — Bono rebutted the hate with a lovely tribute to Michelle Obama, ending with the chorus of the Beatle’s “Michelle” (with Barack Obama mouthing the words too).

    “In the company of Jackknife Lee, 46, 42 and 43. Civility. Hold tight to Democracy, community. Isn’t she lovely, 44 and the family. . . . Michelle My Belle.”

    It was a stark reminder of what civility and love looks like.

    Leave your two cents in the comments.

    We the People Here Don’t Want a War: Bobby Darin’s “Simple Song of Freedom”

    During a period of creating passionate folk and political songs, Bobby Darin write and performed the anti-war song, “Simple Song of Freedom.”

    Although Bobby Darin is most well-known for his hits like “Splish Splash, “Mac the Knife,” and “Beyond the Sea,” in the 1960s he turned toward folk music, writing and recording some wonderful music often overlooked today. His turn toward political and folk music was not a marketing ploy, but a sincere artistic direction by a talented man genuinely concerned about the way the nation was heading.

    Although Darin was recording some folk music by the mid 1960s, his music became more political after the death of his friend Bobby Kennedy. After Kennedy’s assassination in June 1968, Darin retreated to Big Sur, living in seclusion in a trailer near the beach, writing songs about subjects like Vietnam, poverty, and Civil Rights. Soon, he started his own record label to promote folk and protest music.

    Meaning of “Simple Song of Freedon”

    In 1969, Darin, having already taken a turn toward folk music on his previous two albums, wrote one of his most popular political songs, “Simple Song of Freedom.” The song protested the Vietnam War by asking people to join together and announce that “we the people . . . don’t want a war.”

    Now no doubt some folks enjoy doing battle;
    Like presidents, prime ministers and kings;
    So let’s all build them shelves where they can fight among themselves,
    And leave the people be who love to sing    .

    Come and sing the simple song of freedom;
    Sing it like you’ve never sung before;
    Let it fill the air, tell the people everywhere,
    We the people here don’t want a war    .

    The song appealed to the common people who did not want to be led into battle. He asked us to ask questions about what our leaders told us: “Seven hundred million are you list’nin’?/ Most of what you read is made of lies.” (Note that some listings apparently mishear the line as “seven hundred million men are enlisted”).

    The song also refers to someone many young listeners may not recognize:

    Brother Solzhenitsyn are you busy?
    If not, won’t you drop this friend a line?
    Tell me if the man who is plowin’ up your land
    Has got the war machine upon his mind.

    “Brother Solzhenitsyn” refers to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who was a famous Soviet novelist and dissident prosecuted in the Soviet Union. Darin appeals to a brother across the Cold War, highlighting that the average Russian no more wanted war than the average American.

    Versions by Darin and Hardin

    Tim Hardin first had a hit with the song. But Darin soon began performing “Simple Song of Freedom” live and released his own version in 1971. Hardin’s success with Darin’s song was an interesting turn of events, since Bobby Darin had been the first one to score a hit with Hardin’s “If I Were a Carpenter” in 1966.

    During his folk period, Darin stopped wearing his toupee and grew long sideburns and a mustache. As discussed previously, in 1969, he walked off a national TV show when the producers would not let him sing one of his protest songs unchanged.

    But his protest music was not profitable, and many in his audience wanted the old swinging singles, not the folk singer. Darin soon had to sell his record company, songs, and publishing company.

    Darin’s Return to Popular Performances

    A guy has to make a living. So, Darin returned to show business and began performing more of his old hits and less protest music, donning his toupee again, using a full band instead of just a guitar. He also begin appearing on and hosting television variety shows.

    But Bobby Darin stayed true to himself through it all, as he was deep down a great entertainer. And he never gave up on trying to reach people with the message of “Simple Song of Freedom.”

    As portrayed in the film Beyond the Sea about Bobby Darin’s life, the song is presented as a turning point in Darin’s career. Darin, played by Kevin Spacey, wants to make a difference despite advice from those in the business. He eventually discovers a way to make his political statement to his audiences by presenting the song as a big stage act instead of an acoustic folk song. In the movie, Spacey performed the vocals of all of Darin’s songs.

    The video below features one of these later performances of “Simple Song of Freedon.” Darin performs the song with more than a guitar, donning a tuxedo.

    But he is still asking his audience to join in telling our leaders that we don’t want a war.

    A little more than two years after releasing his recording of “Simple Song of Freedom,” Darin died on December 19, 1973 at the age of 37 while recovering from open-heart surgery.

    Darin had had rheumatic fever as a young child that had weakened his heart.

    Bobby Darin knew most of his life he likely would not live to old age and that every day was a gift to make and create what you can. Thus, he lived with a passion for life and tried to make an impact on the world, which of course he did throughout his life.

    Read more about Bobby Darin in the book “Bobby Darin: Roman Candle.” Leave your two cents in the comments.

    Why Did Stephen Colbert Sing “Jump Up” With Elvis Costello on the Final “Late Show”?

    The next-to-last song on Stephen Colbert’s final episode of The Late Show was an obscure pick that perfectly captured a joyous — and pointed — finale.

    Stephen Colbert closed out his final episode of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert with a couple of musical performances that made a perfect send off. The final song, of course, was the Beatles classic “Hello Goodbye,” led by Paul McCartney. It was a wonderful uplifting ending, saying goodbye to us while reminding us it was not the end. The Beatles song finale was even more touching with the recognition that Paul McCartney was turning out the lights on the show in the Ed Sullivan Theater, a place where the Beatles captured America so many years ago. But what was that acoustic song before “Hello Goodbye”?

    This final segment began with Colbert wandering around before sitting and starting to sing, “Everybody’s talking like they can’t sit down / And looking like they can’t stand up.” And then for the next line, the camera moved to the songwriter of that song,”Jump Up,” Elvis Costello. Then, the song continued with Jon Batiste in a touching inclusion of the former Late Show band leader, and then Louis Cato, the current Late Night band leader.

    In my music collection, I have “Jump Up” as a bonus acoustic demo song on my special CD edition of Elvis Costello’s 1977 debut album My Aim is True. Of all the songs in the world, why did Colbert choose an obscure bonus track from the 1970s as the penultimate song for his show?

    Colbert has been a fan of the song “Jump Up” for a long time, so, as you can see from the look on his face, it was a joy for him to sing a favorite song with the songwriter. And it must have been cool to then “close” the show with the song and “goodnight,” and then go into the encore where the four “Jump Up” singers joined Paul McCartney for “Hello Goodbye.”

    Why “Jump Up”?

    But why did Colbert choose the obscure Elvis Costello song, as he loves other songs too? The likely reason for Colbert’s fondness for “Jump Up,” and the reason it worked so well in closing the show, arguably cancelled by CBS at least partly for its criticisms of a thin-skinned Donald Trump, is its satirical take on untrustworhty politicians.

    Candidate talkin` on the radio from the “Cheaters Jamboree”;
    It must be their latest fool;
    `Cause it`s a two-horse race and he changed his bets,
    Like it was just another brand of cigarettes.

    Way back in 2012, Colbert explained his love of “Jump Up” in this interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air: “I love the song because it’s sort of a satirical song. It’s got a parodic nature to it, or not a parodic nature, but it’s really, it’s got sort of a political, satirical song. And I’ve never discussed this song with Elvis, so I might get a message from Elvis Costello after this interview with you, saying, ‘You know nothing of my work. What are you talking about?’ But I’ve always thought of it as a – it’s sort of like a – it’s a person who is talking about insignificance in the name of power or of something that they want, and also talking about the hypocrisy of politicians.”

    Colbert further explained how the song captures a young man on a street corner, looking to get noticed, who has no power. And maybe he felt a little like that with his show’s cancellation. But the song, in Costello’s skillful writing, has a power behind it with its uplifting melody, jokingly making fun of those in power. And isn’t that what The Late Show was always about since the first episode with David Letterman?

    For those of us who grew up watching The Late Show since David Letterman started the show, through Colbert’s ongoing journey from The Colbert Report to The Late Show, it was a touching send off, looking back and looking forward.

    And the look of joy on Colbert’s face as he sang “Jump Up” with Costello, Batiste, and Cato, I’m sure, far surpassed any joy left in the hearts of the politicians in Washington or the people running CBS.

    Hello Goodbye indeed.

    Jump up–hold on tight,
    Can`t trust the promise or a guarantee;
    `Cause the man `round the curve says that he`s never heard,
    Of you or me.

    Leave your two cents in the comments.