‘Fanfare for the First Lady’

Trappings.

Update: April 13, 2022.

The United States Marine Band has retired “Fanfare for the First Lady,” according to a source familiar with the decision. The band quietly shelved the song following the publication of this article.

–

Jill Biden has her own walk-up song.

The United States Marine Band was instructed last fall to produce an entrance theme exclusively for the first lady, according to a knowledgeable source. The band now has in its repertoire an original and highly unusual composition titled “Fanfare for the First Lady.” It’s Jill Biden's personal “Hail to the Chief,” a source said.

Longtime veterans of the U.S. Marine Band have characterized the situation as a first, remarking that they’ve never been asked before to provide a first lady with her own entrance music.

Someone in the White House "had the bright idea, 'Oh, tell the band that we want music for Jill,'" a source said. “The band had to provide music.”

“Fanfare for the First Lady” has been performed at official White House functions headlined by the first lady, played between her entrance and her address.

The band was “rushed” to come up with a theme for Jill Biden. The group submitted a few hurried options for the White House’s consideration. Administration officials eventually settled on “Fanfare to the First Lady.”

Jill Biden’s press secretary, Michael LaRosa, says the story is malarkey.

“The first lady does not have a song anybody has written for her specifically. She has no ‘Hail to the Chief’ song. She has no song,” he said “She never asked anyone to create a song.”

“The White House asked nobody, not one person, to compose an exclusive entry song, or any song, for the first lady,” LaRosa added. “None of that is accurate.”

In fact, “Fanfare for the First Lady” was the band’s idea, said LaRosa. He said the group approached the White House with a proposal for a new composition. “Fanfare for the First Lady" wasn’t even initially written for Jill Biden, he continued, adding it's simply a finalized version of a piece of music that was already nearly completed when the band first broached the topic with the White House.

“We didn’t ask for it,” LaRosa said. “They came and presented us the option. We had no idea it would even be used again.”

Sources claim otherwise. The White House’s version of events is pure revisionism, they said, arguing it was the other way around. One said specifically that the worst part isn’t that the White House rushed the band to provide the first lady with the “Hail to the Chief” treatment but that the tune they eventually selected is “just awful."

“The song is terrible,” the source complained, adding it's doubly insulting that a "completely bogus premise" produced such “awful” results.

The U.S. Marine Band, which did not respond to my request for comment, has already performed “Fanfare for the First Lady” at least twice, including in October of last year for a Teacher of the Year event at the White House.

Though it’s not uncommon for the band’s arrangers to be asked to produce exclusive compositions, it is uncommon for the first lady to have her own entrance theme. Indeed, it would be “highly unusual” if the Biden administration instructed the U.S. Marine Band to produce a “Hail to the Chief”-style composition specifically for the first lady, said White House historian Tevi Troy.

Then again, he added, it wouldn’t be the first time something like this has happened.

In the 1980s, then-President Ronald Reagan’s onetime chief of staff, Donald Regan, similarly demanded the band compose an entrance song for his personal use, much to the chagrin of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Michael Deaver and U.S. Secretary of the Treasury James Baker.

Regan, according to Troy, was “imperious, insisting on all kinds of pomp and circumstance. When traveling with the president, Regan demanded that he get his own introduction, as White House chief of staff. [Baker and Deaver] were mortified when they found out — a bad sign for Regan.”

“A joke went around the White House about the possibility of Regan becoming a Catholic cardinal and why that would be an improvement: ‘That’s good, now,’ the joke went, ‘we’ll only have to kiss his ring,’” Troy added.

Regan did not last long as chief of staff. He was fired after a little more than two years on the job.

In contrast, the first lady is here to stay. She will be with us for the entirety of her husband’s presidency. Expect to hear “Fanfare for the First Lady” a few more times.

The Washington Examiner originally published this article on Jan. 4, 2022.