‘Mr. Brightside,’ ‘Shake It Off,’ ‘Jolene’ among 2024 candidates’ favorite songs

“Livin’ on a Prayer,” “Shake It Off” and “Fast Car” are among the songs that some of the 2024 GOP presidential candidates say bring them “instant joy.”

About half of the 13 Republican White House hopefuls answered an inquiry from Politico Magazine published Wednesday about a viral social media post that asked users on X, formerly known as Twitter, to share 20 of their “all-time fav tracks.”

“Not the ‘best’ songs, the ones that bring you instant joy the second you hear the first note,” the August post said, “the ones that give other people the best insight into what stirs your soul.”

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie heavily represented the Garden State with his musical picks, selecting Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer” and Bruce Springsteen’s “Thunder Road.” Also making the cut on Christie’s list: The Beatles’ “I Saw Her Standing There”; “Pressure” by Billy Joel; “Castle on the Hill” by Ed Sheeran; and The Eagles’ classic “Hotel California.”

Nikki Haley, South Carolina’s former governor, offered up hit tunes including Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll”; ”Jolene” by Dolly Parton; Bananarama’s “Cruel Summer”; “We Got the Beat” by The Go-Go’s; and Def Leppard’s “Pour Some Sugar on Me.” Haley also chose more recent chart-toppers such as “Fast Car,” the Luke Combs cover of Tracy Chapman’s 1988 song, and 2019’s “Take What you Want,” by Post Malone, featuring Ozzy Osbourne and Travis Scott.

Christie and Haley have at least one music-minded thing in common: They both selected “Mr. Brightside,” the 2004 track from The Killers, to include on their list of jams.

Former Texas congressman Will Hurd highlighted a mix of pop and rap songs, including “Boyz-n-the-Hood” by Eazy-E; “Award Tour” by A Tribe Called Quest featuring Trugoy the Dove; Taylor Swift’s 2014 smash, “Shake It Off”; “Survivor” by Destiny’s Child; and Demi Lovato’s “Sorry not Sorry.”

Vivek Ramaswamy — who rapped to Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” at the Iowa State Fair last month, and was reportedly asked to stop using the “Eight Mile” star’s music on the campaign trail by his music licenser — included the 2002 song on his list. Also among the biotech entrepreneur’s eight selections: “Thunder” by Imagine Dragons, “Centuries” by Fall Out Boy, Mozart’s “Rondo Alla Turca,” and Aerosmith’s “Dream On.” Like Haley, Ramaswamy also chose Parton’s “Jolene.”

Other picks from candidates include Cornel West’s choice of “Respect” by Aretha Franklin, and “Mississippi Goddam” by Nina Simone; former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s choice of “When I’m Sixty-Four” by The Beatles, Garth Brooks’s “Friends in Low Places” and “Get the Party Started” by Pink; and Larry Elder’s favorites, including “My Girl” by The Temptations, Simon and Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and Boyz II Men’s “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday.”