--- title: Hear JFK's 1961 Inaugural Address—And the Music It Inspired description: A new album sets history—famous speeches read by famous people—to original music canonical: https://time.com/4494515/jfk-inaugural-address-joe-lieberman/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-16T15:00:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T00:36:22.132Z article:section: History og:title: This Music Was Inspired by John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address og:description: A new album sets history—famous speeches read by famous people—to music og:url: https://time.com/4494515/jfk-inaugural-address-joe-lieberman/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8784b053e1f60b5e/6988a62a2dce017dbc9eaa9d/jfk.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: CBS News og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Music Was Inspired by John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address twitter:description: A new album sets history—famous speeches read by famous people—to music twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8784b053e1f60b5e/6988a62a2dce017dbc9eaa9d/jfk.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Music Was Inspired by John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Sep 16, 2016 3:00 PM UTC  President John F. Kennedy delivering his inaugural speech, Jan. 20, 1961. President John F. Kennedy delivering his inaugural speech, Jan. 20, 1961.CBS Photo Archive / Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Sep 16, 2016 3:00 PM UTC John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address, delivered on a cold January day in 1961, was “destined to be famed within minutes of its delivery,” TIME [noted](http://time.com/vault/issue/1961-01-27/page/10/) the following week. “At last came the event that Jack Kennedy had awaited so long and worked so tirelessly to bring into reality,” the magazine reported. “To the ring of fanfares he arose, removed his black topcoat, stepped forward with Chief Justice Earl Warren and, over a closed, family Douay Bible, repeated his oath in a clear, crisp voice. Whatever lay ahead of him, this would always remain the high moment of John Kennedy‘s life.” The [speech](https://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/JFK-Quotations/Inaugural-Address.aspx) would, in fact, become as well-known as was predicted, thanks largely to one of the most famous lines in Presidential history: “ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.” One sign of that fame: the speech (along with others by leaders like Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Aung San Suu Kyi) is one of the inspirations for the new album from Ted Nash Big Band. The music, _Presidential Suite: Eight Variations on Freedom_, was originally commissioned for Jazz at Lincoln Center in 2014\. The spoken rhythms of each speech directly influenced the rhythms of the music. That meant each speech would need a speaker—in this case, celebrities and modern politicians. [_Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter_](http://time.com/newsletter) To hear an example of how the project turned out, listen to former Senator Joe Lieberman read a portion of that Kennedy speech—and then hear the music it inspired. **_Read TIME’s full coverage of Kennedy’s inauguration in 1961, here in the TIME Vault:_** [The 35th](http://time.com/vault/issue/1961-01-27/page/10/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4494515/jfk-inaugural-address-joe-lieberman/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4494515/jfk-inaugural-address-joe-lieberman/"},"headline":"This Music Was Inspired by John F. 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