@ zbicyclist – As it is phrased, the question contains additional anachronisms:
1) As you noted, he had died years beforethe song hit #1, but also:
2) The author wrote the music (over a decade) before he became Vice President (and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in that same year), and:
3) The lyrics to the song were not even written until a few months after he died.
Of course, it doesn’t have quite the the same impact when the question is rephrased to read: “Before he became Vice President (and a Nobel Laureate), which man composed an incidental melody, which after his death was borrowed to form what later became a Billboard #1 hit?”
Speaking of vice presidents, do any of you geezers remember when Nelson Rockefeller was Vice President of the United States? Well, he was. I know, I know, you’re all saying “Well, I don’t remember voting for him.” No, you didn’t vote for him. Nobody voted for him. But all the same, he really was the Vice President of the United States for a while.
There was a time when he was frequently in the news, but I think he’s mostly forgotten now.
I remember him. He was one of the Republicans that Democrats considered it was pretty much okay to get along with.
You may have seen jokes about his temperament or moods, to the effect that he woke up every morning feeling happy.
That was back in the days when both parties had a conservative and liberal faction. Rockefeller was in or near the latter category for the Republicans.
And in those days it was near-scandalous for a politician to divorce and re-marry. That was something Rockefeller did, and to make it worse, his second wife, Margaretta, herself also had divorced, just a month before remarriage to Rockefeller. And she was considerably younger than him. And she had worked in his gubernatorial office. And her first husband was a friend of the Rockefellers. So it was pretty spicy all around.
Margaretta’s nickname was “Happy”, and that’s how she was always referred to in the press. Hence Mitch calling it a joke of the time to remark of Rockefeller that “he woke up every morning feeling happy.”
There were jokes about Nixon too. Something about a certain adult movie, well-known back then, and he watched it over and over but still couldn’t get it down pat.
Comics I Don't Understand 
Or “conjugational”
Trivia answer: the inconvenient truth is Al Gore.
OK, “You are her” is pretty darn funny.
Not Al Gore as Billboard #1. Think farther back.
Great cartoons today.
Would you believe I’m a Gemini, too?
@Carl Fink, I thought it was funny, too, once I finished looking for the caption and not finding it.
Thanks Carl Fink. I read it as the standard “You are Here” and didn’t really get it.
I love that trivia question. Googling “vice president with billboard hit” gives the answer; so no need to post it here.
@MarkM: “You are here” could actually be funny, too. She looks around, and sure enough, there she is, standing right there behind herself.
Actually, my brain just wrote a Twilight Zone episode where this is her doppelganger.
I misread it as “here” and thought the joke was what Carl said.
The song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVjC6HYQVUY
The vice-president who wrote the music had died by the time this hit #1.
@ zbicyclist – As it is phrased, the question contains additional anachronisms:
1) As you noted, he had died years before the song hit #1, but also:
2) The author wrote the music (over a decade) before he became Vice President (and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in that same year), and:
3) The lyrics to the song were not even written until a few months after he died.
Of course, it doesn’t have quite the the same impact when the question is rephrased to read: “Before he became Vice President (and a Nobel Laureate), which man composed an incidental melody, which after his death was borrowed to form what later became a Billboard #1 hit?”
Speaking of vice presidents, do any of you geezers remember when Nelson Rockefeller was Vice President of the United States? Well, he was. I know, I know, you’re all saying “Well, I don’t remember voting for him.” No, you didn’t vote for him. Nobody voted for him. But all the same, he really was the Vice President of the United States for a while.
There was a time when he was frequently in the news, but I think he’s mostly forgotten now.
I remember him. He was one of the Republicans that Democrats considered it was pretty much okay to get along with.
You may have seen jokes about his temperament or moods, to the effect that he woke up every morning feeling happy.
That was back in the days when both parties had a conservative and liberal faction. Rockefeller was in or near the latter category for the Republicans.
And in those days it was near-scandalous for a politician to divorce and re-marry. That was something Rockefeller did, and to make it worse, his second wife, Margaretta, herself also had divorced, just a month before remarriage to Rockefeller. And she was considerably younger than him. And she had worked in his gubernatorial office. And her first husband was a friend of the Rockefellers. So it was pretty spicy all around.
Margaretta’s nickname was “Happy”, and that’s how she was always referred to in the press. Hence Mitch calling it a joke of the time to remark of Rockefeller that “he woke up every morning feeling happy.”
There were jokes about Nixon too. Something about a certain adult movie, well-known back then, and he watched it over and over but still couldn’t get it down pat.