The Factory Showroom re-recording of "James K. Polk" includes an interlude featuring Julian Koster playing a musical saw.
[2] Linnell and Hill were specifically drawn to James K. Polk due to his relative obscurity despite his tremendous influence during his presidency.
Flansburgh speculated that if they had included their opinion that Polk was "evil", it would have defeated the purpose of writing a song of pure fact.
[3] In a review of the "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" single, which had "James K. Polk" as its B-side, Christian Huey called the song's main instrumentation a "plodding synth line".
Deadlocked among Martin Van Buren, James Buchanan, and Lewis Cass, the party eventually chose Polk as its nominee.
While Van Buren later joined the Free Soil Party, which opposed the expansion of slavery in the United States, he did not advocate for its abolition entirely.
Polk did sign the Oregon Treaty with the United Kingdom in 1846, which delineated American and British claims in the Pacific Northwest.
[7] Despite the praise the song has received, in a review of Factory Showroom, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic disapproved of the band's "recycling" old material for the album.