Friday, April 22, 2016

Town and city names in song titles: a non-definitive list

The rules - post a song title in the comments containing a town or city I've missed and I'll add it to the list! No city name-checked twice.

No suburbs or urban neighbourhoods, sorry!

Thanks to Rach, Andy T, Andy S, Dan, James, Jo, Rich and Simon for all your suggestions 

A-C

Loco In Acapulco - The Four Tops
Is This The Way To Amarillo? - Tony Christie 
Amsterdam - Jacques Brel
Babalon AD - Cradle Of Filth
Bombs Over Baghdad - Outkast
Streets Of Baltimore - Gram Parsons
Bangkok - Alex Chilton 
Barcelona - Freddy Mercury and Montserrat Caballe 
Belfast - Boney M 
I Have Slept With All The Girls in Berlin - The Sisters Of Mercy
Birmingham (UK) Blues - ELO
Boulder to Birmingham (US) - Emmylou Harris
Skank Bloc Bologna - Scritti Politti
Boston Belongs To Me - Death Before Dishonor 
Brighton Rock - Queen
Budapest - George Ezra
Night Boat To Cairo - Madness
Chantilly Lace - The Big Bopper
Chattanooga Choo Choo - Glenn Miller Orchestra
What Is Chatteris? - Half Man Half Biscuit
Sweet Home Chicago - Robert Johnson (but it's the Blues Brothers version people know
Walking into Clarksdale - Page And Plant
Last Train To Clarksville - The Monkees

D-F

Decatur, or, Round of Applause for Your Stepmother! - Sufjan Stevens
Panic In Detroit - David Bowie
Clover In Dover - Blur 
Copenhagen - Scott Walker
Durham Town - Roger Whittaker
Dusseldorf - Regina Spektor
Edinburgh Man - The Fall
Eton Rifles - The Jam

G-I

Galway Girl - Steve Earle
Galveston - Glen Campbell 
Sealed With A Glasgow Kiss - Carter USM 
Night Falls On Hoboken - Yo La Tengo
Hong Kong Garden - Siouxsie and the Banshees
Istanbul (not Constantinople) - The Four Lads (but best known by They Might Be Giants)

J-L

Jacksonville - Sufjan Stevens 
Jericho - The Prodigy
Kingston Town - Lord Creator (and then done again by UB40)
Knutsford City Limits - Robbie Williams
Heart As Big As Liverpool - Pete Wylie
Give Me Hope Johanna - Eddie Grant
Viva Las Vegas - Elvis Presley 
Lazy Leeds Afternoons - The Rythym Sisters
Sunshine On Leith - The Proclaimers
Leningrad - Billy Joel
London Calling - The Clash
Los Angeles - X 
Loughborough Suicide - The Young Knives

M-O

Malibu - Hole
Road To Mandalay - Robbie Williams
I'm In Love With The Girl On The Manchester Virgin Megastore Checkout Desk - The Freshies 
Marrakech Express - Crosby, Stills and Nash
All The Way To Memphis - Mott The Hoople
Minneapolis - Underworld 
Stuck Outside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again - Bob Dylan
Miami - Will Smith
Come To Milton Keynes - The Style Council
Stranger In Moscow - Michael Jackson
Planet Of New Orleans - Dire Straits
New York, New York - Frank Sinatra (and midnight karaoke turns everywhere)
Nice In Nice - The Stranglers 
Energy In Northampton - Linda Jardim 
Nutbush City Limits - Tina Turner
Odessa - Caribou 
Maid Of Orleans - OMD 
Oxford Girl - Oysterband 

P-R

A Free Man In Paris - Joni Mitchell
Streets Of Philadelphia - Bruce Springsteen
By The Time I Get To Phoenix - Public Enemy 
Pompeii - Bastille 
All The Way To Reno - REM
The Bells Of Rhymney - Pete Seeger (or, if you like, The Byrds)
Rochdale Cowboy - Mike Harding
Don't Go Back To Rockville - REM 
When In Rome, Do The Jerk - Rocket From The Crypt
Rotterdam - The Beautiful South

S-U

San Francisco - Scott McKenzie (you know, the one about flowers in your hair) 
Do You Know The Way to San Jose? - Dionne Warwick
Santa Cruz - The Thrills 
Miss Sarajevo - Passengers
Scarborough Fair - Trad (although we all know the Simon And Garfunkel version)
Seneca Falls - The Distillers
Sheffield Sex City - Pulp
Singapore - Tom Waits
I Stockholm - Lars Winnerbäck 
Tallahassie Lassie - Freddy Cannon
Texarkana - REM
Anarchy In Timperley - Frank Sidebottom (borderline suburb, but added because Frank)
Because Of Toledo - The Blue Nile
60 Seconds Over Tokyo - Pere Ubu
Rose Of Tralee - Trad
24 Hours From Tulsa - Gene Pitney 

V-Z

Vienna - Ultravox
Warszawa - David Bowie
Waterloo - Abba (Wikipedia confirms Waterloo is a town)
Wichita Lineman - Glen Campbell 
Winchester Cathedral - New Vaudeville Band
Woodstock - Joni Mitchell (not just a festival, but the town where the festival was) 

1 comment:

  1. I Have Slept With All The Girls in Berlin - The Sisters of Mercy
    Jerusalem - Sinéad O'Connor
    Walking into Clarksdale - Page & Plant
    París - La Oreja de Van Gogh
    Marrakesh Night Market - Loreena McKennitt
    Last Train To Clarksville - The Monkees
    I Stockholm - Lars Winnerbäck
    In Liverpool - Suzanne Vega


    Fun fact: Martin Carthy taught Scarborough Fair to Paul Simon and was unhappy when Scarborough Fair was credited to Simon & Garfunkel without acknowledging "trad. anon."

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