Friday Fun: Songs Naming American States

Yay. That could be quite an album!

Alabama x
Alaska x
Arizona x
Arkansas x
California x
Colorado x
Connecticut x
Delaware x
Florida x
Georgia x
Hawaii x
Idaho x
Illinois x
Indiana x
Iowa x
Kansas x
Kentucky x
Louisiana x
Maine x
Maryland x
Massachusetts x
Michigan x
Minnesota x
Mississippi x
Missouri x
Montana x
Nebraska x
Nevada x
New Hampshire x
New Jersey x
New Mexico x
New York x
North Carolina x
North Dakota x
Ohio x
Oklahoma x
Oregon x
Pennsylvania x
Rhode Island x
South Carolina x
South Dakota x
Tennessee x
Texas x
Utah x
Vermont x
Virginia x
Washington x
West Virginia x
Wisconsin x
Wyoming x

 

What's next? Provinces of Canada or States of Mexico?

 

Me too. Never heard of Danny Holien nor the record label before or after. A true one hit wonder. When people think of Colorado and music, John "Rocky Mountain High" Denver, which another song about Colorado.

 

I'm too late, but here's some more that I had initially thought of

"Mississippi" Bob Dylan
"Tennessee Waltz" Patti Page
"Miss the Mississippi" Jimmie Rodgers
"Blue Hawaii" Elvis Presley
"Hawaii" Beach Boys

"I Heard That Lonesome Whistle" Hank Williams
I was ridin' number nine
Headin' south from Caroline.
I'll never see that gal of mine
Lord, I'm in Georgia doin' time

"Chattanooga Choo Choo" Glenn Miller
Nothing could be finer
Than to have your ham an' eggs in Carolina
When you hear the whistle blowin' eight to the bar
Then you know that Tennessee is not very far

 

Another couple I thought of were Jimmie Rodgers' "Blue Yodel #1 (T for Texas, T for Tennessee)" that's been covered by oodles of folks. Also Muddy Waters' "Louisiana Blues", but by that time those states were pretty well spoken for already.

 

I noted previously that "Going To Carolina (in my Mind)" by James Taylor is about Nth Carolina, even though he does not say the word "North"

 

Dick Haymes covered quite a few States when he did "Rhode Island is Famous for You"

Copper comes from Arizona
Peaches come from Georgia
And lobsters come from Maine
The wheat fields
Are the sweet fields of Nebraska
And Kansas gets bonanzas from the grain

Old whiskey comes from old Kentucky
Ain't the country lucky
New Jersey gives us glue
And you, you come from Rhode Island
And little old Rhode Island
Is famous for you

 

Not to be a stickler but aren’t these songs referring to the city and not the state?

(yea, I think I figured out how to multi-quote!)

 

Off the top of my head...

My Home’s in Alabama - Alabama
Heads Carolina, Tails California - JoDee Messina
Colorado - The Flying Burrito Brothers
Georgia on My Mind -Ray Charles
Kentucky Bluebird - Keith Whitley
Louisiana Man - Rick Nelson & the Stone Canyon Band
Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man - Loretta Lynn & Conway Twitty
Down in Mary’s Land - Mary Chapin Carpenter
Meet Me in Montana - Marie Osmond & Dan Seals
You’re the Reason God Made Oklahoma - Shelley West & David Frizzell

 

'Poor Little Rhode Island' by Dale Hawkins

 

Chevy Chase - Colorado

 

Press by Paul McCartney.

“Oklahoma was never like this.....”

 

Not Me by the Orlons kicks right off with California then adds Alabama in the second verse and Virginia in the third:

 

Sweet Rhode Island Red - Ike & Tina Turner

 

Frank Sinatra - I Got A Gal I Love In North And South Dakota

 

It's so lonely, honey, in the state of Maine

 

Mississippi Queen - Mountain

 

Although they may be referring to Manhattan they say New York. Wouldn't that disqualify some of the other songs already mentioned where they state a city of then?

 

Bob Dylan- Hollis Brown

"There's 7 people dead on a South Dakota Farmy
Way out off in the distance, there's 7 new people born

 

I suppose. The ones I saw listed a city and the state as well.

 

north dakota - lyle lovett

"North Dakota"

The boys from North Dakota
They drink whisky for their fun
And the cowboys down in Texas
They polish up their guns
And they look across the border
To learn the ways of love

If you love me, say I love you
If you love me, say I do
If you love me, say I love you
If you love me, say I do
And you can say I love you
And you can say I do

So I drank myself some whisky
And I dreamed I was a cowboy
And I rode across the border

If you love me, say I love you
If you love me, take my hand
If you love me, say I love you
If you love me, take my hand
And you can say I love you
And you can have my hand

I remember in the mornings
Waking up
With your arms around my head
You told me you can sleep forever
And I'll still hold you then

Now the weather's getting colder
It's even cold down here
And the words that you have told me
Hang frozen in the air
And sometimes I look right through them
As if they were not there

And the boys from North Dakota
They drink whisky for their fun
And the cowboys down in Texas
They polish up their guns
And they look across the border
To learn the ways of love

 

here is another one:

the wives are in connecticut - carly simon