Songs about states of the US

Subject: Which States (US) Are In Songs?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 01 Oct 16 - 01:00 PM

I looked for a thread on this, and did find a bunch of interesting things by putting states in the filter and setting the time to all, but this is more data-driven... ranking of the states by number of songs mentioning them.

We can change these numbers!

Subject: RE: Which States (US) Are In Songs?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 01 Oct 16 - 06:02 PM

All of them I believe. Plus at least one which doesn't exist (East Virginia).

Subject: Lyr Add: CAROLINA MOON
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 01 Oct 16 - 06:16 PM

Carolina moon keep shining
Shining on the one who waits for me
Carolina moon I'm pining
Pining for the place I long to be

How I'm hoping tonight you'll go
Go to the right window
Scatter your light, say I'm alright
Please do
Tell her that I'm blue and lonely
Dreamy Carolina moon

Subject: Lyr Add: CAROLINA STAR (Tony Rice)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 01 Oct 16 - 06:19 PM

Back in the hills oh slow rollin' hills
Where North Carolina comes close to the stars
There's livin' a lady who's shinin' so high
They call her the "Carolina Star'

She works at the factory from Monday through Friday
She's raisin' three daughters alone
Their daddy's away, he's chasing a dream
They're waitin' for the day that he comes home

   Oh, Carolina
   Even stars get lonesome now and then
   Oh, Carolina
   Don't you worry, he'll be comin' home again

He's playin' his songs in Nashville
He's pickin' for tips in a bar
He's broke and all alone, but he ain't ready to come home
He's gonna be a country singin' star

Sometimes she wakes up just thinking of him
She remembers him beside her in the night
While out across those hills that old moon is settled in
And those Carolina stars are shining bright

Yes he loves you and he's comin' home again.

Author: na
Version: Tony Rice
Discography: na

Subject: RE: Which States (US) Are In Songs?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 01 Oct 16 - 09:20 PM

So, nobody looked at the article, eh?

Subject: Lyr Add: RHODE ISLAND IS FAMOUS FOR YOU
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 01 Oct 16 - 09:38 PM

I just got to this thread and did look at the article. I wonder what songs were even considered.

When I first read the thread title, I thought of my home state, Rhode Island, and the song Rhode Island is Famous for You, which mentions several states.

---

Thread #32169   Message #888710
Posted By: Joe Offer
12-Feb-03 - 01:29 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: & REQ-Odd State Songs
Subject: ADDPOP: Rhode Island Is Famous For You

I came across this song on a Nancy LaMott recording last night, and thought it was a perfect tribute to the two loveliest women in my life - my wife and my mother-in-law, who are both from Woonsocket.

RHODE ISLAND IS FAMOUS FOR YOU
(Howard Dietz, lyrics; Arthur Schwarts, music)

Ev'ry state has something
Its Rotary Club can boast of;
Some product that the state
Produces the most of.
Rhode Island is little, but oh my,
It has a product anyone would buy.

REFRAIN I
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!

REFRAIN 2
Cotton comes from Loosiana,
Gophers from Montana,
And spuds from Idaho.
They plow land
In the cow land
Of Missoura,
'Where mostbeef
Meant for roast beef
Seems to grow.
Grand Canyons
Come from Colorada,
Gold comes from Nevada,
Divorces also do.
Andyou,
You come from Rhode Island,
And little old
Rhode Island
Is famous for you!

REFRAIN 3
Pencils
Come from Pencilvania,
Vests from Vest Virginia
And tents from Tentasee.
They know mink
Where they grow mink
In Wyomink.
A camp chair
In New Hampchair,
That's for me.
And minnows
Come from Minnowsota,
Coats come from Dacoata,
But why should you be blue?
For you,
You come from Rhode Island,
Don't let them ride Rhode Island;
It's famous for you!


from the 1948 musical, Inside U.S.A.

Schwartz and Dietz are better-known for "Dancing in the Dark," "That's Entertainment," "You and the Night and the Music," and the lovely "Triplets." [grin]

I found the lyrics in a new book, Reading Lyrics (2000, Robert Gottlieb and Robert Kimball) which has hundreds of these old chestnuts.

---

Oh, Cranky Yankee, I dedicate this song to you, too.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Which States (US) Are In Songs?
From: eftifino
Date: 01 Oct 16 - 11:24 PM

Quite a few are mentioned in this Perry como record:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NztfOSyCCFM&list=PLD4A29065C169E28A

Subject: RE: Which States (US) Are In Songs?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 01 Oct 16 - 11:28 PM

We need more songs about whatever states there aren't that many songs about!

For the Canadians, I know songs about Yukon, Alberta, and Quebec - mabe even Ontario and Manitoba. Nunavut, anyone?

Subject: RE: Which States (US) Are In Songs?
From: Gallus Moll
Date: 02 Oct 16 - 10:54 AM

'What did Delaware, boys. what did Delaware' was a humorous song (in the 50s or 60s?)that featured every single US state!

Subject: RE: Which States (US) Are In Songs?
From: cnd
Date: 02 Oct 16 - 10:54 AM

We have this thread: thread.cfm?threadid=158031 about Carolina songs, and Steve has now added 2.

I read the article and it was interesting

Subject: RE: Which States (US) Are In Songs?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 02 Oct 16 - 11:52 AM

Here ya go Gallus Moll. What did Delaware... the song.

Subject: RE: Which States (US) Are In Songs?
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 02 Oct 16 - 01:55 PM

Study author: "Using R, I've combined the lyrics from 50 years of Billboard Year-End Hot 100 (1965-2015) into one dataset for analysis."

Mrrzy: "We can change these numbers!"


Can we borrow your TARDIS?

Subject: RE: Which States (US) Are In Songs?
From: Gallus Moll
Date: 02 Oct 16 - 06:41 PM

Thanks Georgiansilver - hadn't heard this for years!
Always thought it went through every state -- - Oh well.....I was only young at the time!

Subject: RE: Which States (US) Are In Songs?
From: Janie
Date: 02 Oct 16 - 11:13 PM

East Virginia doesn't refer to a state. It refers to eastern Virginia. Reflects migration patterns. By the early 1730s the eastern seaboard, in fact, nearly all the Atlantic coastline, was pretty well taken up by earlier and more wealthy folks. By at least 1730, immigrants arriving on what is now the USA east coast anywhere between Philadelphia and Charleston, SC quickly moved west and south.

The Great Wagon Road, in particular, was a major migratory path south and southwest from the eastern seaboard and the coastal and tidewater regions of Virginia, down into the 'back country' of the Carolinas and on into northwestern Georgia.

Subject: RE: Which States (US) Are In Songs?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 03 Oct 16 - 08:55 AM

There's Indiana by Andy Mitchell, well sung by Andy Irvine.

Subject: RE: Which States (US) Are In Songs?
From: Joe_F
Date: 03 Oct 16 - 06:11 PM

Maryland, My Maryland
I'm gwine to Louisiana with my banjo on my knee
Beautiful, beautiful Texas, etc., etc.
California, California! We're bound to do or die, etc.
Oklahoma, O.K.!

Subject: RE: Which States (US) Are In Songs?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 04 Oct 16 - 08:40 AM

"Your State's Name here"

8-E

Subject: RE: Which States (US) Are In Songs?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 04 Oct 16 - 02:12 PM

The dataset used for the study was 5,000 fairly recent and very popular songs. It doesn't include the vast majority of songs from traditional, folk, bluegrass, and other noncommercial genres. So, the results are tilted toward the handful of states where successful songwriters and musicians tend to live: New York, California, Texas, and Tennessee. Those states are the ones in which music is big business. The Eagles lived and recorded in California. They sure as hell weren't going to write a song called "Hotel Rhode Island".

Also, exactly what constitutes mention of a state? Does the state's name have to be mentioned verbatim, or can it be implied by mention of a prominent city within that state? "If you're going to San Fransisco," you've gotta go to California. It ain't in Alabama!

Subject: RE: Which States (US) Are In Songs?
From: Joe_F
Date: 04 Oct 16 - 06:36 PM

They're *all* in this one:

USF'nA [Geographically Correct Version]        
        
Nevada's dice-shootin, Wayne Newton, prostitution round the clock!
South Dakota's got 4 non-South Dakotans carved in a rock.

In the Carolinas, Bill O'Reilly's thought of as a genius,
And Georgia's got a climate slightly balmier than Venus,
Virginia's where a woman first cut off her husband's penis.
USAyyyyyyy!

In Illinois you can search Craigslist for a Senate seat
And Montana's to the right of Idaho, that's no small feat

California's a granola made of fruits and flakes and nuts,
Mississippi's full of welfare mothers sitting on their butts,
Minnesota's so polite but secretly they hate your guts.
USAyyyyyyy!

New Mexicans have wildfires to get relief from killer bees.
And Maryland leads the nation in crabs and other STDs.

Pennsylvania: slums on either end and trailers in the middle,
Kentucky's got a ban on books, you better learn to fiddle,
Rhode Island's fucking minuscule, it matters very little.
USAyyyyyyy!

Delaware's a tax-shelter speed bump on 95.
And living in New Jersey doesn't qualify as being alive.

Connecticut's suburban hell, that's why they gave us "Stepford."
Ohio loves good rock and roll like Poison and Def Leppard
Wyoming gave us Cheney and they murdered Matthew Shepard.
USAyyyyy!

Tennesseeans can't decide if they worship Elvis or Christ.
And people only go to Florida to die or see the cartoon mice.

Alabama's everything you've heard, the home of sister-kissing,
In West Virginia, half the teeth and chromosomes are missing,
And Kansas tries to disprove Darwin simply by existing.
USAyyyyy!

Oregon is where California hippies go to get fat.
And Vermont and New Hampshire are rivals, how pathetic is that?

Alaskans fight the bitter cold with hate and crystal meth
And up in Massachusetts they will tax your every breath
And Texans like to barbecue retarded kids to death.
USAyyyyyyy!

New York City's such a pit you might forget to hate the rest of the state
And the billboards in Missouri tell you God'll watch you masturbate.

Michigan has armed militias holed up in their hovels
And Maine is every horror from a Stephen King novel
Oklahoma needs its own song, cause it's just that fucking awful
USAyyyyyyy!

Disclaimer: Marshall's guitar is made in China. GO!

The only people left in Iowa are unaware that they can leave.
And half of Arizona used to hang around with Adam and Eve

Nebraska's called "the heartland" cause the brain is nowhere near,
DC will never count for shit, and we won't count it here,
Hawaii hasn't been a paradise in fifty years,
Louisiana's government is run by racketeers,
Colorado's fucking boring even if you are a skier,
North Dakota's just like Pluto but without the atmosphere,
In Washington you're homeless or a software engineer,
Indiana's just as badass as your average Mouseketeer,
Wisconsin kills you young with battered cheese and stanky beer,
The nicest car in Arkansas' a Chevy Cavalier,
And nobody would give a fuck if Utah disappeared.
USAyyyyyyy!
Fuckin-A!
USA, yay, yeah.
'murka!

Subject: Lyr Add: O-HI-O (O MY O) (Yellen, Olman)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 13 Sep 24 - 04:43 PM

From the sheet music at the University of Maine:


“O-HI-O” (O-MY!-O)
Words by Jack Yellen, music by Abe Olman, ©1920.

VERSE 1. Girlies, slim and tall,
Girlies, plump and small,
Very wild ones,
Rather mild ones--
I’ve had them all.
From now on with women I’m done,
All excepting one:

CHORUS 1: Down by the Ohio,
I’ve got the sweetest little O, My! O!
I’m going right back there to meet her, and then,
O, picture me when
I put my arms around her and kiss her again!
Down by the Ohio,
She’s just a simple little country girl, I know.
So far, she’s only raised a hen and a cow,
But she’ll be raising something different now,
After we’re O, My! O!
Just wait till I get back to Ohio!

VERSE 2. She’s just right for me,
Suits me to a “T”--
Great on cooking,
Not bad looking,
You would agree.
Since I met her, life is so sweet!
Folks, I must repeat:

CHORUS 2: Down by the Ohio,
I’ve got the sweetest little O, My! O!
She doesn’t dress as up-to-date as she might.
Her clothes are a sight!
But when she’s in the moonlight, I’ll say she’s all right.
How she can O, My! O!
She’s just a simple little country girl, I know.
Some fellows think that country girlies are slow,
But if they knew one half the things that I know,
They’d take the “B. & O.”
And they’d be heading straight for Ohio!

- - -
The Internet Archive has recordings by:
Irving Kaufman, 1920.
Billy Murray & Billy Jones, 1912 (allegedly!)

This alternative chorus is sung by the Hoosier Hot Shots, and Swing and Sway with Sammy Kaye, 1940:

Down by the Ohio,
I’ve got the cutest little O, My! O!
There ain’t nobody half as pretty as she,
As sweet as can be,
And jumpin’ jeepers creepers! She’s crazy for me,
And what an O!, My! O!,
The only one I’ve met who ever thrilled me so.
She is the cutest thing that I’ve ever seen:
All milk and honey, if you know what I mean,
With lots of O! My! O!
Just wait till I get back to Ohio!

Subject: RE: Songs about states of the US
From: keberoxu
Date: 15 Sep 24 - 12:42 PM

And isn't there a song that goes
Why, o why, o why-o
Did I ever leave Ohi-o?

Subject: RE: Songs about states of the US
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 15 Sep 24 - 05:59 PM

Fifty Nifty United States

https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=921

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

It appears to still be a standard for 5th grade teachers. I never realized it was alphabetical.

Subject: RE: Songs about states of the US
From: Neil D
Date: 15 Sep 24 - 07:25 PM

I went back to Ohio
But my city was gone
There was no train station
There was no downtown
South Howard had disappeared
All my favorite places
My city had been pulled down
Reduced to parking spaces

[Chorus]
Ay, oh, way to go, Ohio

[Verse 2]
Well, I went back to Ohio
But my family was gone
I stood on the back porch
There was nobody home
I was stunned and amazed
My childhood memories
Slowly swirled past
Like the wind through the trees

[Chorus]
Ay, oh, way to go, Ohio

by Chrissy Hynde and the Pretenders

Subject: RE: Songs about states of the US
From: GUEST,Gary Kanter
Date: 20 Sep 24 - 05:30 PM

When You To Arizona
https://soundcloud.com/gmkanter/when-you-go-to-arizona-1

Subject: RE: Songs about states of the US
From: Bill D
Date: 22 Sep 24 - 08:43 AM

I was born in Kansas
I was bred in Kansas,
And when I get married,
I'll be wed in Kansas.
There's a true, blue gal
Who promised she would wait..
She's my sunflower from the Sunflower State.

She's my sunflower, she's my one flower.
And I know we'll never part.
She's my sunflower, she's my one flower.
She's the flower of my heart.

(short alternate version:
"I was born in Kansas
I was bred in Kansas,
And when I die,
I'll be dead in Kansas.")

Subject: RE: Songs about states of the US
From: GUEST,Berkshire Haddaway
Date: 23 Sep 24 - 03:20 PM

The Beegees have a nice soft rock tune for Massachusetts
It was also the subject of the original song John Denver changed to Country Roads

Subject: RE: Songs about states of the US
From: oldhippie
Date: 23 Sep 24 - 04:40 PM

Goodbye to West Virginia - Bobby Ross   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IGG5fr-QZM