Neil’s Top 30 Songs With A Location In Their Title
This time, we feature songs that have a location in their title – it must be in the title and not just in the lyrics of the song. That said, it does raise the question – what is counted as a location? Here are some ground rules for ineligibility:
- The reference cannot be an adjective (e.g. American, Australian, etc)
- The location cannot be a made up name (e.g. Xanadu, Blueberry Hill, etc)
- The location must be in the title (e.g. Reckless mentions Manly and Circular Quay, etc)
- The location cannot simply be a building (e.g. YMCA, etc)
- The location must be used in the context of a location (e.g. Tequila is a place but Tequila Sunrise relates to a drink)
So here they are – Neil’s selects his favourite location songs. How many of these would you include in your list?
- Khe Sanh – Cold Chisel
- Wichita Lineman – Glenn Campbell
- Hotel California – Eagles
- San Francisco – Scott McKenzie
- April Sun In Cuba – Dragon
- California Dreaming – The Mamas and The Papas
- Arkansas Grass – Axiom
- New York Minute – Don Henley
- Hollywood Seven – Jon English
- Galveston – Glenn Campbell
- Kentucky Rain – Elvis Presley
- Walking In Memphis – Marc Cohn
- Waterloo – ABBA
- Werewolves Of London – Warren Zevon
- Winter In America – Doug Ashdown
- Ventura Highway – America
- Africa – Toto
- Jamaica Rum – Ted Mulry Gang
- Mull Of Kintyre – Wings
- Massachusetts – Bee Gees
- Born In The USA – Bruce Springsteen
- Penny Lane – The Beatles
- California Girls – Beach Boys
- The Night Chicago Died – Paper Lace
- Waterloo Sunset – The Kinks
- Kids In America – Kim Wilde
- Nutbush City Limits – Ike & Tina Turner
- The Devil Went Down To Georgia – Charlie Daniels Band
- The Newcastle Song – Bob Hudson
- I Go To Rio – Peter Allen
The next 10 cabs off the rank if we had taken it to number 40 – in chronological order:
- On Broadway – The Drifters – 1963
- Viva Las Vegas – Elvis Presley – 1964
- New York Mining Disaster 1941 – Bee Gees – 1967
- By The Time I Get To Phoenix – Glenn Campbell – 1967
- Abervagenny – Marty Wilde – 1968
- Wheeling West Virginia – Neil Sedaka – 1970
- Give Ireland Back To The Irish – Wings – 1972
- Mississippi – Pussycat – 1976
- Don’t Cry For me Argentina – Julie Covington – 1977
- Fall Of Rome – James Reyne – 1987