“Home can be the Pennsylvania Turnpike, or Indiana’s early morning dew. . .” -from “You’re My Home”
“. . .I know a woman in New Mexico. . .” -from “Worst Comes To Worst”
And if you want to add show tunes, there’s “Gary, Indiana” from The Music Man and Meet Me in St. Louis from the eponymous musical (as long as you’re counting a mention of a city as a mention of a state, which seems to be the case here).
The complete list of locations in Bobby Troup’s song “Route 66” mentions four states and a bunch of cities:
The second verse contains the lyrics, “It winds from Chicago to LA, more than two thousand miles all the way.”
The verse everybody thinks of is this one:
“It goes through St. Louis;
Joplin, Missouri Oklahoma City is oh so pretty!
You’ll see Amarillo, Gallup, New Mexico,
Flagstaff, Arizona, don’t forget Winona,
Kingman, Barstow, San Bernadino. . .”
Louis Prima wrote a song called “Anywhere in Texas, RFD” which mentions a bunch of cities and states (including their pre-1962 postal zones), but my CD is at home and I don’t remember which ones are in the lyrics.
Illinois - “Lookin’ Out My Back Door” by Creedence Clearwater Revival (“Just got back from Illinois/Lock the front door, oh boy!”
“Ben McCulloch” by Steve Earle gives us Missouri, Arkansas and Texas:
"We signed up in San Antone my brother Paul and me
To fight with Ben McCulloch and the Texas infantry…
Well they marched us to Missouri and we hardly stopped for rest…
Well they told us that our enemy would all be dressed in blue
They forgot about the winter’s cold and the cursed fever too
My brother died at Wilson’s creek and Lord I seen him fall
We fell back to the Boston Mountains in the North of Arkansas"
“Three Button Hand Me Down” by the Faces mentions Boston, Houston and Detroit, and gives us Oklahoma by name:
“I don’t need no one’s opinion
On the matter concerning my dress.
I was raised in a clinic down in Oklahoma,
There were many things I did not possess.”
I know there are some obvious ones I’m forgetting right now…
A few years ago the local NPR station was going through all the states and playing a song either about it or in which the state was mentioned. With the help of their listeners they were able to come up with something for every state except… Connecticut! A four hour show and no one could come up with a song about Connecticut. They finally did a song about Yale and called it close enough.
There was a stupid song recorded sometime in the early sixties I think. We had to sing it in junior high chorus class, I forget who originally recorded it but it was titled “Fifty Nifty United States” and part of the (ugh) “lyrics” were the names of all fifty states in alphabetical order.
Well, I do say ugh, but for some reason the song stayed with me, and in trivia contests it can come in handy to be able to do what the song does.
There’s also an older novelty tune that names darn near all the states, though perhaps not Alaska and Hawaii as I remember the last line of the song makes a reference to 48. Anyway, the chorus goes:
“Who knows the answer
To this mystery
If Texas told What Arkansas,
Then what did Tennessee?”
The song is filled with such plays on state names such as “If Utah bothered Alabama, then who would Illinois?/If Washing weighs a ton, then how much does I-O weigh?”
Unfortunately I have no idea who the artist is who what the title is. Google doesn’t seem to be of much help.
Referring to the state prison, in Walla Walla, Washington
An excerpt:
“Hey, in Walla, I’ll see you in-a Walla Walla, slap on the wrist well not this time, hey in Walla, I’ll see you in-a Walla Walla, Fullsome Prison is the Destination.”
What? Two pages and no www.allmusic.com searches? By my count, there are 107 different song titles (not saying some of them aren’t different songs with the same title) that include “Texas”. “California” and “New York” count 104 each (These three states appear to have the largest counts.)
Low-count (<= 10) states include: Vermont (3), Connecticut (5), Delaware (5), New Hampshire (5), Massachusetts (5), Wisconsin (6), Nebraska (8), Maine (8), Maryland (9), New Mexico (9), and Idaho (10).
It’s now one of our nine, yes nine state songs, but it was a popular tune before that. Don’t get me started about the state flower! Better known perhaps is New Hampshire, Naturally by the Shaw brothers.
lowell, ma - death cab for cutie a new found interest in massachusetts - the get up kids
(or the alternate version, newfound, mass)
new york:
cali to ny - black eyed peas new york city cops - the strokes new york - u2 hudson, ny - lo tel coney island - death cab for cutie no sleep til brooklyn - the beastie boys angel of harlem - u2
maryland:
(don’t go back to) rockville - r.e.m.
tennessee:
tennessee - arrested development memphis train blues - r.e.m.
louisiana:
new orleans wins the war - randy newman new orleans instrumental no 1 - r.e.m.
florida:
it doesn’t snow in florida - new found glory
wisconsin:
wisconsin - samiam
michigan:
ann arbor - the get up kids (michigan)
ohio:
cuyahoga - r.e.m.
kansas:
campfire kansas - the get up kids
nevada:
all the way to reno - r.e.m.
california:
californication - the red hot chili peppers san dimas high school football rules - the ataris
Virginia: Blessid Union of Souls had a single “Oh, Virginia” on the charts about five years back. And it was definitely about the Commonwealth, not a woman.