# Songs about a specific year. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 25, 2019, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-a-specific-year/831496 "2019-03-25T12:53:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-a-specific-year/831496/1 "2019-03-25T12:53:49Z")
Back in 2013 there was a thread called, “Name a song that mentions a specific year in its lyrics.” I would like a list of something a bit narrower: songs where the entire subject matter is about a specific year. (I would guess most songs that fall into this category have the year somewhere in the title of the song, but I don’t think that’s a necessity.) I’ll go first: Summer of '69 by Bryan Adams. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-a-specific-year/831496/2 "2019-03-25T13:11:32Z")
The Sisters of Mercy have both _[1969](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAv0RuTOpcI)_ and [1959](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGtNeeLabJg). As to whether the subject matter is “about” the year, that’s a judgement call. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-a-specific-year/831496/3 "2019-03-25T13:18:24Z")
McCartney & Wings - Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-five. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-a-specific-year/831496/4 "2019-03-25T13:23:25Z")
_December '63_ (Foru Season) _In the Year 2525_ (Zagar and Evans) _1999_ (Prince) _1984_ (Oingo Boingo) ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-a-specific-year/831496/5 "2019-03-25T13:34:47Z")
1979 - Smashing Pumpkins ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-a-specific-year/831496/6 "2019-03-25T13:47:02Z")
“Louisiana, 1927” - Randy Newman. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-a-specific-year/831496/7 "2019-03-25T14:35:38Z")
Depends a bit on how finicky you are about what “about a year” means. Redd Kross’s [1976](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad2HWkH7FDY) has enough cultural references, that it is at least about the 70s. Grand Funk Railroad also had a song titled [1976](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-kcaaT9sIY), which begins “Happy Birthday America,” so clearly the exact year is important to the lyrics. And rounding up our 1976-themed songs, there’s [1976](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bs4goSw-hwA) by Alan Jackson. Good amount of cultural references there that you can pin down the song to being about a small range of years if you remove all references to 1976 from the song. (1979 by the Pumpkins was my first thought upon reading the thread title, but that’s taken. But, like many of these songs, is that really about the year, or is it just a year in the past used to represent a nostalgic feeling/era?) ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-a-specific-year/831496/8 "2019-03-25T14:42:46Z")
“[1941](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89hX5QvmZSU)” - Harry Nilsson ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-a-specific-year/831496/9 "2019-03-25T15:17:26Z")
Does Queen’s “In the Year of '39” count? It’s a specific year, but we don’t know what century that specific year is in. Well, OK, I guess it’s two specific years, a century apart. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-a-specific-year/831496/10 "2019-03-25T15:21:00Z")
How about “1985”? It was written and originally recorded by SR-71, but the Bowling for Soup version is probably better known. It actually describes what’s happening in a different (later) year, but references 1985 continuously. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-a-specific-year/831496/11 "2019-03-25T15:21:22Z")
[1985](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K38xNqZvBJI)-Bowling For Soup. (Which sounds remarkably like Weird Al) ---
**Author:** ![GESancMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gesancman/32/2923_2.png) [@GESancMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GESancMan)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-a-specific-year/831496/12 "2019-03-25T15:22:17Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > Back in 2013 there was a thread called, “Name a song that mentions a specific year in its lyrics.” I would like a list of something a bit narrower: songs where the entire subject matter is about a specific year. (I would guess most songs that fall into this category have the year somewhere in the title of the song, but I don’t think that’s a necessity.) Does the specific year _have_ to be mentioned in the lyrics? Dream Theater’s concept album _Metropolis Part II: Scenes from a Memory_ deals with a man in the present day who realizes he is the reincarnation of a young woman who was murdered in 1928. The year where he is reliving the past comes from one of the track titles, “Overture 1928.” There is no mention anywhere at all, in the track titles or the lyrics, that the “present day” is 1999 (the year the album was released). BUT… in the closing moments of the album, the main character turns on a TV and sees a news report about the death of JFK Junior. The band has said they put that in there to tie the story to the “present day,” meaning as we listen we are supposed to surmise that the “present” is 1999. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-a-specific-year/831496/13 "2019-03-25T15:33:04Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > [1985](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K38xNqZvBJI)-Bowling For Soup. > (Which sounds remarkably like Weird Al) Both at 11:21…let’s call it a tie. “Great minds,” and all that. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-a-specific-year/831496/14 "2019-03-25T15:55:39Z")
How about [1921](https://youtu.be/WoW_0NuaPj4) from Tommy? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-a-specific-year/831496/15 "2019-03-25T15:57:15Z")
_'39_ by Queen _[1984](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtzS93HDQeE)_ by Spirit ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-a-specific-year/831496/16 "2019-03-25T16:08:59Z")
**The Stooges** had both _1969_ and _1970_. **Jimi Hendrix** had _1983 (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)_ ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-a-specific-year/831496/17 "2019-03-25T16:10:51Z")
According to Bryan Adams, the “69” in “Summer of '69” does not refer to the year 1969, although since the “'69” has an apostrophe that would suggest that it is actually an abbreviation. “Summer '68” - Pink Floyd ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Prize](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d2c977/32.png) [@Sir\_Prize](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Prize)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-a-specific-year/831496/18 "2019-03-25T21:38:53Z")
David Bowie - [1984](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KByxC7B9WH0) ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-a-specific-year/831496/19 "2019-03-26T00:09:42Z")
> [@GESancMan](#): > > Does the specific year _have_ to be mentioned in the lyrics? Nope! And your example (_Metropolis Part II_) is good. I thought of another: _1967_ by **The Dayglo Abortions**. ---
**Author:** ![KCB615](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ea666f/32.png) [@KCB615](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KCB615)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-a-specific-year/831496/20 "2019-03-26T01:07:25Z")
Wings: Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-a-specific-year/831496.md?page=2)