Songs that use city names as a rhyme (and is there one for every state?)

This came up in a discussion about the terrorist trial in Boston, leading to a discussion of songs about Boston, further leading to the song Sweet Baby James:

Now the first of December was covered with snow
and so was the turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston.
Though the Berkshires seemed dreamlike on account of that frosting,
with ten miles behind me and ten thousand more to go.

This led to the OP–how many song lyrics rhyme the name of a city? We came up with “Little Green Apples” (And it don’t rain in Indianapolis in the summertime) and a twofer in Sinatra’s “Love’s Been Good to Me”

There was a girl in Denver
Before the summer storm
Oh, her eyes were tender
Oh, her arms were warm

There was a girl in Portland
Before the winter chill
We used to go a-courtin’
Along October hill

That covers Massachusetts, Indiana, Colorado and either Maine or Oregon.

Any others?

Nevada:

Ahh, it’s a shame, say it’s a pity
Gotta putt out of Carson City
(Captain Beefheart, “Owed t’ Alex”)

California:

Where will we go
When there’s no San Francisco? [also “no San Diego”]
(Shango, “Day After Day”)

The bridge of “Route 66” has a whole bunch of cities and states rhyming with one another, but the rhymes are pretty sloppy!

New York:

Toe bone Schenectady foot bone
Foot bone Schenectady heel bone
Heel bone Schenectady ankle bone…

“Birmingham” - Randy Newman

*Birmingham, Birmingham
The greatest city in Alabam’
You can travel 'cross this entire land
But there ain’t no place like Birmingham
*

“Drivin’ On 9” - The Breeders

I sure look pretty
Carson City

“Moonlight in Vermont” contains no city or town names. Probably too small.

Or rhymes.

  • Route 66
  • North To Alaska

Wham Bam Birmingham
Alabam don’t give a damn

Steely Dan, “My Old School.” You get a triple helping of Annandale, and one California for dessert:

I remember the thirty-five sweet goodbyes
When you put me on the Wolverine Up to Annandale
It was still September, When your daddy was quite surprised
To find you with the working girls in the county jail

Oleanders growing outside her door
Soon they’re gonna be in bloom Up in Annandale
I can’t stand her Doing what she did before
Living like a gypsy queen In a fairy tale

California tumbles into the sea
That’ll be the day I go Back to Annandale
Tried to warn you About Chino and Daddy Gee
But I can’t seem to get to you Through the U.S. Mail

New York:

“Truckin’, up to Buffalo
Been thinkin’, you got to mellow slow”

  • Grateful Dead

Shuffle Off to Buffalo:
“To Niagara in the sleeper
There’s no honeymoon that’s cheaper
And the train goes slow.
Oh, Oh, Oh
Off we’re gonna shuffle
Shuffle off to Buffalo.”

Honeymoon Hotel (Hollywood):
Hotel Detectives: Girls, you’ll have to scatter.
Girls: We don’t see why we should.
Detectives: You’re in Jersey City/And not in Hollywood!

Jacksonville!

Tallahassee Lassie

It’s a haiku!

-Way Down Yonder in New Orleans

-Battle of New Orleans

I didn’t think I’d find a match for Connecticut, but here are the lyrics for “Connecticut’s For Fucking” by Jesus H Christ and The Four Hornsmen of the Apocalypse. (The idea is that the state is so boring that that’s all there is to do.) The lyricist rhymes Old Lyme with “all the time”. More impressively, he rhymes Lake Quassapaug (admittedly not a town or city name) with “catching frogs”.

Pennsylvania has “Allentown”, by Billy Joel:

And Johnny Cash’s “I’ve been everywhere” has a whole slew of them, though some are a bit strained, and some aren’t US cities:

Hard hearted Hannah
The vamp of Savannah…

Ella Fitzgerald - Hard Hearted Hannah

I’ve Been Everywhere” for multiple countries (Australian is the original).

It’s in there somewhere: Marilyn Monroe - Two Little Girls From Little Rock [With Lyrics]