( Contrary to my thread title, choices don’t HAVE TO be ABOUT places…they can just have a place name in their title. It’s not a hard and fast rule, and everyone is welcome to bend it.)
My City Was Gone by Chrissie Hynde.
Big Sky Country - Chris Whitley
New York New York - Ryan Adams
Ohio- Over The Rhine
I cannot listen to this song without wanting to weep. Born/raised in Ohio, and this song makes me more homesick than you can know.
John Denver:
Rocky Mountain High - Colorado
Aspenglow
Wide Montana Skies
Take Me Home Country Roads (Almost heaven, West Virginia)
Springsteen:
Nebraska
4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)
New York City, They Might Be Giants.
Kilkelly (Ireland). This is not the version familiar to me; maybe this is.
Be advised: I think this is the saddest song ever written, and I can’t hear it without misting up a bit. The backstory is that it was based on a series of letters found in an attic somewhere in the USA. Digest that, and consider why I think it is so sad.
But it is a great song, a little about a place, perhaps more from a place.
Hows about…
Texarkana - REM
YYZ - Rush (it’s an instrumental, but it’s about the Toronto airport)
and an obscure one, Under Peruvian Skies - Dream Theater
…and a big second for London Calling . That was a great tribute version in the YouTube clip posted earlier.
I’ve been through the list in this thread twice…is it possible that we missed “Sweet Home, Alabama”? http://youtube.com/watch?v=IwWUOmk7wO0
Love, Phil
Roadrunner
Fairytale of New York
and I don’t think there’s a place called Dirty Boulevard but I’m fairly certain I’ve been there.
And can I count God Save the Youth of America?
Course you can, as long as I can have Good Morning Britain?
At the risk of ignoring the word “greatest”—
How about, **Dubuque Blues ** by The Association? It might qualify as “Most Obscure” as opposed to “Greatest”.
Then there is **New York Groove ** by Kiss, which is certainly not a “Greatest” either—merely “Songs That I Like About Places”.
“Greatest” is surely a subjective opinion, so if you think it’s great, it’ll do me! 
How could I have forgotten **Graceland ** by Paul Simon?
That, in my objective opinion 
, is a truly great song.
Okay, here’s the deal:
Last night, I was the host/questioner for a weekly pub quiz. I had previously had the idea to create a round based on this general concept: songs with place names in the title. The way it worked was, I played a short snippet of each song, and asked the teams to name the location contained in the song’s title.
So you can imagine my :dubious: when this thread suddenly popped up a couple of days before my scheduled hosting session.
For the record, my list of songs was as follows:
Back in the USSR
California Dreamin’
One Night in Bangkok
Tea in the Sahara
Sweet Home Alabama
Detroit Rock City
Africa (by Toto)
No Sleep Till Brooklyn
I Left My Heart in San Francisco
Gotham City (R Kelly)
Istanbul, Not Constantinople
Most of them have been mentioned in the thread so far, but I did have a couple of originals. (Caveat: You can argue the “greatness” of “Africa.” ;))
Mull Of Kintyre
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhh!
That was the only one I didn’t want to hear mentioned! It reminds me of being tortured as a teenager for the 8 weeks it was number one in the UK charts. That had the strange effect of making the summer holidays seem like an eternity, yet still feel like a nightmare! 
So sue me. I like it.
Finally someone said Sweet Home Alabama…I was getting worried.
One of my other favorites is In My Tennessee Mountain Home by Dolly Parton
How about* A Heart in New York* as sung by Art Garfunkel…