City of New Orleans, written by Steve Goodman, recorded most famously by Arlo Guthrie but many other versions exist and are varied and excellent.
Me and Bobby McGee, written by Kris Kristofferson and recorded originally by Roger Miller, Janis Joplin’s version was released posthumously and hit #1. It’s been recorded dozens of times since.
Leonard Cohen - Hallelujah
Yes, he’s Canadian, and Canada is in America (North America), so there.
Good call on both.
The original tune (Aura Lee) goes back to the US Civil War but the updated lyrics came in the mid 1950s. Elvis released it in 1956.
I think for Billy Joel you need “Piano Man”.
I’ll nominate “Hotel California” by the Eagles.
This may fall under “too modern”, but it seems to me that “Smells Like Teen Spirit” will almost certainly end up on this list eventually, right? I think when early-to-mid-90’s grunge is canonicalized in 20 years this will probably be the song that stands for that period. Or maybe I’m missing the point and that song is too tied to Nirvana to ever be an “American Standard”?
And yes, clearly we are missing an entire genre of “Great American Music” here, but I’m not an expert enough to know what to nominate. If we need to go back to the “classic era” for the multiple generations part, maybe something by Sugarhill Gang or an early Dre/Snoop song like "Nuthin but a G Thing"? Or I think most Americans would at least recognize “The Message”.
You Can’t Hurry Love and You Keep Me Hangin’ On - by Holland–Dozier–Holland
Hard to Handle - by Allen Jones, Al Bell, and Otis Redding
Hold On, I’m Comin’ - by Isaac Hayes and David Porter
Folsom Prison Blues by Johnny Cash
God Bless the Broken Road, written by Bobby Boyd, Jeff Hanna, and Marcus Hummun
Great call on “Girl Talk.” Gorgeous tune, recorded many times with brilliant jazz arrangements but, as you say, quite a BIT misogynistic, not to say vouyeristic. See Bobby Troup video.
Also seconding Laura Nyro’s stunning “Wedding Bell Blues.” Fucking genius song, more amazing when you learn she wrote it at age 16.Tempting to pick another Nyro for No. 3, maybe “Sweet Blindness” or “Stoney End,” but I’ll go with Frank Zappa’s “Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance.” Just because.
I remember when willie was in England once and sang it … and said "id like to thank your English lads for keeping the song alive because it helped pay his taxes way back when he was having IRS trouble,
“Hello Dolly” (1964) - most commonly heard by Louis Armstrong. Words and music by Jerry Herman.
“I Walk the Line” (1956) - Johnny cash (writer and singer).
Borderline: “Unchained Melody” - originally from the 1955 movie “Unchained”, but the most-heard version of it is the 1965 Righteous Brothers one.
“Mack the Knife” will be rejected, since the original words and music (in German) were written by Kurt Wielle - before he became a US citizen in 1943.
I’m posting after only having read the OP, and of course the three entries restriction is ridiculous, but off the top of my head:
Hank Williams - I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive
Sam Cooke - A Change Is Gonna Come
Bob Dylan - Like A Rolling Stone
Of course there are hundreds of others of that caliber, but I’ll respect that limitation (until now, maybe I’ll post later after I’ve read the other responses).
ETA: Oops, I thought the cut was 1950, not 1955. So strike Hank and put in Aretha Franklin’s version of Otis Redding’s Respect.
Number 1 on my post-1955 list is Crazy. I like Patsy Cline’s version best, but it’s such a comfortable tune that even Willie sounds good when he sings it.
I Will Always Love You. Dolly Parton’s songwriting skills are too often overlooked.
As for the complaint that the Songbook is too monochromatic, I’ll nominate at least a half-dozen songs by Stevie Wonder, another half-dozen from Otis Redding, more than a dozen by Holland-Dozier-Holland, and a similar number for Smokey Robinson.
You Are the Sunshine of My Life by Stevie Wonder
**Rock and Roll Music **by Chuck Berry
**New York, New York **by Fred Ebb and John Kander
Where Have All the Flowers Gone by Pete Seeger
This Land is Your Land Woody Guthrie. I didn’t see it listed (just watch as it is) and it deserves to be in there.
Leaving on a Jet Plane by John Denver.
Walk On By so I can use this link, but half of Burt Bacharach’s stuff.
Georgia On My Mind - Ray Charles
Walk On The Wild Side - Lou Reed
I’m not sure “American Songbook” means what a lot of the respondents here think it means. It doesn’t mean “best of show.” “American Songbook” means it would function well in a micro-specific milieu, like at a piano bar or a jazz nightclub, and a lot of the songs suggested here just wouldn’t. I like Dylan and Chuck Berry a lot more than I like the Carpenters, but the Carpenters are unquestionably more of a piece with Tin Pan Alley than most of their musical betters are. I like ZZ Top a lot more than David Frishberg, but Frishberg is credibly American Songbook and ZZ Top is not.
My three picks:
“Peel Me a Grape”
“Do You Miss New York?”
“Superstar”
I’m surprised some of these haven’t been mentioned yet:
Good Vibrations - The Beach Boys
Billie Jean, Thriller - Michael Jackson
What the World Needs Now Is Love - Jackie DeShannon/Burt Bacharach/Hal David
Lean on Me - Bill Withers
The mention of Bacharach (and the Carpenters) reminds me of two more:
Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head
Close to You
I’ll pick that nit.
I think The Great American Songbook feels like “being jazzy” should be definitional, but it’s simply a side-effect of the fact that the artists who performed those songs came from or were directly influenced by jazz.
Or, to put it another way, TGASB is, by in large, jazz/pop because that was the popular American idiom at the time. It makes complete sense for a more contemporary “Song Book” to reflect the idioms of its time.
Limiting it to “jazzy” songs turns it into an exercise in mimicry and nostalgia mining, instead of trying to identify the music of the people, which, I think, is what TGASB is all about.