Top 10 List Of The Most Sung About Places In The World
Going back to the time of The Late Show with David Letterman I had become obsessed about two things, Stupid Pet Tricks and Top Ten Lists. Although it might be more visually entertaining showing you a Rottweiler fit five tennis balls into its toothy mouth I have decided to focus this week’s blog on a Top Ten List I found, one that includes two things I love, London and music.
I started digging into which city or place had been mentioned the most in songs and found a study was conducted by Celebrity Cruises, which scanned the lyrics of over 200,000 songs that charted in the Top 40 of the US Billboard Hot 100 and UK Official Singles chart since 1960 to find mentions of cities, countries, towns, neighbourhoods and states.
Before scrolling down to see the list any guesses of the Top 3 cities?
So in the true fashion of David Letterman …counting backwards, here is the Top Ten List of Most Sung About Places.
THE TOP TEN MOST SUNG ABOUT PLACES IN THE WORLD
10. Rome ~ 30 Songs
9. Brooklyn ~ 38 Songs
8. New Orleans ~ 43 Songs
7. Miami ~ 46 Songs
6. Paris ~ 54 Songs
5. Hollywood ~ 66 Songs
4 California ~ 68 Songs
3. Los Angeles ~ 88 Songs
2 London ~ 101 Songs (oh..so close)
…and the Number 1 City Mentioned 161 times …. (insert drumroll here)…. NEW YORK!!
As you can imagine, in different genres of music the places sung about skewed a little differently for instance rap listed New York, LA and Atlanta most. I personally was surprised that Memphis and Nashville did not make it in the Top Ten. Not sure the Top US Country Chart was included in this study or not. As a die-hard country music fan I challenge you to listen to any country song that doesn’t mention cold beer, trucks, tailgates, faded bluejeans, hot summer nights, sugar-shakers (girls) or the above mentioned two cities.
A Few Fun Facts I Unearthed About Music And Cities.
Canadian rapper Drake mentions the most places in the world in his music with 29 places in his songs, including my hometown Toronto (whoop whoop) on tracks such as Summer Sixteen, Successful and Pop That.
Jay Z comes in a close second (27 places), Elvis Presley (23 places), The Beach Boys (22 places and I am guessing that they are all in sunny Southern California), Public Enemy (20 places), The Rolling Stones (16) and Rod Stewart (14 places)
My London State Of Mind Playlist
I have my own London Spotify Playlist that puts me in a London state of mind. So if you feel like turning up the volume and being transported to the streets of London have a listen. Songs include; London Calling by The Clash (duh), The City by Ed Sheeran, Hometown Glory by Adele and of course no London playlist could be complete without Werewolves of London by Warren Zevon.
Ed Sheeran in concert in Toronto
There is a song for every city and for every city a song. The true magic of music is that it connects people around the world. Happy listening.
Better luck next year London.