Two For Tuesday-Part Two
It's Tuesday again, which means I bring you two tracks that have something in common. Today, it's a couple of list songs. You know about list songs, don't you? Instead of lyrics, you just get a list of something. Think of Tom Lehrer-The Elements, or more recently, Billy Joel-We Didn't Start The Fire. Now you know what I mean. Oh, how about I've Been Everywhere, which they're using in a couple of travel commercials lately. Those commercials use Johnny Cash, but I grew up listening to the Statler Brothers do it. So, what two lists do I have for you? How about two different songs that list states? The first is The Boogie Woogie March by Buddy Morrow And His Orchestra from Night Train (RCA Victor LPM-1427, 1957). And the second is Allan Sherman parodying Holiday For Strings as Holiday For States from Allan In Wonderland (Warner Brothers W1539, 1964). I like both of them and I'm sure you will, too. I didn't bother to count. Do both of these list all fifty states? I'm not sure... I know that first one predates Alaska and Hawaii, but they get Alaska in there somehow... Here's you link. And here's the link to last week's two-fer.
I've always associated I've Been Everywhere with Hank Snow (# 1 C&W in 1962) and to a lesser extent Lynn Anderson (# 16 in 1970).
ReplyDeleteAs far as States and Cities there's James Brown's great version of Night Train, Perry Como's Delaware, the 30 different version's of Tommy Facenda's High School USA, and Freddy Cannon did an entire album on cities.
Thanks again Ernie, Buddy Morrow and his gang sound great and Allan Sherman goofy as usual.
Other than the Johnny Cash song, my favorite "list" song was always "Life Is A Rock (But The Radio Rolled Me)" by Reunion (Joey Levine of Ohio Express fame). I especially love it at the end when he seems completely out of breath.
ReplyDeleteWhat can I say? I was a Bubblegum child.