Althouse: Happy Birthday, America.

July 3, 2026

Happy Birthday, America.

From There I Ruined It:

@thereiruinedit
Happy Birthday, America 🇺🇸
♬ original sound - There I Ruined It

46 comments:

Peachy+2 said...: One Steve Miller song plus some Eagles would have aided it all.; 7/3/26, 8:50 AM
RCOCEAN II said...: That was clever. Of course he just could've played "I've been Everywhere" by Hank Snow.; 7/3/26, 9:14 AM
RCOCEAN II said...: Missing - Do you know the way to San Jose. Shuffle Off to Buffalo. What's Made Milwaukee Famous (Has Made a Loser Out of Me); 7/3/26, 9:21 AM
boatbuilder said...: My daughter used to live in Atlanta, and one time as we were driving we tried to think of all the songs we knew about Georgia. Lots of them. Lots of really good ones.

Then we tried to come up with songs about Connecticut (where I lived and she grew up). Zero, zilch, nada. Neither Spotify nor Siri could come up with any, either.; 7/3/26, 9:40 AM
Saint Croix said...: Johnny Cash tag? I think he did four cities by himself.

I like how the song starts off with Jackson, because that city is a major character in that song.

Missing - Do you know the way to San Jose

I love that song. San Jose is another major character. You could also get L..A. out of that song.; 7/3/26, 9:46 AM
Saint Croix said...: Allentown (Billy Joel)
Athens, GA ("Love Shack")
Charlotte ("Brick")
Cripple Creek (The Band)
Garden Grove (Sublime)

The Grateful Dead did Buffalo, Dallas, Chicago, NYC, Houston, Detroit, and New Orleans, all in one song (Truckin')

Huey Louis and the News did NYC, L.A., D.C., San Antonio, Boston, Baton Rouge, Tulsa, Austin, Oklahoma City, Seattle, and San Francisco, all in one song ("Heart of Rock and Roll").

The band also recorded a bunch of other cities for the final shout out. On the official record, it was Cleveland. And Detroit, too. But on my radio station, it was Charlotte. And Raleigh too.; 7/3/26, 9:48 AM
wendybar said...: boatbuilder-
There are a few songs about Connecticut..Here's one...

"Connecticut" by Judy Garland and Bing Crosby – A classic song praising the state, mentioning Yale University and its citizens
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoSgwEvhh9g

Here's a list
https://www.allamericanatlas.com/songs-about-connecticut/; 7/3/26, 9:54 AM
Saint Croix said...: The song's got San Jose; 7/3/26, 9:54 AM
Wilbur said...: When it's peach-picking time in Georgia
Apple-picking time in Tennessee
Cotton-picking time in MIssissippi
Everybody picks on me

When it's roundup time in Texas
The cowboys yell whoopee
And down in old Alabama
It's gal-picking time to me

Jimmie Rodgers; 7/3/26, 10:01 AM
Saint Croix said...: The Kinks might have the record, with 15. Rock and Roll Cities

Rock and Roll Ladies, Here We Come.
Does Anybody Know the Way to Madison?; 7/3/26, 10:04 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Atlanta is a hellhole. There I’ve ruined it.; 7/3/26, 10:16 AM
RCOCEAN II said...: Cities no one sings about - Pittsburg. Cleveland. Akron. Indianolpolis. Cinncinatti. Portland. Salt lake City. Wilmington. Baltimore. Denver. Charleston. Mobile. San Diego.

The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle. Unforgettable for its dishonesty. But its a hard city to sing about -attle is hard to rhyme.; 7/3/26, 10:32 AM
RCOCEAN II said...: Was there a song about boston or Philadelphia? Hard to imagine.; 7/3/26, 10:33 AM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: Reno!!...I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die.; 7/3/26, 10:43 AM
Big Mike said...: You got Santa Fe, but you missed Atchison and Topeka.; 7/3/26, 10:52 AM
Joe Bar said...: "Cleveland---It's not Detroit!"; 7/3/26, 10:53 AM
Lawcruiter said...: Love it!; 7/3/26, 10:54 AM
Nancy Reyes said...: RCOCEAN II says there are no songs about Philadelphia or Boston. Guess he never heard of Elton John's Philadelphia Freedom, or Dirty water (I love that dirty water Boston you're my home); 7/3/26, 10:55 AM
Saint Croix said...: Cities no one sings about - Pittsburg. Cleveland. Akron. Indianolpolis. Cinncinatti. Portland. Salt lake City. Wilmington. Baltimore. Denver. Charleston. Mobile. San Diego.

RCO, you can check your math here.

Baltimore is a big city for songs. Including, oops, the Star-Spangled Banner.; 7/3/26, 11:02 AM
bagoh20 said...: “He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.” ~ Thomas Jefferson - Declaration of Independence.

Just one of the things those men were willing to risk being executed over.; 7/3/26, 11:02 AM
Louie the Looper said...: Cleveland Rocks by Ian Hunter. It was the theme for the Drew Carey Ahow.; 7/3/26, 11:02 AM
rcommal said...: rcocean: The Dropkick Murphy's did a song about Boston. It's amusing. And of course Elton John wrote "Philadelphia Freedom" for our 200th.

I'm resisting the rabbit hole of trying to find songs for states from every state in the union. Too susceptible to this sort of thing in the past. I know better. I'd be at it all day.

Regards,

Lori (reader_iam); 7/3/26, 11:05 AM
rcommal said...: OMG, I loved the 1979 Ian Hunter album "You're Never Alone with a Schizophrenic," which included "Cleveland Rocks."

See, this is the problem with a post like this. It would be earworms all the way down, up, and back again for me.

I need to get my ass out of here, right now!

Regards,

Lori (reader_iam)

(But yes, there are songs about Indianapolis... ); 7/3/26, 11:09 AM
Vance said...: I think there's only one song that mentions Salt Lake City that is even remotely popular; I think the Beach Boys did it. But to tell you how popular, I can't even remember it.

What was up with the question mark for Boise?; 7/3/26, 11:16 AM
Saint Croix said...: I need to get my ass out of here, right now!

Sitting on a toilet
eating a hot dog with jalapenos
singing about Cleveland
happy Birthday, America; 7/3/26, 11:17 AM
wendybar said...: O/T, but a Happy 4th from Japan!!! Beautiful!!

https://x.com/rosarinn/status/2073013602311930120?s=20; 7/3/26, 11:18 AM
boatbuilder said...: Wendybar--you can see why we didn't know any of those songs. Except Yankee Doodle. I remembered that one, but we were talking more about songs you might hear on the radio.

I told her about "Oh Atlanta." She had never heard the song or about Little Feat. But she liked it.; 7/3/26, 11:20 AM
Mr. Majestyk said...: In case anyone wants a song that mentions Johnson City, Tennessee, there's Wagon Wheel. Darius Rucker, formerly of Hootie and the Blowfish, did a version of it.; 7/3/26, 11:24 AM
boatbuilder said...: Aside from "Dirty Water" there is Jonathan Richmond and The Modern Lovers' "Road Runner." And there is the band Boston.; 7/3/26, 11:27 AM
boatbuilder said...: "God didn't make little green apples,
And it don't rain, in Indianapolis
In the summer time..."; 7/3/26, 11:30 AM
harrogate said...: For boatbuilder and Wendy Bar, here's an absolute banger (hehe) about Connecticut: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URrhysxSOOs&list=PL4WkzCp3LnDIeCMP9vG9nwXVI6qCxu5cD&index=1; 7/3/26, 11:37 AM
Jon Ericson said...: And I was out on the road late at night
I seen my pretty Alice in every headlight
Alice, Dallas Alice
I've been from Tucson to Tucumcari
Tehachapi to Tonapah
Driven every kind of rig that's ever been made
Driven the back roads
So I wouldn't get weighed; 7/3/26, 11:56 AM
Whiskeybum said...: “The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle. Unforgettable for its dishonesty. But it’s a hard city to sing about -attle is hard to rhyme.”

How about:

Sing distinctly, we don't wanna
Buy our album, we're Nirvana
A garage band from Seattle
Well, it sure beats raisin' cattle
Yeah

Weird Al; 7/3/26, 12:00 PM
Third Coast said...: "I've got a gal in Kalamazoo, zoo zoo zoo." Thanks Glenn Miller and the Modernaires.; 7/3/26, 12:05 PM
Lazarus said...: Those "little green apples" convinced a generation that Minneapolis rhymes with Indianapolis.

No songs about Denver? "Please Come to Boston" is also about Denver, but the city also had a singer who renamed himself after it.

No songs about Mobile? Bob Dylan begs to differ. "Going Mobile" by the Who doesn't count though.

"All the Way from Memphis" has as much to do with the UK (Bradford, Liverpool) as the US. I loved the record but never understood the lyrics.

You can learn about Glenn Campbell's "Town Trilogy" -- Wichita, Galveston, Phoenix -- online or hear a "City Medley" sung by Campbell and Andy Williams.; 7/3/26, 12:09 PM
donald said...: It breaks my heart to think of the hell hole Atlanta has become. Horrific frankly.; 7/3/26, 12:15 PM
Dr Weevil said...: I named a Connecticut song off the top of my head, which wendybar's list includes, while omitting the original authors. The Hoosier Hotshots (1932-79) sang "Connie's Got Connections in Connecticut", along with "From the Indies to the Andes in his Undies", "I Like Bananas Because They Have No Bones", "I've Got a Bimbo down on the Bamboo Isle", "When There's Tears in the Eyes of a Potato", and the one I've mentioned here more than once "Them Hill-Billies Are Mountain Williams Now". A vocal quartet accompanied by slide whistle, clarinet, and banjo, they are well worth listening to, since they pretty much invented the genre continued by Spike Jones and still going today with Weird Al Yankovich.; 7/3/26, 12:17 PM
donald said...: 50 years ago, we had a huge Boy Scout Jamboree at Fort Gillem in Forest Park Georgia. It was my last big Boy Scout activity. I thought about that about a week ago. I’m gonna drop that on Facebook tomorrow, it will draw a couple dozen old fogies out of the woodwork. Which will be some Americana right there!; 7/3/26, 12:20 PM
donald said...: Norfolk, Raleigh, Charlotte, Rock Hill, Atlanta, Birmingham, New Orleans, Houston, Albuquerque, Los Angeles. More Americana.; 7/3/26, 12:41 PM
FWBuff said...: Mac Davis, “Happiness is Lubbock, Texas in the Rearview Mirror” although we’re driving happily toward Lubbock at this very moment!; 7/3/26, 12:46 PM
Michael said...: Shuffle off to Buffalo

Let’s take a train to St. Paul
Let’s get away from it all.; 7/3/26, 1:10 PM
John henry said...: Really?

I mean Really?

Nobody mentioned Route 66? Lots of people have have done it over the past 80 years or so but Asleep at the Wheel, when Elizabeth was still with them (not to take anything away from Katie!) has to be the gold standard.

https://youtu.be/vifUaZQL8pc?si=La2UKL1bsovaLZty

In 1966 I actually hitchhiked the length of Route 66 From Chicago to LA. In 67, Drove it with 4 close friends in a VW, starting in Albany NY both times.

11 cities, 1 song.

If you ever plan to motor West
Travel my way take the highway, that's the best
Get your kicks on Route Sixty Six
It winds from Chicago to L.A
More than two thousand miles all the way
Get your kicks on Route Sixty Six
Now you go through Saint Looey
And Joplin, Missouri
And Oklahoma City looks mighty pretty
You'll see Amarillo
Gallup, New Mexico
Flagstaff, Arizona
Don't forget Winona
Kingman, Barstow
San Bernandino
Won't you get hip to this timely tip
When you make that California trip
Get your kicks on Route Sixty Six

John Henry; 7/3/26, 2:17 PM
John henry said...: And for some reason, I have had John Denver boring a hole in my ear for the past 2-3 days

Almost Heaven, West Virginia, blue ridge mountains, Shenendoah River.

Etc.

John Henry; 7/3/26, 2:19 PM
Temujin said...: "Kathy", I said as we boarded a greyhound in Pittsburgh. "Michigan seems like a dream to me now. It took me four days to hitchhike from Saginaw, I've come to look for America."; 7/3/26, 2:30 PM
Lazarus said...: Happiness would have been Lubbock straight ahead for Buddy Holly.; 7/3/26, 2:47 PM
Captain BillieBob said...: Shipping up to Boston
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Nq8eotnwq0; 7/3/26, 3:07 PM