States Of The Art

Songwriters like to brag about their home states.
Just like non-songwriters do.
Looking at titles containing names of states in the USA,
here are some observations. . . .

Nobody sings about North Carolina or South Carolina.
Just Carolina. Lots of people do.
(Ditto "Dakota." There's a great song by that title in Disney's
"The One And Only Genuine Original Family Band.")

It's more artsy and pop to say "Jersey" than to say "New Jersey."

There are many compositions about Alabama,
but often the name is altered in some folksy way.

Songs about Hawai'i have been an ongoing fad
since long before it gained statehood in 1959.

Many songwriters have Georgia on their minds,
but often it's difficult to tell whether a guy is
thinking about the state or about a girl he once knew.

As you may know,
Tennessee thinks it's three separate states.
But these three songwriters know better.

I'm not sure how the age of the moon in Virginia compares to those in other states,
but it has been determined that it was here before the white man came.

Poetically (?), Louisiana becomes LEW-zee-ann-uh.
It's because people who don't speak French think that
Louis XIV pronounced his name "Lewis." He didn't.

Some people don't know music, but they know sports.
High schools from many states have adopted the
University of Wisconsin's fight song as their own.

Ah, Kentucky. Colorful state. . . .
Bluegrass. Green River. Orange sheet music.
But no monopoly on rednecks.

Music Trivia:   Walter Donaldson was not from Indiana.

Music Trivia:   The composer of this song was not named A. Ballad.

~ FURTHER READING ~

Charles Raymond Offenberg was a prolific songwriter of the 20th and early 21st centuries.
He shared his stage name—Ray Charles—with R&B artist Ray Charles Robinson,
who was a dozen years his junior but who proceded him in death by nearly a dozen years.

His Ray Charles Singers were featured for many years on Perry Como's TV show.
In the early 1960s, they performed a novelty song, written by him and titled
"Fifty Nifty United States."
Later, the song was expanded to include listing the states in alphabetical order.

Many years after I memorized the state names, I ran across the sheet music for this song—
the original version.
Later, when I heard of the extended version, I learned that
schoolchildren all over the country had used it as a mnemonic to name the states.