With a tip o' the hat to the World Serious, last week's question asked for a song that mentions either Detroit or St. Louis in its lyrics.
The winning entry, selected at random, was from Steve K. of Ithaca, who nominated "Meet Me in St. Louis." He gets a $10 gift certificate from Small World Music.
"Meet Me in St. Louis" was tied for most oftened mentioned, with "Dancing In the Street", by Martha and the Vandellas ("can't forget the Motor City").
Ironic that St. Louis and Detroit tie in our series. Not in the W.S., though.
Other songs we had in mind were "St. Louis Blues", by W.C. Handy (and Louis Armstrong), "East St. Louis Toodleoo", by Steely Dan, and "Detroit City", a country classic by Bobby Bare ('by day I make the cars/ by night I make the bars").
We're going to keep the contest open with a special twist. Name a song that includes BOTH Detroit and St. Louis in its lyrics. It was a radio hit in 1959, and again in 1978 (by another artist), and inspired a Beatles semi-parody in 1968.
Send your entry directly to Small World Music at sworldmu@twcny.rr.com.
Good luck!
Stephen Burke
for Ithaca Blog
2 comments:
Interesting you should credit Steely Dan with East St. Louis Toodle-oo. That's who I first heard it from, too, but in fact it's a Duke Ellington standard from the 1930s. There are three different recordings of it on The Okeh Ellington (Columbia C2K 46177).
hi Jon,
thanks for the amplification. I was too lazy to look up to see if Duke Ellington called it exactly the same thing. He did. It is a great tune and was his first hit.
Thanks for reading, & writing!
Steve
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