City 2 City – Ramblin’ Tunes

In this (remastered) episode of Ramblin’ Tunes you hear tracks about artist’s home towns and cities around the globe.

TITLE	ARTIST	COMMENTS
Nutbush City Limits	Ike & Tina Turner	“Nutbush City Limits” one of the last hits that husband-wife R&B duo Ike & Tina Turner released together August 1973. Tina Turner wrote it to commemorate the rural little village of Nutbush, Tennessee were she grew up.
Hometown Glory	Adele	Adele wrote this love song to her hometown of West Norwood, South London as a still-at-home teenager.
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road	Elton John	“Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” is a ballad written by English musician Elton John and songwriter Bernie Taupin, The titular road is a reference to The Wizard of Oz film and book series. Taupin expresses a desire to get back to one’s “roots”, to leave Oz and get back to his childhood farm in Lincolnshire.
Durham Town	Roger Whittaker	“Durham Town (The Leavin’)” is written by British singer Roger Whittaker. The song was released as a single in 1969. Its original title was “The Leaver”. Roger was born in Kenya, lived in Ireland for ten years until 2006. He was very successful in Germany and moved to the south of France with his great love Natalie O’Brien.
Streets of London	Ralph Mctell	The song was inspired by McTell’s experiences busking and hitchhiking throughout Europe, especially in Paris and the individual stories are taken from Parisians. McTell was originally going to call the song “Streets of Paris” but eventually London was chosen, because he realised there was another song called “The Poor People of Paris”. McTell’s song contrasts the common problems of everyday people with those of the homeless, lonely, elderly, ignored and forgotten members of society. McTell left the song off his debut album, Eight Frames a Second, since he regarded it as too depressing.
Il Est Cinq Heures, Paris S’eveille	Jacques Dutronc	“Il est cinq heures, Paris s’éveille” (English: “It is five o’clock, Paris awakens”) takes inspiration from song by Marc-Antoine Madeleine Désaugiers: “Tableau de Paris à cinq heures du matin” in 1802, Jacques Dutronc and Jacques Lanzmann modernised the lyrics with less soothing scenes of trucks, cars and strippers and reexamined familiar Parisian landmarks in the sixties. Thomas Dutronc, his son, recorded in 2007 “J’aime plus Paris”. In 2022 father and son recorded together a new version of “Il est cinq heures, Paris s’éveille”.
Bruxelles je t’aime	Angèle	“Bruxelles je t’aime” (transl. Brussels I love you) is a song by Belgian singer-songwriter Angèle, born in 1995 in Ukkel as Angèle Joséphine Aimée Van Laeken. She composed “Bruxelles je t’aime” during the first COVID lockdown to express her love for her hometown where all her family and childhood friends live. The song was released in October 2021. While she might miss her home city, she mainly lives in Paris.
Big City Life	Mattafix	This song is about the hard life in a metropolitan city. It explains how living is hard, and how everyone’s on the move. The British band Mattafix won with “Big City Life” the Polish ‘Sopot Music Festival Grand Prix‘ in 2006.
Georgia On My Mind	Ray Charles	The song was written and first recorded in 1930 band leader Hoagy Carmichael for his sister Georgia Carmichael. Ray Charles, born in Albany, Georgia, made it a #1 hit and today it has become the official song of the state.
L.A. is my lady	Frank Sinatra	“L.A. Is My Lady”, recorded in Los Angeles, is the title song of Frank Sinatra’s final solo studio album, released in 1984 and produced by Quincy Jones.
Empire State of Mind	Jay-Z & Alicia Keys	This song was originally from Brooklyn-native singer/songwriter Angela Hunte who lived in the same building where Jay-Z lived. Jay-Z penned new verses mentioning Angela’s place “560 State Street” and claiming “I’m the new Sinatra”.
New York, New York	Frank Sinatra	Frank Sinatra’s 1979 version of the theme song “New York, New York” is amongst the best-known songs about New York City. It’s is written by John Kander and Fred Ebb for Martin Scorsese’s movie starring Liza Minnelli and Robert De Niro and praising the “City that never sleeps”.
Summer in the city	The Lovin’ Spoonful	Here’s another song talking about nightlife but in a big city during a hot summer. The Lovin’ Spoonful released “Summer in the City” in July 1966. Based on his younger brother Mark’s poem, founder John Sebastian wrote the song together with base player Steve Boone. They added sound effects to mimic the city noises.
Twist à Saint-Tropez	Les Chats Sauvages	Les Chats Sauvages (The Wild Cats) with Dick Rivers (Hervé Forneri) on vocals was one of the first rock and roll bands in France formed in 1961. The song is a hymn to the crazy nights at Saint-Tropez, at that time a small port on the French Riviera.
We’re from Barcelona	I’m From Barcelona	‘I’m from Barcelona’ is a Swedish 29 member band from south of Sweden. The song “We’re From Barcelona” is an homage to the Spanish waiter Manuel, a character on BBC Television comedy series Fawlty Towers with John Cleese stating: “He’s from Barcelona”.
Barcelona	Freddy Mercury and Montserrat Caballé	The Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballe requested her friend Freddie Mercury to write a song about her hometown Barcelona, which he did. Montserrat Caballe performed it at the 1992 Summer Olympic Games opening ceremony with Freddie Mercury’s vocals on a backing track since he had recently died from AIDS.
Amsterdam	Jacques Brel	The legendary grand Jacques Brel live in the Paris Olympia in 1964. He first wrote this song about the sailors sailors on shore leave situated in Belgian port of Zeebrugge, but moved to Amsterdam as “it sounded better to the ear”.
On My Way to Harlem	Gregory Porter	Gregory Porter born and raised in California by his mother who encouraged him: “Sing, baby, sing! He moved on and performed at Harlem club St. Nick’s Pub.

Sources

The information sources of the song facts include, but are not limited to, Wikipedia, songfacts.com, discogs.com, secondhandsongs.com, YouTube and artists’ related websites.