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Place Names in Number 1 Singles

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    #26
    Originally posted by Satchmo Distel View Post
    The Smiths never got to #1 but Panic is a very annoying example of place names being strung together witlessly. Easily their worst single, and a sign of the rot setting in.
    One of my mates always reckoned it was because (apart from Grasmere, which I always thought was thrown in for poetic licence) they were all places the band were playing on an upcoming tour, but I've just checked this properly for the first time and it's bollocks - it was released in May 1986 and they played Dundee in September 1985, Dublin in February 1986 and Carlisle in October 1986, on three separate tours, but Humberside not since March 1984. Leeds, London and Birmingham obviously had a few more permutations, I haven't checked them all.

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      #27
      Originally posted by treibeis View Post
      I'd left England before it was released, so I'm not entirely sure:

      Did Peter And The Test Tube Babies' "Shit British Tour" ever get to Number One?
      I think it was held off the top by Joe Dolce.

      This is quite amusing, however:

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/articl...g-donald-trump

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        #28
        Wilbert Harrison's Kansas City was a US #1. New Orleans is mentioned in House of the Rising Sun (and in other #1 songs surely.) And — still with the 60s' — Eve of Destruction namechecks Selma Alabama, Red China and the Jordan River, while Ode to Billie Joe features Choctaw Ridge and the Tallahatchie Bridge (not sure if they're real places) but Tupelo is.
        Last edited by Amor de Cosmos; 03-11-2017, 17:23.

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          #29
          James Brown had a bit of a habit of releasing singles in which he sang a bunch of names of cities he was planning to tour and/or names of radio stations he wanted to play the song. I would assume at least one of these must have made #1 on a R&B charts, but I'm buggered if I'm going to check, there are several of them (I did just look up his version of 'Night Train', though, and that one didn't).

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            #30
            A couple more oldies. Me and Bobby McGee: Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Kentucky, California, Salinas. And Winchester Cathedral,

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              #31
              Originally posted by Gerontophile View Post
              Unfortunately, I can't find any reference to "(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66" ever being a Number 1.
              Similarly, I don't think Billy Bragg's Go Motoring on the A13 would even have topped a chart in which it was the only entry.

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                #32
                Kokomo by the Beach Boys, US #1, has 12: Aruba, Jamaica, Bermuda, Bahama, Key Largo, Montego, Florida Keys, Kokomo, Key West, Martinique, Montserrat...and..."Port au Prince, I want to catch a glimpse"

                Fortunately, Brian Wilson was not involved in this monstrosity in any capacity so it does not stain his legacy.
                Last edited by Satchmo Distel; 04-11-2017, 10:16.

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                  #33
                  Originally posted by Jah Womble View Post
                  Similarly, I don't think Billy Bragg's Go Motoring on the A13 would even have topped a chart in which it was the only entry.
                  I bloody love that song.

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                    #34
                    Ha - it has a certain Braggian charm. I recall a very young version of the man performing it on some early-eighties TV show with a map superimposed behind him, marking off the stops. Can't remember the show, though.

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                      #35
                      Route 66 includes San Bernardino, if we ever do a niche thread on sites of mass killing in chart hits (#14 on Billboard)

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                        #36
                        Originally posted by Satchmo Distel View Post
                        Route 66 includes San Bernardino, if we ever do a niche thread on sites of mass killing in chart hits (#14 on Billboard)
                        Given that Oklahoma City had it's federal building bombing and Joplin, Missouri has had a number of deadly tornadoes, you perhaps ought to be worried about what's coming your way if you live in Barstow or Flagstaff.

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                          #37
                          Did "By The Time I Get To Phoenix" get to number 1 anywhere? Tulsa, Oklahoma, Albuquerque...

                          Think Gene Pitney's "24 hours from Tulsa was a british number 1.

                          Think "St. Louis Blues" was a huge hit in the 20s/30s. although whether they kept close track of numbers in the, er, "race records" market then, I don't know.

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