Top Ten - "New York" songs

The Grammy’s were held a few weeks ago, and Jay –Z’s Empire State of Mind song was widely tipped to win song of the year. It didn’t, but it picked up a rap award. This track is an ode to New York, which got me thinking about “New York” songs.

So my top ten this week is “New York”. However, my list is about songs with New York in the title, rather than songs that are necessarily about New York. Some on the list below aren’t really about NY, and there are many great New York songs that don’t feature New York in the title.

I have never been to New York, but know many friends and colleagues that have, and they all speak very highly of the place.

PS – list has been prepared very quickly today, apologies for any grammatical errors.


10 - Englishman in New York – Sting
A search of my music collection revealed that I only had 9 songs with “New York” in the title. So I had to find another, and this track from Sting just sneaks into the list.

9 - New York Telephone Conversation – Lou Reed
I think in an earlier post I talked about picking up Lou Reed’s Transformer last year and quite enjoying it. This is a quirky little song from it, but most enjoyable.

8 - New York – U2
From their great return to form album “All that you can’t leave behind”, this New York song is a great. Bono’s vocals suit the track beautifully, as he describes New York in song.

7 - Piazza, New York Catcher – Belle and Sebastian
I have a few friends that are big B & S fans, but I have never quite taken the plunge although I suspect if I did, I would really like their music. However, the quirky soundtrack to the film Juno contains a couple of their tracks, including this one, which is an enjoyable listen from start to finish.

6 - New York City Cops – The Strokes
The Strokes burst onto the music scene in 2001 with their blistering debut album, but it almost could have gone wrong for them. Their album was scheduled for release in September, and contained this song, which contains the line “New York City Cops, they ain’t too smart”, which if you remember back to what was going on in September 2001, was not going to endear you to the American public. As I understand it, the US release of their album was quickly changed to remove this track. Despite the lyric, it’s a great rock track.

5 - Sammy and Doofus and our Man in New York – James Reyne
A media release on Reyne’s website describes this song as “raucous white funk”, and that description alone is probably enough to make you worry about the worthiness of the song. Luckily for me though, I was pleasantly surprised about how great this song is. I have been a fan of Reyne’s solo work for a while, but he usually delivers ballads and rock songs, so this was a huge departure for him, but no less enjoyable, particularly as the lyrics were as cynical as ever. I am also led to believe that the doofus in the song is Richard Wilkins…hehehe

4 - New York State of Mind – Billy Joel
Although some people think he is a bit daggy, I like a lot of Billy Joel’s stuff, and this particular ode to New York is a fantastic ballad…not sure what else to say.


So now we get to the top three, and these songs stand out well above the rest of the list. All three could have made it to the number one spot, but there can only be one number one…


3 - New York Mining Disaster – The Bee Gees
An amazing, shivers down your spine type of song, this ballad takes place in a mine, and one of the trapped people, fearing they are going to die, produces a photo of his wife to show to Mr Jones. Sadly, last year there were several mining disasters – Chile had a happy ending for some, New Zealand not so. And now with the Christchurch earthquake, some would be going through this same feeling of being trapped in rubble. Its probably more poignant than ever now.

2 - New York, New York – Frank Sinatra
Time to inject some swing into the list, and where else to go but to Ol’ Blue Eyes himself. What can you say about this classic? Its infectious, it’s a toe tapper, and could very easily have made it into number one.


1- Fairytale of New York – The Pogues
I have given top spot to this classic Pogues track. One of the best Christmas songs of all time, this song is about some Irish immigrants, feuding in New York City at Christmas time. It is a wonderful song, bitter sweet at times, and uniquely Pogues, taking from the Irish folk tradition and giving it their own take.