by Evelyn J. Mocbeichel
By now most vacationers travelers have visited their favorite place for relaxation or have explored new locales before the summer ended. Maybe they went to the seashore, on a cruise or to a mountain resort to spend a week or two. Then there are those that prefer the quiet, less crowded times of year to travel or perhaps are not fans of hot weather outings. Some families like the autumn for the beauty of nature and the gorgeous foliage to travel to areas where the scenery offers magnificent displays to enjoy. Then again others love to wait until winter when this snowy season provides amble time for sports like skiing, snowboarding, snow shoeing or snowmobiling. Whatever your destination preference that you already saw or may have lined up for the coming months, there might be a song that describes that state or location. 
It is easy to recall many popular songs we liked and used to sing even though we may never have been to that location.
I remember one trip I took with our daughter to visit her friends in West Virginia one summer. As we crossed the border into that state, my daughter reached for a CD and popped it into the car’s player. She had put in a John Denver CD and the next thing we heard was …take me home West Virginia, to the place where I belong… She had taken this CD along purposely just to hear that song as we visited a state neither of us had been in before. When you think about it, there is a long list of songs that have the name of a state or place in them that we know well and are familiar with the destination being mentioned. Here are a few that come to mind off the top of my head. See how many answers you can guess. Some of these songs go way back for decades and are considered true Golden Oldies.
- Where did Tony Bennett leave his heart?
- Who did Ray Charles have on his mind?
- What seaside resort did Patti Page long to return to?
- Whose state flower, the yellow rose, has a song about it that came out in 1955?
- Where did singer Freddy Cannon’s “lassie” reside in his song?
- Another Freddy Cannon hit opened with lyrics “Way Down Yonder in…”
- It seems Freddy Cannon liked destination songs and they were all big hits for him as is this one about a theme park in New Jersey that was named?
- Their first musical, named for a state, was written by Rodgers and Hammerstein and was an instant Broadway hit.
- Frank Sinatra made this city titled song is signature one, even though he originally came from New Jersey.
- Among Elvis Presley’s vast catalog of hits was a song he sang that was also a movie title that he starred in. It started with the word “Viva”.
- Go back in time to 1957 to guess the Mama and Papas song of a state they were “dreaming” about.
- Let’s go to a country song by George Strait that was made in 1987 and talked about “All my Ex’s” that live in this state that rhymes?
Answers: 1) San Francisco • 2) Georgia • 3) Old Cape Cod • 4) Texas • 5) Tallahassee (Florida’s state capitol) • 6) New Orleans • 7) Palisades Park (It opened in 1898 until 1971 and was located on top of the New Jersey Palisades, overlooking the Hudson River) • 8) Oklahoma • 9) New York • 10) Las Vegas • 11) California • 12) Texas
