A US Gazetteer in Song - S to Z Quiz

Answer: Scott McKenzie

"San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)" was the huge surprise hit of 1967. Written by John Phillips (of Mamas And Papas fame) it was the unofficial anthem of the Monterey Pop Festival.
Scott McKenzie had played with Phillips in an earlier band, The Journeymen.
The song was a number one hit in the UK and reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100.
Often seen as an anthem for 'flower power', it has been extensively used on many films and TV shows.

Answer: Gene Pitney

"Twenty-Four Hours From Tulsa" was yet another song created by the hits machine that was Hal David and Burt Bacarach.
Pitney was a songwriter himself, indeed he co-wrote "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" with Bacarach and David in 1962.
The song was a UK number five and reached number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Answer: Blondie

Written by Debbie Harry and Nigel Harrison, "Union City Blue" was on Blondie's 1979 "Eat to the Beat" album. Harry had also appeared that year in the murder movie "Union City."
The song reached number 13 in the UK Singles Chart in late 1979. It was not released in the USA.
Blondie first recorded in 1976 at the height of the 'new wave' movement. They had four US Billboard Hot 100 number one hits and topped the UK pop charts five times.
The song was more probably about Union City, New Jersey, than any of the other place of the same name.

Answer: America

"Ventura Highway" was written by Dewey Bunnell. In an interview with the 'Los Angeles Times' in 2006, he said: "It was 1963 when I was in seventh grade, we got a flat tire and we're standing on the side of the road and I was staring at this highway sign. It said 'Ventura' on it and it just stuck with me. It was a sunny day and the ocean there, all of it."
Ventura is a county in California. Route 101 runs through it.
The song reached number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1972.

Answer: Glen Campbell

"Wichita Lineman" was another hit from the pen of Jimmy Webb, who also wrote "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" and "Galveston" for Glen Campbell.
Webb wrote it after seeing a telephone lineman working on a pole somewhere on the Kansas-Oklahoma border.
In a newspaper interview some years later, Webb said: "My characters were all ordinary guys. They were all blue-collar guys who did ordinary jobs. As Billy Joel likes to say, which is pretty accurate, he said, 'They're ordinary people thinking extraordinary thoughts'' I always appreciated that comment, because I thought it was very close to what I was doing or what I was trying to do. And they came from ordinary towns. They came from places like Galveston and Wichita and places like that."
"Wichita Linesman" topped the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles chart in 1968 and was a number three on the Hot 100. It was a country and pop number one on the Canadian RPM charts.

Answer: Olivia Newton-John

All right, I have cheated, there are several cities and towns in the US that start with the letter X, but the only location I could match a song to was Xanadu - and it is probably not about it. Take a bow Xanadu, Salt Lake City.

"Xanadu" was a 1980 musical film involving Olivia Newton John and the Electric Light Orchestra, aka ELO.
The single "Xanadu" reached number eight in the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the UK Official Charts. Another single from the soundtrack, "Magic" was a Billboard chart-topper.
The film was set in a nightclub called Xanadu. Olivia Newton-John, Michael Beck, and Gene Kelly starred. Despite the fact the movie was a box office flop, the soundtrack was a critical and commercial success.

Answer: Bruce Springsteen

Youngstown was a steel town in northern Ohio.
The "Jenny" in the lyrics was not a woman, but the nickname given to the blast furnace at Youngstown steelworks.
"Youngstown" was on Springsteen's folk-inspired "Ghosts of Tom Joad" album (1995).

Answer: Miller-Kelton

Miller-Kelton were a band from Columbus, Ohio.
"Zanesville, Ohio" was on their 2011 album "Tip Top".
In an interview with Laura Stanfill of Forest Avenue Press in July 2016, Miller-Kelton songwriter Edward Reilly described their music: "It's just simple music, really, with a little bit of gloss around the edges. We try to keep the grittiness of a rock band, but blend in a little of the looseness of country music...We usually get lumped into the catch-all 'Americana,' which is sort of a mash up of folk, country and rock, with the odd dash of blues or jazz."
Influences on the band included Steve Goodman, Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris, Randy Newman, Townes Van Zandt, and Steve Earle.
(I have been listening to them a lot since writing this question, and they are definitely worth tracking down on music streaming sites.)

Answer: U2

"The Hands That Built America" was written for the movie "Gangs of New York" and was nominated for an Academy Award in 2003.

Answer: Harry Chapin

"What Made America Famous" was Harry Chapin's story of a plumber who defied his volunteer firemen colleagues by rushing alone to a blaze in a house occupied by local hippies and squatters.
It appeared on his 1974 album "Verities & Balderdash".
In 1975, Chapin produced a Broadway musical review "The Night That Made America Famous". It was not a box office success and closed after just 47 performances.