Katy Perry (ft. Snoop Dogg) – "California Gurls" (2010)

California girls, we’re unforgettable

Daisy Dukes, bikinis on top

Sun-kissed skin so hot, we’ll melt your popsicle

Here are the ten states that the folks at the Musicoholics website believe had the most impact on American popular music.  (Drum roll, please!)

10.  Minnesota

  9.  Illinois

  8.  Texas

  7.  Michigan

  6.  Mississippi

  5.  Tennessee

  4.  Georgia

  3.  Louisiana

  2.  California

  1.  New York

*     *     *     *     *

2 or 3 lines thinks that Musicoholics ranked a few of those states too high.

One of those states is Minnesota, which was assigned the #10 ranking based almost entirely on the strength of Bob Dylan and Prince.  But two musicians are not enough to justify a spot in the Musicoholics top ten, especially when one of them is Prince.  (Sorry, but I never got Prince.)

Illinois was home to a lot of great jazz and blues musicians, but those aren’t my favorite musical genres – I’m more interested in pop, rock, and hip-hop.  Chicago and Cheap Trick are very good but I would say they are great – there are quite a few rock groups I would rank ahead of them.  And while Kanye West is truly a genius, you need more than one genius for a state to be ranked in the top ten.

The one, the only Kanye West

A lot of great blues musicians (including B. B. King, Muddy Waters, and especially Robert Johnson) came from Mississippi, but Musicoholics ranked that state #6 mostly because Elvis Presley spent the first 13 years of his life there.  I think Elvis is the most overrated American popular musician of all time, so I would drop Mississippi way down in the rankings.

Two of the states ranked in the top five by Musicoholics – Georgia and Louisiana – probably don’t belong there.  A lot of great rappers have come out of Atlanta, and Little Richard and Otis Redding were one-of-a-kind talents.  I’d rank Georgia in the top ten, but #4 is a little high.

Louisiana’s #3 ranking is even harder to defend.  New Orleans produced a lot of great music back in the day, but has been resting on its laurels for quite a few years – what have you done for me lately, New Orleans?  The greatest Louisiana musicians – e.g., Louis Armstrong, Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis – are older than me, and I’m pretty old.

*     *     *     *     *

That leaves five states standing.

I’m going to leave Tennessee right where Musicoholics put it – ranked fifth.  After all, Nashville is the center of the country music universe, and Memphis is almost as significant when it comes to R&B.  

I’d rank Texas ahead of Tennessee by a nose because Texas produced musical standouts in every musical genre – also, a lot of the great country and soul music to come out of Nashville and Memphis was recorded by artists from other states.

I would put Michigan at #3.  I’d like to rank it even higher because so many of my personal favorites – including the MC5, Iggy Pop and the Stooges, and the White Stripes – came from there.  Of course, Detroit was the home of Motown and its mind-boggling roster of recording greats.  

One possible Mt. Rushmore of Detroit musicians

But I don’t see how anyone can argue that New York and California don’t deserve the top two spots.

*     *     *     *     *

I don’t agree with Musicoholics’ ranking of New York ahead of California.

My decision to rank California #1 comes not from my head, but from my heart – especially that part of my heart that hasn’t changed much at all since the sixties, when I was a teenager.  

If you had asked the teenaged me to choose between Los Angeles and New York City, I would have picked Los Angeles in a heartbeat.  

That choice would have been influenced by southern California’s natural beauty and balmy weather – also by the fact that the prospect of life in New York City was more than a little intimidating for a 16-year-old kid who had lived his whole life in Joplin, Missouri.  

But a lot of the appeal of California derived from music that came from there – the music of the Beach Boys, Buffalo Springfield, the Byrds, the Doors, the Jefferson Airplane, Arthur Lee and Love . . . the list goes on and on.

 *     *     *     *     *

I was going to feature “California Girls” by the Beach Boys – the quintessential California pop group – but decided at the last minute to switch things up and go with Katy Perry’s “California Gurls.”

Katy Perry was born in Santa Barbara, and spent most of her formative years in California.  (Her parents were Pentecostal ministers who referred to deviled eggs as “angled eggs.”) 

Snoop Dogg, who contributed a couple of verses to “California Gurls,” is also a California native.

“California Gurls” was the first of four consecutive #1 singles that Perry released in 2010.  Each one of them went 8X platinum – meaning that each of them sold at least eight million copies.

But compared to “California Girls,” “California Gurls” is fool’s gold – or, more accurately, fool’s platinum.

Barbi Benton

“California Girls” is like an all-natural Playboy centerfold from the sixties – it’s the Barbi Benton of pop singles.

“California Gurls,” by contrast, is a little like a reality-show star who has had lip augmentation and breast implants – she looks good from a distance, but isn’t entirely convincing when you examine her more closely.

Click here to watch the oh-so-over-the-top official music video for “California Gurls.”

Click on the link below to buy the song from Amazon:

Chuck Berry – "Come On" (1961)

Everything is wrong since

Me and my baby parted

All day long I’m walking ’cause I 

Couldn’t get my car started

We’ve been working our way through the Musicoholics website’s ranking of states based their relative contributions to popular music.

Last time, we covered the states ranked from #30 to #21.  Today, we’re going to discuss the states that Musicoholics ranked #20 through #11.

*     *     *     *     *

Arkansas holds down the #20 spot on the Musicoholics list mostly because the great Johnny Cash grew up there.  I might flip Arkansas with Alabama – the home of Hank Williams – which was ranked 21st. But Cash is comparable in importance to Williams . . . so no harm, no foul.

Next in the Musicoholics rankings is Missouri.  The most notable pop musician to hail from Missouri was St. Louis native Chuck Berry, a truly great songwriter and performer – Elvis Presley can’t hold a candle to him but was a much more popular figure than Berry because Chuck was (1) older, (2)  black, and (3) a perv.  

#19 (with a bullet!)

Jazz great Charlie “Bird” Parker also spent his formative years in Missouri – he was from Kansas City, which was home to a thriving jazz scene.  (You did know that Kansas City is in Missouri, don’t you?  Unless you’re talking about Kansas City, Kansas – which is much smaller than Kansas City, Missouri.)

*     *     *     *     *

Indiana comes in at #18 on the Musicoholics list.  Michael Jackson and his musical brothers and sisters were born there, as were John Mellencamp (who wears his Hoosierness on his sleeve) and Axl Rose (who doesn’t).

Next comes Virginia, which spawned a number of country and bluegrass legends – Patsy Cline, the Carter Family, and the Stanley Brothers among them.  I might Virginia higher but for the fact that Dave Matthews and Bruce Hornsby are from there.)

Florida ranks #3 among the states in population, but Musicoholics assigns them only the #16 spot in its rankings for its contributions to rock (Tom Petty and Lynyrd Skynyrd), rap (2 Live Crew and Pitbull), disco (KC and the Sunshine Band), and Latin music (Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine).

I would move Florida ahead of #15 Massachusetts – Aerosmith, Boston, the Cars, and the J. Geils Band had their moments, but are all overrated.  (Mission of Burma, by contrast, is almost criminally underrated.)

*     *     *     *     *

Pennsylvania and Ohio are #6 and #7 in population, but are underachievers when it comes to their musical contributions – they are #14 and #13, respectively, in the Musicoholics rankings.   

Pennsylvania produced a lot of great R&B artists, but personally I prefer the groups who came out of Ohio – among them the James Gang, Devo, Pere Ubu, and especially the Pretenders.  (The Pretenders were formed in the UK, and three of its four original members were English – but Chrissie Hynde grew up in Ohio, and Chrissie Hynde is the Pretenders as far as I’m concerned. . . not to mention the greatest female singer/songwriter of all time.)

Chrissie Hynde

Washington (state – not D.C.) comes in at the 12th spot on the Musicoholics list.  I would bump Washington up a few spots –after all, it was home to Jimi Hendrix, the Sonics (perhaps the greatest garage band of all), and grunge greats like Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Mudhoney, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden.

Rounding out the second ten on the Musicoholics list is New Jersey.  Frank Sinatra and the Four Seasons  justify a high ranking for the Garden State, but it gets demerits for the hugely overrated Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen.  

*     *     *     *     *

Between 1955 and 1959, the great Chuck Berry released a dozen or so hit singles, including “Maybellene,” “Roll Over Beethoven,” “Sweet Little Sixteen,” and “Johnny B. Goode.”

But his career was derailed in December 1959 when he was arrested for picking up a 14-year-old Native American girl before a performance in El Paso and transporting her to St. Louis to work as a hatcheck girl at his club.  (Berry claimed that she said she was 21.)

Berry was convicted of violating the federal Mann Act – which made it a felony to transport any female across state lines for immoral purposes – and given a five-year prison sentence.  Click here to read a fascinating account of the trial.

The star won an appeal of the conviction – his lawyer claimed that the trial judge had made racist comments that prejudiced the all-white jury – but was retried in 1961 and convicted again.  Berry’s appeal of that conviction failed and he spent a year and a half in jail.

Today’s featured song was the last single Berry released before he went to the poke.  It didn’t chart, and I was unaware of the song until I recently heard the Rolling Stones cover of it, which was the very first single they released.

The Stones’ recording of “Come On” made it to #21 on the UK single charts, but was not released in the U.S.  

Click here to listen to Chuck Berry’s version of “Come On.”

Click below to buy the recording from Amazon:

Hank Williams – "Move It On Over" (1947)

She’s changed the lock on our front door

My door key don’t fit no more

The previous 2 or 3 lines listed the 20 states that the Musicoholics website ranked as having the least impact on American popular music.

#21

Today, we’re going to discuss the states that Musicoholics ranked #21 through #30 for their relative impact on pop music – in other words, the middle quintile of states.

Without further ado:

30.  Wisconsin

29.  Rhode Island

28.  Arizona

27.  Oregon

26.  Maryland

25.  South Carolina

24.  Kentucky

23.  Oklahoma

22.  North Carolina

21.  Alabama

*     *     *     *     *

Arizona is the notable underachiever of these ten states – it’s 28th on the Musicoholics list, but ranks 14th in population.  As Musicoholics notes, Linda Ronstadt and the Meat Puppets hail from Arizona.  But it’s the Tubes – who Musicoholics failed to mention – that keeps Arizona from being ranked even lower.

The greatest overachiever on the list appears to be Rhode Island, which is only 44th among the states in population.  Its Musicoholics ranking rests largely on the shoulders of the Talking Heads – band members David Byrne, Chris Frantz, and Tina Weymouth met while they were student at the Rhode Island School of Design.  

But Musicoholics slept on the Cowsills, who were living in Newport, Rhode Island, when brothers Bill, Bob, and Barry formed the band.  They were joined later by their three younger siblings (John, Paul, and Susan), and their mother Barbara.  

The Cowsills

For some reason, Bob’s twin brother Richard was not a member of the band.  I wonder why not?

*     *     *     *     *

If you ask me, Musicoholics gives way too much weight to where a musician is born – regardless of how long he or she lived there.

For example, South Carolina gets credit for James Brown.  But the “Godfather of Soul” moved to Georgia when he was a preschooler, and then on to New York.  

The most successful pop music group that was formed in South Carolina was Hootie & the Blowfish.  (Yecch.)

*     *     *     *     *

South Carolina doesn’t compare to the states ranked just ahead of it when it comes to producing great musicians.  

For example, Kentucky produced bluegrass legend Bill Monroe and a number of country-western greats – including Loretta Lynn.

Oklahoma was home to Woody Guthrie, Wanda Jackson, the Flaming Lips, and especially Leon Russell – the most prominent member of the “Tulsa sound” group of musicians.  (I would rank Oklahoma higher solely because Leon Russell was from there.)

*     *     *     *     *

If Hank Williams had been the only Alabaman to ever make a record, that state would deserve its relatively high Musicoholics ranking.  Williams was a giant (despite the fact that he died before he turned 30).

“Move It On Over,” which is my favorite Hank Williams record, was his first big hit.

Hank Williams

Bill Haley’s 1954 single, “Rock Around the Clock,” is considered by many to be the first true rock and roll record.  It sounds suspiciously similar to “Move It On Over,” which was released seven years earlier.

If it was possible for me to sing in a completely natural and unaffected fashion – forgetting everything I’ve been taught, and simply letting every ounce of my inner redneckness come out – I would sound exactly like Hank Williams singing “Move It On Over.”

Click here to listen to “Move It On Over.”

Click on the link below to buy the song from Amazon:

Head East – "Never Been Any Reason" (1975)

There’s never been any reason

For you to think about me

The Musicoholics website recently ranked all 50 states based on the contributions to popular music made by the residents of each state.

For each state, the author of this irresistible piece of clickbait listed the most prominent individual musicians who were born or lived in that state, and also noted the best bands that had been formed in the state.

There are some surprises in that ranking.  There are also a number of obvious mistakes.

*     *     *     *     *

It’s no surprise that Wyoming ranked 50th and last on the list.  

Here is the list of musicians who were born or lived in Wyoming: Scott Avett, John Perry Barlow, Ronnie Bedford, Loren Driscoll, Cary Judd, Chancey Williams.

Have you ever heard of any of these people?  

The only band from Wyoming that was listed was an allegedly Ramones-esque band called the Lillingtons.

Never heard of them.

*     *     *     *     *

Wyoming ranks 50th in population, so it comes as no surprise that they rank 50th on this list.

The state ranked 49th on the Musicoholics list – Maine – ranks 42nd in population.  That’s not a huge discrepancy, I suppose.

But Iowa, which is 48th on the Musicoholics list, seriously underachieved given that it ranks 31st among the 50 states in population.  

According to Musicoholics, the best band ever formed in Iowa is Head East – whose first album, Flat As a Pancake, included today’s featured song, “Never Been Any Reason”:  

I’m second to none in my love for “Never Been Any Reason,” but if the best band to come out of a state is Head East, it’s no wonder that state ranked #48 out of 50 for your contributions to popular music.

And things are about to get even worse for Iowa: despite what Musicoholics says, Head East was actually formed in Illinois – not Iowa.

Musicoholics may have been confused by the fact that Head East was inducted into the Iowa Rock ’n’ Roll Music Association’s Hall of Fame in 2011.  According to that Hall of Fame’s website, Head East “has always been highly received in Iowa and has played hundreds of gigs throughout the state over the decades.”

I guess that’s why they are in the IRRMA Hall of Fame and the Beatles aren’t – the Beatles were certainly highly received in Iowa but didn’t play hundreds of gigs there.

*     *     *     *     *

The less said about the musical contributions of the next five states – North Dakota (#47), South Dakota (#46), Delaware (#45), Alaska (#44), and Montana (#43) – the better.

*     *     *     *     *

Colorado, which is ranked 42nd by Musicoholics, may be an even bigger underachiever than Iowa.  It’s  21st among the states in population, so you would think it might have produced a decent number of good musicians.  But while The Apples in Stereo – an excellent band – formed in Denver in 1992, the musical pickings from the Centennial State get mighty slim after that.

The biggest band from Kansas (ranked 41st in musical contributions by Musicoholics) is Kansas.  Further about Kansas the affiant sayeth naught.

*     *     *     *     *   

The states in the second quintile of the Musicoholics rankings – in other words, the states ranked from 40th to 31st (in that order) Connecticut, Utah, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Nevada, Vermont, West Virginia, Nebraska, Idaho, and Hawaii.

Connecticut was home to some very talented musicians (like Moby, Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, and Richard and Karen Carpenter), but loses points for Michael Bolton and John Mayer (who were born in New Haven and Bridgeport, respectively).

Vermont – which ranks ahead of only Wyoming in population – seems to have been ranked #35 on the strength of Phish (which formed in Burlington, Vermont’s largest city, in 1983).  

Musicoholics may be fans of Phish, but 2 or 3 lines isn’t.  I’d like to rank Vermont dead last, but Wyoming has earned that spot fair and square.

By the way, did you know that Burlington, Vermont – population 42,545 – is the smallest city to be the largest city in a state?  (Do you know what the second smallest city to be the largest city in a state is?)

*     *     *     *     *

Click here to listen to the record that would be the best record ever made by a band from Iowa if that band hadn’t actually formed in Illinois. 

Click on the link below to buy the song from Amazon: