List Of U.S. State Songs
Forty-eight states of the United States have one or more state songs, selected by each state legislature, and/or state governor, as a symbol (or emblem) of the state. New Jersey does not have an official state song, while Virginia's state song, "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny" (adopted 1940), is now considered the "emeritus" state song and is scheduled to be replaced, having been rescinded by the Virginia General Assembly. The General Assembly has not voted on a new song yet - the process of selection, including an extensive contest for public submissions, began in 1998.
Some states have more than one official state song, and may refer to some of their official songs by other names; for example, Arkansas officially has two state songs, plus a state anthem, and a state historical song. Arizona has a song that was written specifically as a state anthem in 1915, as well as the 1981 country hit "Arizona", which it adopted as the alternate state anthem in 1982.
A few of these songs are among the best-known songs in the U.S., including "Old Folks at Home" (better known as "Swanee Ribber" or "Suwannee River"), "Yankee Doodle", "You Are My Sunshine", "My Old Kentucky Home", and "Home on the Range"; a number of others are popular standards, including "Oklahoma!" (from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical), Hoagy Carmichael's "Georgia on My Mind", "Tennessee Waltz", "Missouri Waltz", and "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away". Many of the others are much less well-known, especially outside the state.
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“Thirty—the promise of a decade of loneliness, a thinning list of single men to know, a thinning brief-case of enthusiasm, thinning hair.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
“We saw the machinery where murderers are now executed. Seven have been executed. The plan is better than the old one. It is quietly done. Only a few, at the most about thirty or forty, can witness [an execution]. It excites nobody outside of the list permitted to attend. I think the time for capital punishment has passed. I would abolish it. But while it lasts this is the best mode.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“The superficiality of the American is the result of his hustling. It needs leisure to think things out; it needs leisure to mature. People in a hurry cannot think, cannot grow, nor can they decay. They are preserved in a state of perpetual puerility.”
—Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)
“What wondrous love is this
That caused the Lord of bliss
To bear the dreadful curse for my soul”
—Unknown. “What Wondrous Love is this!” L. 3-5, Dupuy’s Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1811)