Place Names in Rock Lyrics: Sweet Little Sixteen

Here’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a while. I’ve always liked it in rock songs when they sing about different places in the chorus. If you don’t realize what I mean, I think you’ll see in the lyrics below.

My plan for this feature is to count up all the different times various cities are mentioned. Which cities are the rocking-est? Let’s start with perhaps the first rock song to do this, Sweet Little Sixteen, by Chuck Berry.

In the first chorus, he sings this:

They’re really rockin in Boston
In Pittsburgh, P.A.
deep in the heart of Texas
and round the ‘Frisco Bay
All over St. Louis
and down in New Orleans
All the cats wanna dance with
Sweet Little Sixteen

And the next time he sings the chorus, he mixes it up just slightly, like this:

‘Cause they’ll be rockin’ on Bandstand
in Philadelphia, P.A.
deep in the heart of Texas
and round the ‘Frisco Bay
All over St. Louis
Way down in New Orleans
All the cats wanna dance with
Sweet Little Sixteen

So the cities and places we have so far are

New Orleans
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
San Francisco
St. Louis
(heart of) Texas