Last Updated on December 1, 2025 by Black Sunshine Media
I enjoy the freedom of telling you what to expect at the beginning of a post because it either gets you onboard with the program or sends you on your way. Both are positive outcomes. If you’re looking for songs about New York and expect to find Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” anywhere on this list, you’ve come to the wrong place.
Moreover, you won’t see songs from Sting, Don Henley, U2, Coldplay, or Snow Patrol. But I’ve curated a Spotify list for your ease and enjoyment!
Songs About New York
“New York” by Sex Pistols
An imitation from New York
You’re made in Japan from cheese and chalk
You’re hippie tarts’ hero cuz you put on bad show
Oh don’t it show
John “Johnny Rotten” Lydon had never traveled further than Ireland when this song was recorded in 1977. “New York” is a reference to the proto-glam punk band The New York Dolls, and a song called “Looking for a Kiss” from their 1973 self-titled debut album. Rotten has said he meant it out of affection, but the lyrics tell a different story. The reference to pills has a direct correlation to another Dolls’ song, “Pills”.
The New York Dolls were pretty much done by 1976, so it kinda feels like Lydon is punching down on the has-beens. And man, some of the lyrics on this song really don’t fly in 2025. It’s kind of amazing what you could get away with in the 1970s. People were outraged by the Sex Pistols at face value, but they’d be entirely justified after reading the lyrics to “New York”.
Attitude is more than half of the Sex Pistols’ appeal, but they knew how to write good songs, too. It’s catchy as hell.
“Back in N.Y.C.” by Genesis (covered by Jeff Buckley)
I see faces and traces of home
Back in New York City
In late 1974, Genesis released a landmark concept double album, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, and the last album with Peter Gabriel. Like many progressive rock concept double albums, Lamb is probably 25–30 minutes too long. However, it also contains some of the band’s best moments, many of which are only known to hardcore fans. “Back in N.Y.C” is a textbook “deep cut” (i.e., a great song buried in the track sequence).
The Lamb story revolves around a New York Puerto Rican graffiti artist named Rael on a Pilgrim’s Progress journey of spiritual awakening. “Back in N.Y.C.” is part of an extended flashback to Rael cuddling with a porcupine, and his “hairy heart” gets shaved? Man, I’m telling you, nobody, not even the guys in Genesis knows what the fuck is going on with the plot. However, it’s got some beautiful hooks and great lines buried in the shifting time signatures.
The original version is great, but the Jeff Buckley version, recorded for his final album, Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk (1998), is stunning.
“New York’s Alright If You Like Saxophones” by Fear
New York’s alright if you like drunks in your doorway
New York’s alright if you wanna freeze to death
New York’s alright if you wanna get mugged or murdered
New York’s alright if you like saxophones
Fear is an elemental Southern California hardcore punk band. They played this song (and “Beef Bologna”) on Saturday Night Live, Halloween 1981. John Belushi was among the slamdancers.
How the hell did Fear wind up on SNL? Belushi was a big fan. He offered Fear a slot on the soundtrack for his upcoming film, Neighbors (1981), but the film’s producer denied the band. As compensation, Belushi lobbied Lorne Michaels to let Fear appear on SNL. Somehow, it happened.
“Shattered” by The Rolling Stones
We got rats on the West Side, bedbugs Uptown
What a mess, this town’s in tatters
I’ve been shattered
My brain’s been battered, splattered all over Manhattan
This is the song that turned me around on the Stones. I didn’t think much of the “get off of my cloud” bullshit. They were like a sloppy version of the Beatles. I mocked the “hoo-hoo” parts of “Sympathy for the Devil”. I didn’t take the Stones seriously. What did I know? I was 10 years old.
Some Girls was released in June 1978, with “Miss You” as the first single, followed by “Beast of Burden”, and “Respectable”. The fourth single, “Shattered”, wasn’t a huge hit (peaked at #31, Billboard Hot 100), but it got plenty of airtime on FM radio, which happened to be my main source of new music.
I heard “Shattered” and wondered why they couldn’t write every song like this. Jagger’s Sprechgesang (speak-singing) is the perfect delivery for his lyrical impressions of New York City, supposedly written in the back of a taxi.
“Empire State of Mind” by Jay-Z feat. Alicia Keys
Concrete jungle (yeah) where dreams are made of
There’s nothin’ you can’t do (yeah) (okay)
Now you’re in New York
This is the new generation’s “New York, New York”. You can keep that Sinatra bullshit, thank you very much.
“I’m Waiting for the Man” by The Velvet Underground
I’m waiting for my man
Got twenty-six dollars in my hand
Up to Lexington, 125
Feel sick and dirty, more dead than alive
Nobody. Zero people were writing songs about scoring heroin in 1967. Except for Lou Reed. If Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) was the gravity of popular music, The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967) was the dark matter.
“New York I Love You, But You’re Bringing Me Down” by LCD Soundsystem
New York, you’re perfect
Don’t please don’t change a thing
Your mild billionaire mayor’s
Now convinced he’s a king
So the boring collect
I mean all disrespect
In the neighborhood bars
I’d once dreamt I would drink
I used to hang out at a bar in Taipei where they let me choose the music, and LCD Soundsystem was all over the Friday and Saturday night playlists. I can’t tell you how many new customers we roped into the bar because some foreigner heard “Drunk Girls” or “New York I Love You” and wandered in from curiosity.
“Fairytale of New York” by The Pogues (feat. Kirsty MacColl)
They’ve got cars big as bars
They’ve got rivers of gold
But the wind goes right through you
It’s no place for the old
The song is a conversation between a couple who’ve hit a rough patch near the holidays. That’s all I can tell you.
“New York State of Mind” by Billy Joel
Some folks like to get away
Take a holiday from the neighborhood
Hop a flight to Miami Beach
Or to Hollywood
But I’m taking a Greyhound
On the Hudson River Line
I’m in a New York state of mind
I hated this song until I played with a Japanese singer who fuckin’ crushed it and made me question all previously held contempt for the work of Billy Joel.
In 2017, I was still commuting from Manila to Taipei for work, spending much more time in Taiwan than the Philippines. It was a complicated situation involving power struggles and frustrations with my employer, travel, expenses, distance, etc.
I knew I’d have to spend a lot of time in Taipei until the work situation sorted itself out, so I got involved in the local music scene, which I mostly enjoyed as a spectator for nearly a decade. There weren’t many 12-string guitar players in Taiwan, and I had tons of connections among local musicians, so word got out quickly. It didn’t take long to hook up with some collaborators.
I first met vocalist Yasuhiro Aikou and his wife Yuki at a bar in Taipei called Rev-Now, run by a married couple from Hong Kong. It was one of the most musician-friendly bars in town, if not the friendliest. Yasuhiro and Yuki belonged to a network of Japanese expats in Taiwan who performed regularly throughout the city, Rev-Now included.
Yasuhiro invited me to an a cappella performance at Rev-Now by the Japanese kids, and they blew me away. Eventually, we got to know each other, and Yasuhiro asked if I’d be his guitar player for solo vocal performances. So, we started playing shows at Rev-Now, with Yasuhiro singing lead vocals on covers by Japanese and Chinese artists, plus Billy Joel, Elton John, the Beatles, etc. Yuki joined us on the cahon (percussion) and backing vocals. I didn’t sing, thankfully.
Somewhere near the end of the year (2017), Yasuhiro and Yuki said they were going back to Japan after the Chinese New Year, so they wanted to put together a big show with their other Japanese a cappella friends. It was a phenomenal gig, one of the most memorable of my life. “New York State of Mind” was Yasuhiro’s centerpiece performance and the most technically difficult guitar part of the set.
Playing “New York State of Mind” on fingerpicked 12-string isn’t theoretically hard. There aren’t any crazy chord changes. There’s just a shit load of chord changes. And since I had to cover the guitar, bass, and some of the piano parts, I had to practice the song five or six times a day to build the left-hand strength to grip the chords while maintaining a steady bassline with my thumb.
“The Boxer” by Simon & Garfunkel
Then I’m laying out my winter clothes
And wishing I was gone, going home
Where the New York City winters aren’t bleeding me
Leading me, going home
Simon & Garfunkel fans may cry, “What about ‘The Only Living Boy in New York’?” It already appeared on 25 Songs About Going Down to Mexico.
In addition to playing guitar for Yasuhiro, I finagled my way into a Monday night residency at Rev-Now, playing solo acoustic 12-string (with occasional guests). I sang mostly covers with a sprinkling of originals on nights when it was just me and the bartender. “The Only Living Boy” usually found its way onto the set list.
“Chelsea Hotel #2” by Leonard Cohen
I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel
You were talkin’ so brave and so sweet
Givin’ me head on the unmade bed
While limousines wait in the street
Leonard Cohen just rubs me the wrong way, like a birthday party clown twisting up balloon animals. But people like him and praise his poetry. Whatever. He wrote a few songs about New York (“First We Take Manhattan” was the obvious choice), and “Chelsea Hotel #2” sounds vaguely different than the rest of ’em.
“Downtown Train” by Tom Waits
Those downtown trains are full
With all those Brooklyn girls
They try so hard to break out of their little worlds
Well, you wave your hand and they scatter like crows
The adult contemporary Rod Stewart version is the big hit, but I like the original’s authenticity. There’s a story that Bob Seger recorded a version of “Downtown Train” before Stewart, and Seger says he told Stewart about it. Seger ultimately decided not to release the single, but a month later, Stewart had recorded his version, and two months later, it was on the charts.
“Tom’s Diner” by Suzanne Vega
Suzanne Vega used to hang out at Tom’s Restaurant, a diner at Broadway and West 112th Street. The diner later became famous as the location used for the exterior scenes of Monk’s Café in Seinfeld.
“53rd & 3rd” by Ramones
Fifty-third and third standing on the street
Fifty-third and third I’m tryin’ to turn a trick
Fifty-third and third you’re the one they never pick
Fifty-third and third don’t it make you feel sick?
Little Dee Dee Ramone, out there selling his ass for dope money.
“Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do)” by Christopher Cross
When you get caught between the moon and New York City
I know it’s crazy, but it’s true
If you get caught between the moon and New York City
The best that you can do
The best that you can do is fall in love
Why wouldn’t I include Christopher Cross?
“New York Groove” by Hello (covered by Ace Frehley)
In the back of my Cadillac
A wicked lady sittin’ by my side, sayin’, “Where are we?”
Stopped at Third and Forty-Three
Exit to the night, it’s gonna be ecstasy
This place was meant for meI’m back
Back in the New York groove
Hello are an mid-1970s glam rock bubblegum act from England who scored a pair of minor charting singles in the U.K. (“Tell Him” and “New York Groove”). When Kiss released the four solo albums of individual members, only one had a hit: Ace Frehley, with a cover of “New York Groove” (#13 on the Billboard Hot 100).
“New York Telephone Conversation” by Lou Reed
Just a New York conversation, gossip all of the time
Did you hear who did what to whom? Happens all the time
Who has touched and who has dabbled here in the city of shows?
Openings, closings, bad repartee, everybody knows
It’s such an odd song, even for Lou Reed.
“An Open Letter to NYC” by Beastie Boys
Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, and Staten
From the Battery to the top of Manhattan
Asian, Middle-Easter,n and Latin
Black, White, New York, you make it happen
Gotta have Manhattan’s favorite sons on the list.
“Positively 4th Street” by Bob Dylan
I wish that for just one time, you could stand inside my shoes
And just for that one moment, I could be you
Yes, I wish that for just one time, you could stand inside my shoes
You’d know what a drag it is to see you
There’s debate among Dylanophiles whether their boy is singing about the folk scene in Greenwich Village or not a song about New York. At any rate, the last two lines of the song are fuckin’ devastating, and I remember hearing it as a kid, thinking, “Jesus, that’s brutal!”
“138th Street” by The Walkmen
Now we’ve been hanging ’round for quite a while
So let’s get out of here and take a drive
On the parkway tonight, you can hear the engines roar
The flashing lights will nab you when you’re driving your way home
And someday, when you turn around, you’ll see the door is closing
Depending on which side of the Hudson River we’re talking about, 138th Street runs through Harlem or the South Bronx. Maybe they’re talking about the Madison Avenue Bridge?
“Across 110th Street” by Bobby Womack
Across 110th Street
Pimps trying to catch a woman that’s weak
Across 110th Street
Pushers won’t let the junkie go free
Across 110th Street
Woman trying to catch a trick on the street, ooh baby
Across 110th Street
You can find it all in the street
Thanks for the tip, Bobby. I’ll keep an eye out.
“Bright Lights, Big City” by Jimmy Reed
Bright light, big city, gone to my baby’s head
Whoa, bright light, a big city, gone to my baby’s head
I tried to tell the woman, but she don’t believe a word I said
This is where the term “bright light, big city” comes from.
“The Bronx” by Booker T. & the M.G.’s
“Manhattan” by Cat Power
Your badge and your suitcase on
Your suit and your hair’s not right
Cause nobody knows this woman by your side
It’s not me you know, it’s a useful woman by your side
It’s not me you know, it’s a useful woman by your side
Manhattan
With more than a handful of “Manhattan songs” to choose from, I went with my favorite.
“NYC Ghosts & Flowers” by Sonic Youth
I hear your voice, I speak your name
Among New York City ghosts and flowers
Will we meet? To run again?
Standard-issue Sonic Youth.
Honorable Mentions
“Manhattan Island Serenade” by Leon Russell
“New York City Cops” by The Strokes
“New York Kiss” by Spoon
“NYC” by Interpol
“Incident on 57th Street” by Bruce Springsteen
“South Street” by The Orlons
“New York City” by T. Rex (Marc Bolan!)
And that rounds up our songs about New York. Did we miss any of your favorites? Let us know in the comments, and we’ll add them to the list! Oh, and if you liked it, please share this post on social media.
