The Garden State is full of talent and home to artists like Bruce Springsteen, Connie Francis, Frankie Valli, Frank Sinatra, Jon Bon Jovi, Lauryn Hill, Sarah Vaughan, and Whitney Houston. New Jersey adores its artists and anything that highlights our great state. Here at The Montclair Girl, we thought nothing could be better than crafting a playlist of songs that mention and highlight New Jersey. These songs cover themes and topics like social commentary, nostalgia, notable residents, towns, and the Shore. Read on for a guide to songs about New Jersey and a Spotify link to the tunes mentioned. 

A Night With the Jersey Devil

Bruce Springsteen’s A Night With the Jersey Devil focuses on regional folklore. The Jersey Devil is a legendary creature said to inhabit the Pinelands. Read more about the Jersey Devil here.

Atlantic City

Atlantic City was written and recorded by Bruce Springsteen and first appeared on his 1982 solo album Nebraska. The song depicts a young couple’s escape to Atlantic City and the man’s intention to work in organized crime.

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Bad at Love

In the line “There’s a guy that lives in the Garden State”, singer Halsey pays homage to her home state of New Jersey. Ashley Nicolette Frangipane, professionally known as Halsey, was born in Edison and graduated from Warren Hills High School in Warren County.

Bloomfield Ave.

Catch 22 is a band that formed in East Brunswick. Their song, Bloomfield Ave. mentions Glassboro in Gloucester County and Bloomfield Avenue. Which Bloomfield Avenue is hard to tell, but it’s quite possible that the song is referencing that state’s most notorious Bloomfield Avenue in Essex County which runs from Newark to West Caldwell. There is also a Bloomfield Avenue in Essex County’s Nutley.

Every Ghetto, Every City

Lauryn Hill was born in East Orange and grew up in South Orange. Her debut solo album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998), was met with widespread critical acclaim and she became the first female rapper to debut atop the Billboard 200. Her song Every Ghetto, Every City serves as social commentary about those who grew up in the inner city and suburban outskirts, highlighting both struggles and unique identities. Her song highlights the area where she grew up and surrounding communities making reference to Irvington, Hillside, Newark’s Ivy Hill neighborhood, Borlin Pool in South Orange, and numerous streets like South Orange Avenue, Springfield Avenue, Chancellor Avenue, and Frelinghuysen Avenue.

Hackensack

Hackensack is a song by Fountains of Wayne from their 2003 album Welcome Interstate Managers. The band included Jerseyan Adam Schlesinger of Montclair and Chris Collingwood of Pennsylvania. The two met at Williams College. In the mid-1990s, they came together to form Fountains of Wayne, named after a lawn ornament store in Wayne, New Jersey. Other band members included Jody Porter and Brian Young.

 

Hasbrook Heights

Although inaccurately spelled as Hasbrook Heights, this song mentions Bergen County’s Hasbrouck Heights, a community of less than 13,000 people. This song was written by Burt Bacharach. The best-known cover is by Dionne Warwick.

Hurricane

Hurricane is a protest song co-written by Bob Dylan and Jacques Levy. The song is about the imprisonment of boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter and incorporates details from a 1066 triple murder at Lafayette Grill in Paterson in which Hurricane and another man named John Artis were charged. In his autobiography, The Sixteenth Round, Hurricane maintained his innocence, and after reading it, Bob visited him in Rahway State Prison in Woodbridge Township. After meeting with Hurricane and a group of his supporters, Bob began to write this song, which was one of his most successful singles of the decade.

Rubin “Hurricane” Carter was born in Clifton in 1937. He was an American-Canadian middleweight boxer. After almost 20 years in prison, he was released following a petition of habeas corpus. After his release, Carter lived in Toronto, Canada, and became a citizen. He also served as the first executive director of the Association in Defense of the Wrongly Convicted (AIDWYC) from 1993 to 2005.

I Like Jersey Best

John Pizzarelli was born in Paterson and later attended Don Bosco Preparatory School and William Paterson University. His song I Like Jersey Best mentions a multitude of Jersey references, both North, South, and Central like Rutgers University, Route 22, the Meadowlands, Main Street in Hackensack, Vineland, Trenton, Lake Hopatcong, Belmar, Piscataway, Cherry Hill, Holmdel, Cape May, Secaucus, Newark Airport, the Jersey Nets (before they became the Brooklyn Nets), and fellow musical artist Bruce Springsteen.

Jersey

Dana Elaine Owens, known professionally as Queen Latifah was born in Newark and lived in East Orange. Her song Jersey makes a variety of references to her home state which include the Willowbrook Mall, the PATH Train, Irvington High School, Newark, Whitney Houston, Tisha Campbell, Bruce Springsteen, and Shaq O’Neill.

Jersey Bounce

Jersey Bounce was written by Tiny Bradshaw, Eddie Johnson, and Bobby Plater with lyrics by Buddy Feyne who used the pseudonym Robert B. Wright. This 1942 piece makes reference to Jersey City’s Journal Square.

Last Train from Overbrook

Last Train from Overbrook is an album by saxophonist James Moody. James was raised in Newark and lived in the area for much of his life. In 1958, he spent several months at the Overbrook in Cedar Grove as he struggled with alcoholism. The album’s first song, Last Train from Overbrook was written after James left the facility. Overbrook was a psychiatric hospital in Cedar Grove. It no longer exists and was located where Hilltop Reservation, Cedar Grove Park, and Hilltop Community are. What remains of the massive facility is a small brick building located at 27 Fairview Avenue.

Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)

Billy Joel’s Movin Out critiques the ambitions of the working and lower-middle-class New Yorkers who strive for material success as evidence of their social mobility or “movin’ up” as the song refers to it. Joel describes a myriad of blue-collar workers who are trying to distance themselves from their working-class roots by upgrading from a Chevy to a Cadillac or “movin’ out” to Bergen County’s Hackensack. Who is this Anthony the song talks about and is he anyone specific? Like Sergeant O’Leary or Mr. Cacciatore, Anthony stands as a characterization of general working-class Americans.

My Ancestral Homeland

Perhaps an anthem for anyone who has moved out of New Jersey and cannot stop thinking of it, this song represents feelings of nostalgia for the Garden State. The World/Inferno Friendship Society released this song in 2002.

My Eyes Adored You

My Eyes Adored You sung by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons references Barnegat Bridge and Bay. Barnegat Bridge is roughly 42 miles long and borders towns like Lavallette, Seaside Park, Lacey Township, Toms River, and Harvey Cedars.

Neptune City

In 2007, Nicole Atkins released her album Neptune City. She grew up in Neptune Township, located next to Neptune City. She frequented Bilow’s bar in the city which inspired her album title and she pondered naming it Neptune City to counterbalance Bruce Springsteen’s Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. Her song, Neptune City is sung from the perspective of a spirit or ghost paying one final visit to their hometown before departing onto the next world.

On My Way to Cape May

On My Way to Cape May is about a man and woman falling in love as they drive to Cape May, a spot known for its Victorian architecture and charming streets. As the couple embark on their trip, they pass through other Shore towns like Ocean City, Avalon, Sea Isle, Stone Harbor, and Wildwood. The song was written by Maurice “Buddy” Nugent and covered by many artists such as Al Alberts.

Palisades Park

Released in 1960, Palisades Park was written by Chuck Barris and recorded by Freddy Cannon. One might think the song is about Palisades Park, a municipality in Bergen County, but it’s actually about Palisades Amusement Park in Cliffside Park and Fort Lee. In the song, the singer takes a walk after dark and discovers Palisades Amusement Park, where he meets and falls in love with a girl. The real spot was a 38-acre park on the side of the New Jersey Palisades that operated from 1898 until 1971.

Pleasant Valley Sunday

Pleasant Valley Sunday is a song by Gerry Goffin and Carole King. It was recorded and released by the Monkees in the summer of 1967. The song was inspired by Gerry and Carole’s move to West Orange and their dissatisfaction with suburban living after moving from New York City. A major thoroughfare in town is Pleasant Valley Way, which became the inspiration for the song’s name.

Similar to “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)” by Billy Joel, Pleasant Valley Sunday depicts a move from New York City to suburban North Jersey and the social commentary of status symbols associated with the change and new way of life. The song introduced characters like Mrs. Gray and Mr. Green who are no one in particular but can represent anyone. Just like the suburbs with “rows of houses all the same”, both Mrs. Gray and Mr. Green lack unique identities. They are both invested in status symbols and material consumption like having a “TV in every room”. The repetition of the line “Another Pleasant Valley Sunday” further represents Gerry and Carole’s feelings of repetition and dullness in suburbia where everything is the same.

Stray Bullet

James Moody’s Last Train from Overbrook and Queen Latifah’s Jersey are not the only songs that reference a Jersey train or train station. Bruce Springsteen’s Stray Bullet also does. The line “They were waiting on the Annandale train when my baby come” references the Annandale Station located at 46 East Street in Annandale, a community in Hunterdon County’s Clinton Township. The station stop which opened in 1852 is still active and a part of NJ Transit’s Raritan Valley Line.

Walcott

In 2008, Vampire Weekend released Walcott. Verse 3 of the song mentions New Jersey and Garden State in its lyrics.

White Castle Blues

If you were in Jersey in the 1970s and 1980s, White Castle was a thing, if not the thing to do late at night. The Smithereens song White Castle Blues was written by the band’s guitarist, Jim Babjak, and a friend, Bob Banta, several years before the group even formed. Montclair never had a White Castle, but neighboring Verona did and it was located very close to the Montclair-Verona border at 90 Bloomfield Avenue. It opened in 1938 and closed in 1990. Today Essex County has four White Castle locations. East Orange and Orange have one each and Newark has two.

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Wildwood Days

Wildwood Days was released by Bobby Rydell in 1963. The subject of the song is Cape May County shore town Wildwood, a city famous for its nightlife and rock and roll. The song became the official anthem for the city and has been used in a variety of commercials.

You Can’t Catch Me

You Can’t Catch Me was written for the 1956 musical drama film Rock, Rock, Rock! and was recorded by Chuck Berry. The song describes one racing a souped-up “air-mobile” down the Jersey Turnpike.