Dates Mentioned In Songs

Happy New Year's Day.

What songs mention dates?

January 1: "New Year's Day," U2.

March 18, 1846: "Greenland Whale Fisheries," The Pogues.

April 4, 1968: "Pride In the Name of Love," U2 again.

May 1: "First of May," Jonathan Coulton. Also, "First of May," The Bee Gees.

May 5: "I Married Isis On the Fifth Day of May," Bob Dylan. Also, "Cinco de Mayo," Liz Phair. Dylan mentioned "Eastertime" in "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues," but got no more specific than that, and Easter is on a different day every year.

May 10, 1865: "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," The Band.

May 12: "Pinball Song," Slobberbone.

May 19: "I've Known No War," The Who. It's guitarist/songwriter Pete Townshend's birthday.

June 3: "Ode to Billie Joe," Bobbie Gentry: "It was the 3rd of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day."

June 6: "Convoy," C.W. McCall: "It was the dark of the Moon on the 6th of June... "

June 16: "Breathe," U2 again. June 16 is an important day in Irish culture, because it's the date in 1904 on which James Joyce's novel Ulysses is set, because that's the day Joyce met his wife, Nora Barnacle.

July 4: A bunch of songs. "Jack Straw," The Grateful Dead. "Saturday In the Park," Chicago. "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)," Bruce Springsteen. "4th of July," X.

July 13: "Yell Help," Elton John.

July 15: "St. Swithin's Day," Billy Bragg.

August 1: "On the First Day in August," Carole King.

September 3: "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone," The Temptations: "It was the 3rd of September, that day I'll always remember, yes, I will. 'Cause that was the day that my daddy died."

September 21: "September," Earth, Wind & Fire: "Do you remember the 21st day of September?"

October 31: Lots of songs mention Halloween, including "Spooky" by The Classics IV, but Dusty Springfield's great cover doesn't. Also "Halloween" by Dream Syndicate; "Everyday Is Halloween" by Ministry"; and "The New Style," Beastie Boys.

November 5: "Remember," John Lennon, invoking the story of Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot of 1605.

November 22, 1963: "The Day John Kennedy Died" by Lou Reed, and "Life In a Northern Town" by The Dream Academy. Although his song "We Didn't Start the Fire" doesn't mention any specific dates, Billy Joel alludes to several events, including the JFK Assassination.

Thanksgiving falls on a different day every year, between November 22 and 28. Not many songs mention it. By far the best-known one is "Alice's Restaurant" by Arlo Guthrie.

December 8, 1980: Not quite, but Paul Simon cites the murder of John Lennon "On a cold December evening," in "The Late Great Johnny Ace," which also mentions the deaths of JFK and the R&B singer Johnny Ace, which happened on Christmas Day, December 25, 1954.

December 21: "How to Make Gravy," Paul Kelly, an Australian singer. I had never heard of him before soliciting ideas for this post. Great song. His fans call the date "Gravy Day."

December 25: Probably the best-known song not specifically a Christmas song to mention "Christmas Day" is "Levon" by Elton John.

December 26: "St. Stephen's Day Murders," The Chieftains, with guest lead vocal by Elvis Costello.

December 31: "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?" Margaret Whiting.

Can you think of any others? Let me know in the comments.