Redirecting to a newer version of this post….

I’m goin’ to Memphis where the beat is tough
Memphis, I can’t get enough
It makes you tremble and it makes you weak
Gets in your blood, that Memphis Beat
~Jerry Lee Lewis – Memphis Beat

There many great songs with “Memphis” in their lyrics. Just check out this list on Memphis Rock n Soul Museum website: Over 1000 songs

I’ve picked 20 I really like:

1. Bob Dylan – Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again

Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again

2. Jerry Lee Lewis – Memphis Beat

Oh, I’m goin’ to Memphis
Oh, come on now let’s go to Memphis
Where the beat is tough, I can’t get enough
I gotta get back there, I gotta get back there

3. Chuck Berry – Memphis, Tennessee

Help me, information, get in touch with my Marie
She’s the only one who’d phone me here from Memphis Tennessee
Her home is on the south side, high up on a ridge
Just a half a mile from the Mississippi Bridge

4. Johnny Cash – Big River

Then you took me to St. Louis later on (down the river).
A freighter said she’s been here but she’s gone, boy, she’s gone.
I found her trail in Memphis, but she just walked up the block.
She raised a few eyebrows and then she went on down alone.

5. Tom T. Hall – That’s How I Got To Memphis

If you love somebody enough
You’ll follow wherever they go
That’s how I got to Memphis
That’s how I got to Memphis

6. Paul Simon – Graceland

I’m going to Graceland
Graceland
In Memphis Tennessee
I’m going to Graceland
Poorboys and Pilgrims with families
And we are going to Graceland

7. King Curtis – Memphis Soul Stew

Today’s special is Memphis Soul Stew
We sell so much of this, people wonder what we put in it
We gonna tell you right now
Give me about a half a teacup of bass

8. Jimmie Rodgers – Blue Yodel # 9

Standing on the corner, I didn’t mean no harm
When a police come, he took me by the arm
Was down in Memphis, corner of Beale and Main
Said “hey big boy, you better tell me your name”

9. John Hiatt – Memphis In The Meantime

Lets go to Memphis in the meantime baby
Memphis in the meantime girl

I need a little shot of that rhythm baby
Mixed up with these country blues
I wanna trade in these ol country boots
For some fine italian shoes

10.  The Rolling Stones – Honky Tonk Women

I met a gin soaked, bar-room queen in Memphis,
She tried to take me upstairs for a ride.
She had to heave me right across her shoulder
cause I just cant seem to drink you off my mind.

11. Bruce Springsteen – Johnny Bye-Bye

Well she drew out all her money from the Southern Trust
And put her little boy on a Greyhound Bus
Leaving Memphis with a guitar in his hand
On a one-way ticket to the promised land

Well hey little girl with the red dress on
There’s a party tonight down in Memphis town
I’ll be going down there if you need a ride
A man on the radio says, “Elvis Presley’s died”

We drove down into Memphis, the sky was hard and black
Up over the ridge came a white Cadillac
They’d drawn out all his money and they laid him in the back
A woman cried from the roadside, “Oh he’s gone, he’s gone”

12. Rosanne Cash – Modern Blue

I went to Barcelona on the midnight train
I walked the streets of Paris in the pouring rain
I flew across and island in the Northern Sea
And I ended up in Memphis, Tennessee

..

Will you still be there when I round the curve?
Will you hold my hand when I lose my nerve?
Oh I went to Barcelona and my mind got changed
So I’m heading back to Memphis on the midnight train

13. Lucinda Williams – Memphis Pearl

Back in Memphis where she grew up
The life she knew was just not enough
Back in Memphis when she was a girl
She thought one day she’d own the world

14. John Fogerty – Big Train (From Memphis)

Well I’ve rode ’em in and back out again – you know what they say about trains;
But I’m tellin’ you when that Memphis train came through,
This ol’ world was not the same.

Big train from memphis, big train from memphis,
Now it’s gone gone gone, gone gone gone.

15. The Replacements – Alex Chilton

Runnin’ ’round the house, Mickey Mouse and the Tarot cards.
Falling asleep with a flop pop video on.
If he was from Venus, would he meet us on the moon?
If he died in Memphis, then that’d be cool, babe.

16. Little Feat – Dixie Chicken

I’ve seen the bright lights of Memphis
And the Commodore Hotel
And underneath a street lamp, I met a southern belle
Oh she took me to the river, where she cast her spell
And in that southern moonlight, she sang this song so well

17. Memphis Jug Band – Going Back To Memphis

When I get back to Memphis, you can bet I’ll stay
When I get back to Memphis, you can bet I’ll stay
And I ain’t gonna leave until that judgment day

I love old Memphis, the place where I was born
I love old Memphis, the place where I was born
Wear my box-back suit, and drink my bottle of corn

18. Rufus Thomas – The Memphis Train

I said, ooh, wee, the Memphis train
Hey, now, now, now, now
Ooh, wee, the Memphis train
Yeah, yeah, yeah

19. Lyle Lovett – I’ve Been To Memphis

I’ve been to Memphis
And Muscle Shoals
And I love a woman
What I don’t know

20. Merle Haggard – From Graceland To The Promised Land

From the sun years of the Fifties and the birth of rock and roll
Millions screamed to see him do his thing
Elvis touched the life of ev’ry ear that heard him
And they couldn’t help but listen when he sang

It’s a long way from Memphis to that mansion in the sky
But he kept his faith in Jesus all along

Spotify playlist:
including versions with other artists as well

Check out:

• A Road Trip in The Deep South – Part 1: Planning
• Elvis Presley recording history in Memphis
• Class of 55: Memphis Rock & Roll Homecoming

-Egil