The Garden State Greats 

Saint Peters’ run in the NCAA Tournament revived all sorts of proclamations about New Jersey pride and Garden State grit. In response, here is a list of 21 songs that either bear some of that New Jersey attitude or at the very least have a strong Jersey connection. Missing in action: Whitney Houston, who could have been from Los Angeles or Miami for all the New Jersey she brought to her music, and Bon Jovi, because they’re Bon Jovi. 

Candy Girl – Four Seasons (1963)

The last holdouts of the urban doo-wop sound and briefly New Jersey’s answer to the Beatles. Three members were born and raised in the melting pot that was Newark and next-door Belleville. “Candy Girl” is a Frankie Valli vocal showcase.  

How Can I Be Sure – Young Rascals (1967)

Eddie Brigati of Garfield sings lead on this accordion-driven Paris on the Passaic ballad. 

My Boyfriend’s Back – Angels (1963)

Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow – Shirelles (1960)

The Angels were from Belleville and Orange, the Shirelles from Passaic. “My Boyfriend’s Back” offers the immortal warning, “If I were you I’d take a permanent vacation.” 

Hasbrook Heights – Dionne Warwick (1972)

Written by Burt Bacharach whom, the internet says, briefly lived in Hasbrouck Heights. While the lyrics are complimentary, he awkwardly changed the name of the town to protect the innocent. Sung, of course, by an East Orange native. 

Pleasant Valley Sunday – Monkees (1967)

Like Burt Bacharach, Carole King and Gerry Goffin were commuting into Manhattan from New Jersey while they worked at the Brill Building. The Goffins lived on Pleasant Valley Way in West Orange, among “rows of house that are all the same/And on one seems to care.” 

Brandy – Looking Glass (1972)

Ariel – Dean Friedman (1977)

Lies – Knickerbockers (1965)

One-hit wonders from, respectively, New Brunswick, Paramus and Bergenfield. 

At Long Last Love – Frank Sinatra (1957)

Cole Porter acknowledges that New Jersey isn’t exactly the Garden of Eden as he asks the musical question, “Is it for all time or simply a lark/Is it Granada I see or only Asbury Park?” Sung, of course, by a Hoboken native. 

You Can’t Catch Me – Chuck Berry (1956)

America – Simon & Garfunkel (1971)

Racing a car with “hideaway wings” late one night on the Turnpike and with a state trooper bearing down, Chuck’s car takes flight: “Bye-bye New Jersey, I've become airborne.” The narrator in “America” stares out the window of a Greyhound Bus and counts the cars on the Turnpike. 

Jersey Girl – Tom Waits (1980)

Tweeter and the Monkey Man – Traveling Wilburies (1988)

The two best Bruce Springsteen songs not written by Bruce Springsteen. Bob Dylan’s “Tweeter” perpetuates the myth of New Jersey lawlessness: “In Jersey anything's legal as long as you don't get caught." 

4^th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy) – Bruce Springsteen (1973)

Palisades Park – Freddy Cannon (1960)

The singer in “Sandy” has come to the realization that once you get to the boardwalk, there’s nowhere left except the ocean. “Palisades Park” was written by Chuck Barris; Springsteen used the song as the intro to concerts when he was touring the “Tunnel of Love” album. 

Slip Away – David Bowie (2002)

Somehow, Bowie successfully makes The Uncle Floyd Show a mournful metaphor for lost times. “Back in the late ’70s, everyone would rush home in the afternoon to catch the Uncle Floyd Show. He was on UHF Ch. 68 and the show looked like it was done out of his living room in New Jersey. I knew so many people of my age who just wouldn’t miss it. Two of the regulars on the show were Oogie and Bones Boy, ridiculous puppets made out of ping-pong balls or some such … I just loved that show." 

Song For My Father – Horace Silver (1964)

Rudy van Gelder converted a couple of rooms in his parent’s home in Hackensack into a recording studio before moving into a much grander space in Englewood Cliffs and oversaw the production of hundreds of jazz albums, including many by Miles, Monk and Coltrane, all those jazz dudes known today by one name. Donald Fagen and Walter Becker based “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” on the main riff of “Song For My Father.” 

The Nightfly – Donald Fagen (1982)

Fagen grew up in Kendall Park and found life in suburbia stifling enough that he escaped into a teenager bedroom fantasy as a tragic figure chain-smoking through the night while hosting a jazz and talk radio show. 

Day of the Locusts – Bob Dylan (1970)

When Princeton University gave Bob Dylan an honorary degree at an outdoors commencement ceremony, the seventeen-year cicadas were loud enough to drown out the speakers. He described the “locusts” – which sounds a lot more biblical than “cicadas” – as “singing for me.” 

White Castle Blues – Smithereens (1986)

Also included on the soundtrack of the New Jersey epic Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. “I think I'll get some crisp onion rings/To compliment 10 of those little square things.”