21 Great songs with “Memphis” in their lyrics

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]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[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

I love Memphis and there many great songs with “Memphis” in their lyrics.

Here are 21 wonderful songs… Memphis it is.

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

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

2. Jerry Lee Lewis – Memphis Beat

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]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[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

3. Chuck Berry – Memphis, Tennessee

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]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[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

4. Johnny Cash – Big River

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]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.[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]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[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

6. Paul Simon – Graceland

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]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[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

7. King Curtis – Memphis Soul Stew

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]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[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

8. Jimmie Rodgers – Blue Yodel # 9

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]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”[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

9. John Hiatt – Memphis In The Meantime

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]Sure I like country music
I like mandolins
But right now I need a telecaster
Through a vibro-lux turned up to ten

Lets go to Memphis in the meantime baby
Memphis in the meantime girl[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

10.  The Rolling Stones – Honky Tonk Women

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]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.[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

11. Bruce Springsteen – Johnny Bye-Bye

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]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”[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

12. Rosanne Cash – Modern Blue

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]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[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

13. Lucinda Williams – Memphis Pearl

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]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[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

14. John Fogerty – Big Train (From Memphis)

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]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.[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

15. The Replacements – Alex Chilton

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]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.[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

16. Little Feat – Dixie Chicken

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]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[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

17. Memphis Jug Band – Going Back To Memphis

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]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[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

18. Rufus Thomas – The Memphis Train

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]I said, ooh, wee, the Memphis train
Hey, now, now, now, now
Ooh, wee, the Memphis train
Yeah, yeah, yeah[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

19. Lyle Lovett – I’ve Been To Memphis

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]I’ve been to Memphis
And Muscle Shoals
And I love a woman
What I don’t know[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

20. Merle Haggard – From Graceland To The Promised Land

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]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[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

21. Marc Cohn – Walking in Memphis

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]Put on my blue suede shoes
And I boarded the plane
Touched down in the land of the Delta Blues
In the middle of the pouring rain
W.C. Handy, won’t you look down over me
Yeah, I got a first class ticket
But I’m as blue as a boy can be[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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