Caroline Thanh Hương
20 holiday destinations so fantastic they inspired a song
If there are two things all creatives love, it’s music and travel.
But where to go? That’s the big question... why not let the power of song help decide where you travel to next, with Creative Boom’s hotlist of great tunes that come with a holiday idea for free...
The real-life island behind Madge’s smoulderingly sultry 1987 number
one single is just of off the coast of Belize, in the Caribbean Sea.
Ambergris Caye is a 25 mile (40km) strip of land just one mile wide, ringed by white sand beaches and home to the second largest barrier reef in the world. As if that wasn’t enough reason to got there, due to the island’s diminutive size, most of the road traffic is golf buggies.
Watch the Video
Despite the opening lines: “Aruba, Jamaica, ooo I wanna take ya, Bermuda, Bahama, come on pretty mama,” the Beach Boys 1988 hit was inspired by a poolside bar in the Florida village of Islamorado (aisle-a-mor-ada-).
However, the song was such a huge hit that Sandals Royal Caribbean resort decided to name one of their privately-owned islands after it (a 2.5 km dot of all-inclusive tropical gorgeousness in Montego Bay, Jamaica.)
Komoko was an original song for the film ‘Cocktail’ but was beaten into second place for a ‘Best Song for a Motion Picture’ Grammy by Phil Collins’ ‘Two Hearts’. Shocker.
Watch the Video
According to Trip Advisor, Istanbul is currently the top rated tourist destination in Europe.
It’s a city steeped in history and culture, with the added benefit of idyllic sandy islands just a 90 min ferry ride away. The Princes’ Islands are popular with locals, but not well publicised by travel companies. If you want relax on a beach and hit up some culture, Istanbul would make a fine choice. Just don’t call it Constantinople.
Upon the creation of the Turkish Republic in 1923, the rebranding of the former capital of the Roman Empire was big global news. Canadian swing quartet, The Four Lads wrote a fun satirical song about it, which was given a new lease of life in 1990 by They Might Be Giants.
Watch the Video
A tiny island in the Gulf of Naples, Capri has been a holiday resort
since the time of the Roman Republic, and was subsequently developed by
Emperor Augustus into his own private paradise full of villas, temples
and planted gardens.
Singer, actress, comedienne and WW2 forces’ sweetheart Dame Gracie Fields covered this popular tango in 1934 and really made it her own. The reason she covered the song? She’d bought a villa there, having fallen so madly in love with the “wonderful, gentle place” that she never wanted to leave.
Watch the Video
1962 tale of a ‘tall and tanned and young and lovely’ 19-year-old
woman wandering through the well-heeled, seaside neighbourhood in Rio,
which for all its connotations of elegance, Ipanema translates into
English as ‘stinky lake.’
The song resulted in a 2001 court case, as the real-life subject of the song - Playboy model Helô Pinheiro - got sued by the heirs of the original writers, Jobim and Moraes, for naming her boutique ‘Girl From Ipanema.’
The judge ruled that as the writers previously publicised the fact the song was about her, they purposely had given her the name - so in the eyes of the law, she is The Girl From Ipenema and therefore, entitled to name her shop after herself.
Watch the Video
The idea for this song came whilst sat in the Copacabana hotel in
Rio, yet it’s not about the famous beach: it’s a story set in the same
New York nightclub that hosted the scene in Goodfellas where Henry Hill
(Ray Liotta) escorts his girlfriend Karen the VVVIP route, through the
kitchens and gets a table set up especially, right at the front.
Musically, this is pretty nasty faux-disco, but Barry Manilow outsourced the lyric writing and got a three- act twisting narrative full of drama. If you’ve not heard it for a while, it’s a fun way to spend three mins getting in the holiday mood.
Watch the Video
It might have the name of a Brazilian holiday hotspot in the chorus,
but make no mistake, Rio is about Duran Duran’s ambition to make it big
in the USA. Hence the lyrics: “from mountains in the North down to the Rio Grande” (the Rio Grande being the river than separates the USA from Mexico).
Filmed in Antigua, so for the full prone-on-a-yacht-bouncing-over-breakers-on-a-cobalt-sea experience, go there.
Watch the Video
Super fashionable in the 1950s as a holiday haven for the likes of
Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra and Brigitte Bardot. Nowadays that
glamour has faded, due to the proliferation of drug cartels and the
savage violence that goes with that. Although drugs gangs don’t affect
the whole of Mexico, Acapulco has seen some gruesome incidents in the
last 5 years…probably best to avoid.
Watch the Video
“Come fly with me, let’s float down to Peru. In Llama-land, there’s a one man band, he’ll toot his flute for you,” sang Frank on his 1957 hit from the album of the same name.
According to onthegotours.com, the place to go llama spotting is Curco, the ancient capital of the Inca empire - and also check out the lost city of Machu Picchu.
Watch the Video
The video for Wham’s 1983 cocktail-soaked classic was filmed in
Ibiza, at lavish party hotel, Pikes (where Freddie Mercury held his 41st
birthday bash) but is in fact a more general satire on a growing 80s
trend: raucous, ribald 18-30 holidays.
Check out the video. Club 18-30 must have been way more classy in the 80s.
Watch the Video
The anthem of the 1992 Olympics was a hook-up between operatic
soprano Ms Cabellé and the former Queen frontman. Despite being
commissioned for the ’92 games, the song was released four years early.
Sadly Freddie wasn’t around to see the games - he passed away in 1991.
Incidentally, at his aforementioned 41st birthday party, Freddie’s cake was a two-metre long sponge with the musical notes of Barcelona iced on it.
Watch the Video
Breaking Bad tourism has made Albuquerque a fast-growing tourist
destination where the locals will flog you anything from doughnuts to
bath products styled to resemble the infamous ‘Blue Sky’ crystal meth.
But British pop-rock outfit Prefab Sprout put it on the map back in 88, with the infectious tripped-out chorus: “Hot dog, jumping frog, Albuquerque”.
Watch the Video
“I left my heart in San Francisco. It’s at some m--herf--king
disco. People there were dancing on it. And that’s including Miss
Matronic.”
There’s loads of songs about hippie-homeland-cum-hipster-hotbed San Francisco - but this track from Scissor Sisters’ 2004 debut album is the most fun by a mile.
Watch the Video
The French Rivera has always been popular with creative types. Coco
Chanel holidayed there. David Hockney lived and worked there. Aeromsith
went there to detox. And Pink Floyd wrote this gorgeously summery
slide guitar and piano number for their 1971 album, 'Meddle.'
Watch the Video
Credit: The Visual Explorer / Shutterstock.com
The ‘Latin Las Vegas’ was the top destination in Caribbean tourism
during the years of Prohibition, then the political climate of
revolution and communism saw things drop off in the 1960s, up until
1997 when locals speaking to tourists was finally decriminalised.
A few islands along, in Martinique, the Gibson Brothers were inspired by the heady brew of rum, rhumba and revolutionaries, and created this funky disco anthem that went onto be #1 in 16 countries.
Watch the Video
Tucked away on his Escapology album, the last one before his
UFO-loving year-long sabbatical, dabbling with hip-hop and brief return
to Take That, is this bouncy lyrical tour around L.A, where Robbie
speculates how you: ‘Can’t find a virgin but you can get a surgeon, 24 hours a day…’
Watch the Video
More of a tourist attraction than a destination this one.... there
are hundreds of songs about Paris, in fact, the roster is so crowded
that Dave Frisberg wrote the cheekily-titled ‘Another Song About
Paris.’
But this 1991 track by influential alt-rockers the Pixies really stands out, as it is a tribute to Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, the French engineer who designed both the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty.
The Pixies were the prototype for Nirvana, having pioneered the soft/loud stop/start dynamic so prevalent in Kurt Cobain's songwriting.
Watch the Video
The most-mentioned location in music is Memphis, and this list
wouldn’t be complete without it. .. in 1967, King Curtis melded two
great reasons to go there, soul food and soul music, into one awesome
song that never got old, and will almost certainly be cool forever.
Watch the Video
The Sea was the huge radio hit from 1998’s Big Calm, and the theme
tune to Channel 4’s uninhabited island survival show Castaway. The
easy grooves arouse connotations of paradisaical sandy beaches, but it
has more to do with clunky pebble beaches…
The inspiration for ‘The Sea’ is actually Brighton, on the South Coast of England. A super-hip town that is commonly known as London-on-sea, Brighton’s boutiques, nightlife and disproportionately strong selection of music and food festivals all help keep the tourists rolling in.
Watch the Video
While this 70’s prog-rocker appears to be about the Aurora Borealis,
in reality, it is more concerned with lead singer Annie Haslam looking
out of window of an aeroplane, and feeling lonely as she went off to try
and make it big in - you guessed it - The USA.
But if you didn’t know that, you couldn’t tell. And referring to the twinkle of her hometown Bolton - as seen out of the window of a plane banking out of Manchester airport - as ‘Northern Lights’ just wouldn’t have happened without prior knowledge of the awe-inspiring natural wonder, Gods-own disco lazershow, Aurora Borealis.
Watch the Video
But where to go? That’s the big question... why not let the power of song help decide where you travel to next, with Creative Boom’s hotlist of great tunes that come with a holiday idea for free...
1. Ambergris Caye / La Isla Bonita / Madonna
Ambergris Caye is a 25 mile (40km) strip of land just one mile wide, ringed by white sand beaches and home to the second largest barrier reef in the world. As if that wasn’t enough reason to got there, due to the island’s diminutive size, most of the road traffic is golf buggies.
Watch the Video
2. Florida Keys / Komoko / Beach Boys
However, the song was such a huge hit that Sandals Royal Caribbean resort decided to name one of their privately-owned islands after it (a 2.5 km dot of all-inclusive tropical gorgeousness in Montego Bay, Jamaica.)
Komoko was an original song for the film ‘Cocktail’ but was beaten into second place for a ‘Best Song for a Motion Picture’ Grammy by Phil Collins’ ‘Two Hearts’. Shocker.
Watch the Video
3. Istanbul / Istanbul (not Constantinople) / They Might Be Giants
It’s a city steeped in history and culture, with the added benefit of idyllic sandy islands just a 90 min ferry ride away. The Princes’ Islands are popular with locals, but not well publicised by travel companies. If you want relax on a beach and hit up some culture, Istanbul would make a fine choice. Just don’t call it Constantinople.
Upon the creation of the Turkish Republic in 1923, the rebranding of the former capital of the Roman Empire was big global news. Canadian swing quartet, The Four Lads wrote a fun satirical song about it, which was given a new lease of life in 1990 by They Might Be Giants.
Watch the Video
4. Capri / Isle of Capri / Gracie Fields
Singer, actress, comedienne and WW2 forces’ sweetheart Dame Gracie Fields covered this popular tango in 1934 and really made it her own. The reason she covered the song? She’d bought a villa there, having fallen so madly in love with the “wonderful, gentle place” that she never wanted to leave.
Watch the Video
5. Rio De Janerio / Girl From Ipanema / Lou Rawls
The song resulted in a 2001 court case, as the real-life subject of the song - Playboy model Helô Pinheiro - got sued by the heirs of the original writers, Jobim and Moraes, for naming her boutique ‘Girl From Ipanema.’
The judge ruled that as the writers previously publicised the fact the song was about her, they purposely had given her the name - so in the eyes of the law, she is The Girl From Ipenema and therefore, entitled to name her shop after herself.
Watch the Video
6. New York City / Copacabana / Barry Manilow
Musically, this is pretty nasty faux-disco, but Barry Manilow outsourced the lyric writing and got a three- act twisting narrative full of drama. If you’ve not heard it for a while, it’s a fun way to spend three mins getting in the holiday mood.
Watch the Video
7. The USA / Rio / Duran Duran
Filmed in Antigua, so for the full prone-on-a-yacht-bouncing-over-breakers-on-a-cobalt-sea experience, go there.
Watch the Video
8. Acapulco, Mexico / Loco in Acapulco / The Four Tops
Watch the Video
9. Cuzco, Peru / Come Fly With Me / Frank Sinatra
According to onthegotours.com, the place to go llama spotting is Curco, the ancient capital of the Inca empire - and also check out the lost city of Machu Picchu.
Watch the Video
10. Ibiza / Club Tropicana / Wham
Check out the video. Club 18-30 must have been way more classy in the 80s.
Watch the Video
11. Barcelona / Barcelona / Freddie Mercury & Montserrat Cabellé
Incidentally, at his aforementioned 41st birthday party, Freddie’s cake was a two-metre long sponge with the musical notes of Barcelona iced on it.
Watch the Video
12. Albuquerque, New Mexico / King of Rock and Roll / Prefab Sprout
But British pop-rock outfit Prefab Sprout put it on the map back in 88, with the infectious tripped-out chorus: “Hot dog, jumping frog, Albuquerque”.
Watch the Video
13. San Francisco / Music is the Victim / Scissor Sisters
There’s loads of songs about hippie-homeland-cum-hipster-hotbed San Francisco - but this track from Scissor Sisters’ 2004 debut album is the most fun by a mile.
Watch the Video
14. Saint Tropez / San Tropez / Pink Floyd
Watch the Video
15. Cuba / Cuba / Gibson Brothers
Credit: The Visual Explorer / Shutterstock.comA few islands along, in Martinique, the Gibson Brothers were inspired by the heady brew of rum, rhumba and revolutionaries, and created this funky disco anthem that went onto be #1 in 16 countries.
Watch the Video
16. Los Angeles / Hot Fudge / Robbie Williams
Watch the Video
17. Paris / Alec Eiffel / The Pixies
But this 1991 track by influential alt-rockers the Pixies really stands out, as it is a tribute to Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, the French engineer who designed both the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty.
The Pixies were the prototype for Nirvana, having pioneered the soft/loud stop/start dynamic so prevalent in Kurt Cobain's songwriting.
Watch the Video
18. Memphis / Memphis Soul Stew / King Curtis and the Kingpins
Watch the Video
19. Brighton / The Sea / Morcheeba
The inspiration for ‘The Sea’ is actually Brighton, on the South Coast of England. A super-hip town that is commonly known as London-on-sea, Brighton’s boutiques, nightlife and disproportionately strong selection of music and food festivals all help keep the tourists rolling in.
Watch the Video
20. The Northern Lights / Northern Lights / Renaissance
But if you didn’t know that, you couldn’t tell. And referring to the twinkle of her hometown Bolton - as seen out of the window of a plane banking out of Manchester airport - as ‘Northern Lights’ just wouldn’t have happened without prior knowledge of the awe-inspiring natural wonder, Gods-own disco lazershow, Aurora Borealis.
Watch the Video
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire