Glasgow Inspires Most Songs
PRS for Music chart sees Scottish City named in more song titles than any other
Cities and towns have been used as a trigger and inspiration for memorable songs for centuries, from Christmas carols, traditional folk songs to rock songs and it seems that some cities have been more influential than others.
But in a surprise result it is the famous Scottish city of Glasgow which has topped the PRS for Music chart with the most number of songs crediting the city name within the song title.
PRS for Music took the top 30 towns and cities throughout the UK by population (excluding London) to analyse the data using its extensive database.
Number |
City | Amount of Songs |
|---|---|---|
1 |
Glasgow |
119 |
2 |
Edinburgh |
95 |
3 |
Birmingham |
89 |
4 |
Liverpool |
67 |
5 |
Manchester |
63 |
6 |
Belfast |
60 |
7 |
York |
59 |
8 |
Brighton |
54 |
9 |
Bristol |
49 |
10 |
Newcastle |
31 |
Notably, the Scottish capital city, Edinburgh comes in a close second, showing that the Scottish highland spirit really can be inspiration to music creators. Some of the classic Glasgow tunes include ‘I Belong to Glasgow’ written by Will Fyfe, reputedly after helping a drunk who said "The way I feel tonight is that Glasgow belongs to me”.
Songwriters feed off their inspiration and this could be anything from a feeling or an object or place. It seems that a number of songwriters have taken Glasgow into their hearts and felt it was right to produce a piece of work about their feelings towards the city. It’s great to see two Scottish cities, both Glasgow and Edinburgh, having such an effect on our members!
5 Glasgow Inspired Tracks
- I Belong To Glasgow, written by Will Fyfe
- Streets of Glasgow, written by Alastair Caplin
- The Glasgow I Below To, written by Adam McNaughtan
- Let Glasgow Flourish, written by John Bell
- I’ve Been To Glasgow, written by Mark Rogers
About PRS for Music
PRS for Music represents the rights of over 160,000 songwriters, composers, and music publishers in the UK and around the world. On behalf of its members, it works to grow and protect the value of their rights and ensure that creators are paid transparently and efficiently whenever their musical compositions and songs are streamed, downloaded, broadcast, performed and played in public. In 2020, 22.4 trillion performances of music were reported to PRS for Music, with £699m paid out in royalties to its members, making it one of the world’s leading music collective management organisations.
PRS for Music’s public performance licensing is now carried out on PRS for Music’s behalf by PPL PRS Ltd, the joint venture between PPL and PRS for Music.
