A second trawl amongst the ragbag of songs about aeroplanes and we begin with a surprising entry from 1934.
“On the Good Ship Lollipop” was the signature song of child actress Shirley Temple sang it in the film of 1934, Bright Eyes. The song was composed by Richard A. Whiting and the lyrics were supplied by Sidney Clare. In the song the “Good Ship Lollipop” travels to a candy land. The “ship” referred to in the song is an aircraft; the scene in Bright Eyes where the song appears takes place on a taxiing American Airlines Douglas DC-2.
“Early Morning Rain,” is a song written, composed, and recorded by Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot. The song appears on his 1966 debut album Lightfoot! The lyrics suggest someone down on his luck, standing at an airport fence and observing the thunderous takeoff of a Boeing 707 jet airliner. The general narrative of the song can be taken as a jet-age musical allegory to a hobo of yesteryear lurking around a railroad yard attempting to ride a freight train to get home. Peter,Paul and Mary’s version of the song was also recorded in 1965, reaching No. 91 on the Billboard in that year.
“Back in the U.S.S.R.” is a song by the Beatles and the first track of the 1968 White Album. Written by Paul McCartney and credited to the Lennon-McCartney partnership, the song is a parody of Chuck Berry’s “Back in the USA.” and the Beach Boys’ “California Girls”. The lyrics subvert Berry’s patriotic sentiments about the United States, as the narrator expresses relief upon returning home to the Soviet Union, formally the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). “Back in the U.S.S.R.” opens and closes with the sound of a jet aircraft landing on a runway. The effect also appears partway through the recording and represents an “aural cartoon”, according to music critic Tim Riley, who says the song is “offered as a hoot and delivered as such”. The opening lyrics refer to a “dreadful” flight back to the USSR from Miami Beach in the United States, on board a BOAC airliner.
“Coming into Los Angeles” is a track of Arlo Guthrie’s second studio album Running Down the Road (1969). Apparently, it was the most inspiring voyage of Arlo Guthrie’s itinerant music career, but a lot of the details are a bit of a blur now, like so much of the late 1960s. “I was flying from London to L.A. I don’t know what airline it was. It was around 1968 — I was like 18 or 19. I’m sorry. It was a long time ago.” The one thing Guthrie absolutely remembers is the turbulence. “It was one of those bumpy flights where the whole plane just drops and you feel like you’re in a car that just bottomed out on the road.” The ride was so rough that stewardesses were dropping chicken dinners off their trays. Passenger Guthrie had another reason for jangled nerves; his London friends had sent the young American home with some gifts and, after takeoff, he opened one and found some contraband inside that left him in a smuggler’s sweat and, later, inspired a song.
“Travelin’ Band” is a song written by John Fogerty and originally recorded by Creedence Clearwater Revival. It was included on their 1970 album Cosmo’s Factory. Backed with “Who’ll Stop the Rain”, it was one of three double sided singles from that album to reach the top five in the US and the first of two to reach the number 2 spot on the American charts. The opening line “Seven-thirty-seven coming out of the sky” refers to the Boeing 737, then coming into service on short-to-medium range routes.
“Paper Plane” is a rock song originally by Status Quo. It was released as a single in November 1972, reaching number 8 in the UK, and appeared on their album, Piledriver. The song was written by Francis Rossi and Bob Young. The song was reprised, in 2014, for the band’s thirty-first studio album Aquostic. It was featured in the ninety-minute launch performance of the album at London’s Roundhouse in October, the concert being recorded and broadcast live by the BBC.
Typically Tropical were a British band comprising two Trojan Records audio engineers, Jeff Calvert and Max West. They are best known for their 1975 number one hit record “Barbados”. Opening with “Barbados”, the version on the album was slightly different. It began with an additional pre-take-off conversation between Captain Tobias Willcock and Air Traffic Control, whereas the single version begins with the Captain’s welcome to his passengers.
“Snakes on a Plane (Bring It)“, also referred to as “Bring It (Snakes on a Plane)“, is the debut single by Cobra Starship, released in 2006 as the main single from the soundtrack to the film Snakes on a Plane. In addition to Cobra Starship vocalist Gabe Saporta, the song features William Beckett of The Academy Is…, Travie McCoy of Gym Class Heroes, and Maja Ivarsson of The Sounds. Before being written specifically for the film, the song was titled “Bring It”.
