Today I did a search in my music library for Phoenix’s hit song “1901″ and noticed that there were a ton of tracks that had a year from the 1900s referenced in the title. Even more surprising is how good a lot of these songs are! Here’s some of my favorites in chronological order:

Phoenix // 1901 (Live & Unplugged)

Woody Guthrie // 1913 Massacre

Swan Lake // Petersburg, Liberty Theater, 1914

Califone // 1928

Harry Nilsson // 1941

Neutral Milk Hotel // Holland, 1945

Ryan Adams // 1974

The Mountain Goats // Chino Love Song 1979

Lucero // 1979

Smashing Pumpkins // 1979

The Tough Alliance // 1981

The Mountain Goats // Sept 15, 1983

M. Ward // From a Pirate Radio Sermon, 1989

Crystal Castles // 1991

Department of Eagles // 1997 (Daytrotter Session)

Suburban Kids with Biblical Names // 1999

A brief search for past centuries yielded paltry results in comparison (just a Slagsmalsklubben “1888 Franklin” song and a handful of year 2000 references). What’s also interesting is a lot of the 1900s referenced tracks were made in the aughts, highlighting how nostalgia was certainly in vogue the first decade of the 20th century. Anyways, just thought this was something pretty cool to find!