Two States With No Official Song — and the One With Ten
Forty-eight American states have an official song. Two do not. One state has nine or ten. And one state spent eighteen years with no song at all, then got two in a single day. The edges of the state-songs list are where the best quiz questions live, because they break the pattern every other question follows. This guide tells the stories of the two songless states, the state that came back from nothing, and the state that could not stop adopting songs.
New Jersey: The State That Never Chose One
New Jersey is the only state that has never had an official state song. It is not for lack of songs about the place — Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” is one of the most famous songs in the world, and it is about New Jersey through and through. But the state legislature never adopted it, or any other song, as official. Bills have been proposed over the years and none has passed, which leaves New Jersey in a class of one: forty-nine states have picked a song at some point, and New Jersey never has. For the quiz, that makes New Jersey the freest ten points in the game. Any round asking which state has never had an official song has exactly one right answer, and it is always New Jersey.
Maryland: The Song That Was Repealed
Maryland did have a song — “Maryland, My Maryland”, set to the tune of “O Tannenbaum” — and it lost it. The song dated from the Civil War era and carried lyrics sympathetic to the Confederacy, and for decades it embarrassed the state every time it was played at an official event. Attempts to replace it failed year after year, until finally, on July 1, 2021, the General Assembly repealed it outright and adopted nothing in its place. Maryland has had no official state song since. The repeal is the reason Maryland is the second no-song state, and the reason the quiz can ask about it two different ways: which state has no song now, and which state repealed its song in 2021. Both answers are Maryland.
Virginia: Eighteen Years With Nothing, Then Two at Once
Virginia’s story is the strangest of all. Its old song, “Carry Me Back to Old Virginny”, was the official state song from 1940 until 1997, when the General Assembly demoted it to “state song emeritus” because its lyrics — written from the point of view of an enslaved person — had become an embarrassment the state could no longer defend. For eighteen years Virginia had no active state song at all: the old one was retired, and no replacement could get through the legislature. Then, on July 1, 2015, the state adopted two at once: “Our Great Virginia” as the official traditional song, and “Sweet Virginia Breeze” as the official popular song. Virginia went from zero songs to two in a single day, after nearly two decades of silence. It is the best comeback story in the whole list — and the reason Virginia is not a no-song state, even though it spent longer without one than Maryland has so far.
Tennessee: The State With Nine or Ten Songs
At the other end of the scale sits Tennessee, with nine or ten official songs — more than any other state, and more than most states have ever considered. The list includes “The Tennessee Waltz”, “Rocky Top”, “My Tennessee”, “My Homeland, Tennessee”, “When It’s Iris Time in Tennessee”, “Tennessee”, “The Pride of Tennessee” and “Smoky Mountain Rain”, among others. The reason is simple: Tennessee is the home of Nashville and Memphis, and its music industry kept producing songs the legislature wanted to honour. Every few years another one got adopted, and nobody ever removed one. The result is a state with a playlist instead of a song — and a standing trap for quiz players, because a question about Tennessee can never be answered with “the” song. The quiz uses “The Tennessee Waltz” as its canonical title, the best known of the ten, but the other nine are the reason the question is hard: if you only know one Tennessee song, you only know a tenth of the answer.
How to Use the Edges
Four facts cover almost every edge question in the game. One: New Jersey never had a song — the only state in that category. Two: Maryland repealed its song on July 1, 2021, and has had none since. Three: Virginia had no song from 1997 to 2015, then adopted two — “Our Great Virginia” and “Sweet Virginia Breeze”. Four: Tennessee has nine or ten songs, and “The Tennessee Waltz” is the one the quiz uses. Learn those four and the unusual rounds stop being guesses. The rest of the list is forty-four states with one song each, and the table in the quiz page has all of them — but the edges are where the points are won and lost, because the edges are where the pattern breaks.
Which states have no official song?
Two: New Jersey, which has never had one, and Maryland, which repealed “Maryland, My Maryland” on July 1, 2021 and has had none since.
Did Virginia ever have no state song?
Yes — from 1997 to 2015. Its old song was retired in 1997, and in 2015 it adopted two: “Our Great Virginia” (traditional) and “Sweet Virginia Breeze” (popular).
Why did Maryland repeal its song?
“Maryland, My Maryland” dated from the Civil War era and carried lyrics sympathetic to the Confederacy. It was repealed on July 1, 2021, with no replacement adopted.
Which state has the most official songs?
Tennessee, with nine or ten — including “The Tennessee Waltz”, “Rocky Top” and “My Tennessee”. The quiz uses “The Tennessee Waltz” as its canonical title.
Has any state changed its song recently?
Yes. Mississippi adopted “One Mississippi” in 2022, replacing its old song — the newest state song adoption in the country.
Two states with nothing, one state with two after eighteen years of silence, and one state with ten. The edges of the list are the whole game: learn them, and the ordinary rounds take care of themselves. Test yourself on all forty-eight official songs now. And if you want to practise the states themselves — not just their songs — the free us states quiz map game is the best place to do it.