In 1968, Glen Campbell released a simple song about a man who works on telephone poles in the middle of Kansas. Though that may not sound like a story for a massive hit, "Wichita Lineman" became one of the most beloved and critically acclaimed pop songs of the '60s. It hit the No. 3 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, was ranked by "Rolling Stone" as the 195th best song of all time, and has been called "the greatest pop song ever composed."

Clocking in at a run time of 11 minutes and 23 seconds, "Albuquerque" is easily Weird Al's longest song, and there's a good reason. Yankovic placed the song as the last track on his 1999 album "Running With Scissors," intending to "make this song so long that people are only gonna want to hear it once." Despite his intentions, "Albuquerque" became one of his most popular tunes, describing his fictional life in the city after winning a one-way ticket there.

As They Might Be Giants reminds us in their hit song "Istanbul," "Istanbul was Constantinople / Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople." Before either of those names, the largest city in Turkey was founded as Byzantium around the eighth century BCE, and, in a few hundred years, grew to become the capital and namesake of the Byzantine Empire.

The Doors' "L.A. Woman" was the title track of the band's final album before the death of its lead singer, Jim Morrison. In it, the City of Angels is personified as a woman and Morrison sings, "I see your hair is burning / Hills are filled with fire." Because of the song’s metaphorical lyrics and innovative sound, the band’s guitarist, Robby Krieger, considers it the "quintessential Doors song."

Ipanema is a beach neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Known today as the city's "Little Paris," Ipanema is famous for its avant-garde galleries, bookstores, and relaxing coastline. The hit bossa nova song "Girl From Ipanema" was written in the neighborhood in the 1960s and put the locale on the world map after becoming one of the most popular elevator tunes in history.

The Clash's hit song "London Calling" is famously named after the BBC World Service's World War II-era radio station identification, "This is London calling." The song, which shares its name with the Clash's third studio album, details the many ways that the world could end and was written primarily by the band's lead singer, Joe Strummer, an avid news buff. Despite its apocalyptic lyrics, the song has become beloved in London and was even used to promote the 2012 Summer Olympics.

"Leaving Las Vegas" was one of the first singles from Sheryl Crow's 1993 debut album, "Tuesday Night Music Club." The song was named after a 1990 novel by John O'Brien that was later adapted into a movie of the same name, starring Nicolas Cage and Elisabeth Shue, in 1995. Though Crow's song wasn't in the movie, it did prove to be a minor hit, and she performed it on the "Late Show with David Letterman" — one of her first big breaks.

Bruce Springsteen's song "Streets of Philadelphia" was written for the Tom Hanks film "Philadelphia" in 1993. Critics called the song "somber" and "powerful," much like the tragic movie in which it plays. Springsteen won four Grammys for his performance, as well as the Academy Award for Best Original Song. His competition in that category included Neil Young's song "Philadelphia," which was written for the same film.

"New York, New York" might be most closely associated with Frank Sinatra, but before he made the tune his signature song, Liza Minnelli sang it as the theme song to the 1977 Martin Scorsese film of the same name. In fact, the song was written by John Kander and Fred Ebb specifically for the movie, which starred Robert De Niro. Sinatra began performing his version one year later, and it became the final hit of his career.

Though "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" became Tony Bennett's signature song, it was actually written by two then-unknown songwriters — George C. Cory Jr. and Douglass Cross — in 1954. Eight years later, Bennett discovered the song and performed it for the first time at the Fairmont Hotel in Nob Hill, crooning, "The loveliness of Paris seems somehow sadly gay / The glory that was Rome is of another day / I've been terribly alone and forgotten in Manhattan / I'm going home to my city by the Bay." His version went on to win a Grammy for Record of the Year.