Seattle songs
Over the years, many have memorialized Seattle in song. In 1961, one Ethelyn Hartwich sent the Council a ditty about keeping Seattle clean. Twenty years later, a man wrote from Mexico sending his own Seattle song, written entirely in Spanish.
A song called "I Want to See Seattle" was sent on CD and included lines such as, "I want to see the river/Where the sockeye salmon quiver." Another CD contained a 2001 salute to baseball titled "All Star Town," with verses that included:
It's goin' down in Seattle Town Everyone comin' round Getting stoked - cup a Joe Biggest ticket in the show
One song that received wider distribution was titled "Seattle, My Own Home Town," which was written in 1952 and recorded by the Mercer Island Children's Choir in the early 1980s. A citizen sent Mayor Royer the sheet music along with a P-I column which claimed that if you could listen to it without tapping your feet, "then part of you is dead."
However, Seattle's official song predates all of these. In May 1909 Arthur O. Dillon petitioned the City Council to adopt "Seattle the Peerless City" as the city song.
Seattle City Song
Words by: Arthur O. Dillon Music by: Glenn W. Ashley
Seattle sits on seven hills, Her glory is unfurled, At her feet is Puget Sound, Where moves The Commerce of the world.
Chorus: Hail to the Peerless City, Metropolis of the west, The gateway to the Orient, Whom grandeur hath caressed!
Her bosom's gemm'd with pearly lakes, The mountains tower near; The fir tree forest skirts her bound; The beauty of earth is here.
(Chorus)
Her men and women active, proud, Seattle build sublime, And greater far than ancient Rome, The matchless for all time.
(Chorus)
True love and art shall flourish here, The heart's sweet, tender theme, Upholders of the truth here dwell, The dreamers of the Dream.
(Chorus)
The Finance Committee recommended the song be adopted, providing Councilmember Frederick Sawyer sang it for the Council. Sawyer apparently did so, as the petition was subsequently granted.
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