Coney Island is an idea that lives inside all of us. The idea of Coney Island, even if you've never been there, captures the imagination & speaks to a nostalgia that can't exist anywhere else other than the heart & mind. Here are three songs all with the same title: Coney Island Baby.
The first, by the Excellents, from 1961 or 1962, is straight up doo wop. The musical equivalent of Coney Island to a degree.
Lou Reed's Coney Island Baby was the title track from his 1976 album, and followed his most extreme album in Metal Machine Music. With dashes of doo wop, Lou paints a personal picture...striving for some sort of meaning in life without coming across as corny. As only a great songwriter can do.
And last but not least, Mr. Tom Waits brings us his Coney Island Baby from his 2002 album, Blood Money. As only Tom Waits can, he combines a pastiche of "old time" music with a sincere and heartfelt lyric that seems to work every time.
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