Getting the 50 States Song Lyrics Right
The 50 States Song is a staple in elementary classrooms, homeschooled kids' rotations, and let's be honest, anyone who needs to memorize state names quickly. The most widely used version is by The Singing Walrus, though there are several variations floating around the internet. The melody is essentially an upbeat pop track set to the alphabetical list of all 50 states, designed to stick in your head after three or four listens. I've seen teachers pull their hair out trying to sync lyrics sheets with the video for classroom projection. The problem isn't the song itself. It's that different versions exist with slightly different wording, and if you're compiling study materials, you need consistency. One version I ran into had "Wyoming" slotted between "Washington" and "Virginia," while another placed it correctly alphabetically but rushed through the southern states so fast they blurred together. I ended up creating my own lyric sheet by pausing and rewinding the official Singing Walrus video, line by line, just to get a clean text match.
50 States Song Lyrics
Here's the standard Singing Walrus version, roughly transcribed: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas
California, Colorado, Connecticut
Delaware, Florida, Georgia
Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa
Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine
Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota
Mississippi, Missouri, Montana
Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York
North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon
Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota
Tennessee, Texas
Utah, Vermont, Virginia
Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming That's the bare list. The actual song has melodic breaks, repeated phrases, and a chorus that loops. Kids usually pick it up in about twenty minutes of casual listening. Adults who try to memorize it on demand typically need closer to forty-five minutes and will still mix up "North/South Dakota" or "East/West Virginia" under pressure.
The counter-intuitive thing nobody tells you is that alphabetical order is actually the worst way to learn states for long-term retention. It works for passing a quick quiz, but the brain retains geographic clusters better. I switched my own memorization approach to grouping states by region instead of reciting alphabetically, and I retained the list far longer. The song is fine as a crutch, but don't mistake fluency from the song for actual geographic knowledge. They're different skills. Also, the Singing Walrus version runs about three minutes. Some shorter cuts clip the last ten states and compress the tempo, which makes them harder to follow for auditory learners. If someone is struggling with the lyrics, play the full version at 0.75x speed first, then gradually bring it up. It cuts initial learning time roughly in half for most people. There's no official downloadable lyric PDF from The Singing Walrus that I'm aware of. The lyrics are available on various education sites and lyric databases, but they're fan-transcribed. If you need a reliable source, the song's official YouTube page or the artist's website is your safest bet. Just verify the transcription against the audio before printing anything for a classroom.
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