“Remember the Alamo!” – This famous battle cry, known the world over, has made the gnarled building at 300 Alamo Plaza in the heart of downtown San Antonio the most identifiable structure in the history of Texas.
Yes, Texans’ opinions of the storied structure and what it represents may differ – some dislike it as a tourist trap while others abhor the Disneyfication of Texas history – but the “Shrine to Texas Liberty” remains a steadfast symbol of the Lone Star State.
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So much so that many of the musically-gifted have immortalized the mission in song...after song after song.
Scroll below for 12 tunes that celebrate, mythologize, or, at the very least, name-drop the centuries-old site. Happy listening friends.
MORE MUSIC: Astrodome mixtape: 10 songs that namedrop the storied stadium
Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, “New San Antonio Rose” (1938)
Key lyrics: “Deep within my heart lies a melody / A song of old San Antone / Where in dreams I live with a memory / Beneath the stars all alone / It was there I found beside the Alamo / Enchantment strange as the blue up above / A moonlit pass that only she would know / Still hears my broken song of love / Moon in all your splendor know only my heart / Call back my rose, rose of San Antone”
Fess Parker, “Ballad of Davy Crockett” (1955)
Key lyrics: “Born on a mountain top in Tennessee / Greenest state in the land of the free / Raised in the woods, so he knew ev’ry tree / Kilt him a bar when he was only three / Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier”
Bing Crosby, “On the Alamo”
Key lyrics: “Where the moon swings low / On the Alamo / In a garden fair where roses grow / In the tender light / Of a Summer night / I can see her wander to and fro”
Fess Parker, “Jim Bowie” (1955)
Key lyrics: “Run boys, run for your life / Here comes Jim Bowie with his knife”
Marty Robbins, “Ballad of the Alamo” (1960)
Key lyrics: “In the southern part of Texas / In the town of San Antone / There’s a fortress all in ruins that the weeds have overgrown / You may look in vain for crosses and you’ll never see a-one / But sometimes between the setting and the rising of the sun / You can hear a ghostly bugle / As the men go marching by / You can hear them as they answer / To that roll call in the sky.”
Johhny Cash, “Remember the Alamo” (1963)
Key lyrics: “And a hundred and eighty were challenged by Travis to die / By the line that he drew with his sword when the battle was nigh / Any man that would fight to the death crossed over / But him that would live, better fly / And over the line went a hundred and seventy nine”
Willie Nelson, “Beautiful Texas” (1968)
Key lyrics: “There are some folks who still like to travel / To see what they have over there / But when they go look it’s not like the book / And they find there is none to compare / To beautiful, beautiful Texas / Where the beautiful bluebonnets grow / We’re proud of our forefathers / Who fought at the Alamo”
Song by Old & in the Way, “Midnight Moonlight” (1975)
Key lyrics: “If you ever feel lonesome when you’re down in San Antone / Beg, steal or borrow two nickels or a dime to call me on the phone / And I’ll meet you at Alamo Mission, where we can say our prayers / The Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mother will heal us as we kneel there”
George Strait, “Texas” (2005)
Key lyrics: “There wouldn’t be no Alamo / No cowboys in the Super Bowl / No Lonesome Dove / No yellow rose / I wouldn’t be a Willy fan / Nobody would swim the Rio Grand / I wouldn’t be an American / If it weren’t for Texas”
George Strait, “Take Me To Texas” (2015)
Key lyrics: “Take me to Texas, on the open range / The Rio Grande is in my veins / It’s heaven there and so my prayer / Is that you’ll take me anywhere in Texas / The only home I know / I’m a child of the Alamo and the Yellow Rose / So when I go / Take me to Texas”
Randy Rogers Band, “San Antone” (2016)
Key lyrics: “San Antone, San Antone / I been gone for way too long / But you gotta go when you gotta go / Like Crockett at the Alamo / Y’all can find me down in San Antone”