10 Of The Best Songs About San Antonio: Alamo City Playlist

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Written by Laura Macmillan
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San Antonio is a city rich in history and culture. It’s home to the Alamo, one of the most famous historic landmarks in America, and it is also known for its delicious Tex-Mex food and Mariachi music.

Hence, it’s no surprise that San Antonio has been the inspiration for many songs over the years. Whether you’re participating in the fun of the city’s famed Riverwalk or the reverent solemnity of being inside the Alamo, the city is welcoming.

Whether you’re a lifelong San Antonian or just visiting our great city, you can’t help but be drawn in by the mix of cultures and sounds that make up the Alamo City. And in this post, we’re going to take a look at 10 of the best songs about San Antonio to help get you in the mood for some Tex-Mex, country music, and mariachi! Let’s get started.

Related: Check out our list of the best songs about Texas.

1. “Home In San Antone” By Willie Nelson & Lukas Nelson

First we have a San Antonio-inspired song that was written by Fred Rose, where the narrator directly addresses the things he loves about the city.

While it was recorded by a number of artists like Bob Willis, we chose this version by country god Willie Nelson and his son Lukas from 2012.

It is upbeat and makes you feel like San Antonio might be the happiest city in the world. The Nelson men trade off singing verses, with each one pointing out the best parts of the place.

They sing that even when they’re flat broke, they’ll always be rich as long as they have San Antonio.

Related: See our list of the best songs about Austin.

2. “San Antonio Girl” By Lyle Lovett

The Western swing “San Antonio Girl” is Lyle Lovett’s ode to a woman from the Alamo City. For the singer, this girl is the one and is everything to him.

He also describes their stroll around the city, thus many great things in town are referred to: Hemisfair, Mi Tierra’s Mexican restaurant, and songwriter Robert Keen.

There are subtle nods to racial tensions that run through much of Texas—tensions between white realizing they might be in the minority and the growing Latinx population. However, these are just nods; this is a fun song, not a political statement.

Related: See our list of Dallas songs here.

3. “I’ll Be Your San Antone Rose” By Emmylou Harris

Singer-songwriter Emmylou Harris takes the lilt of mid-tempo country music and paints a tale of brokenheartedness on it. Songwriter Susanna Clark wrote lyrics about a narrator who finds herself alone in a bar trying to recapture the feelings she knew with her old beau.

She lays out the rules of the encounter she’s beginning to have with someone at the bar: Don’t tell me a sad story, buy me some drinks, and pretend to be my lost love. In return, I’ll be your girl for the night.

She’s sad and lonely, and her promise to be someone’s San Antone Rose leads the listener to believe that’s what she was to her lost love. So while this may not be a song about the city of San Antonio, it’s surely about one of its daughters—in this case, a really sad one.

Related: Our playlist of songs about Houston Texas.

4. “China Grove” By The Doobie Brothers

Rumors abound that “China Grove” arose from a late-night quest for drugs, but songwriter, frontman, and original Doobie Tom Johnston dismisses that and other urban legends.

He had written the music first, and somewhere in his subconscious was “China Grove,” the name of a small town outside San Antonio.

While the song isn’t really about the city of San Antonio, and the sheriff of the real-life town is unlikely to carry a samurai sword, it’s still a San Antonio song and one of the staples of the Doobie Brothers’ catalog.

5. “Ballad Of The Alamo” By Marty Robbins

The Alamo was a bastion of Texas pride for more than 150 years. Texans take that place very seriously. However, scholarly work over the past several decades has revealed that much of the Alamo’s mythology is flat-out untrue.

Still, the story we’ve all heard and what generations of middle school Texans have learned in their Texas history class is romantic.

Marty Robbins’ “Ballad of the Alamo” narrates a version of the Alamo story you can see in the 1960 John Wayne vehicle The Alamo. That doesn’t make it true, but Robbins weaves a spellbinding tale.

6. “San Antonio, TX” By Frank Black & The Catholics

The guitarist and singer for the Pixies went by the name of Black Francis. His real name is Charles Thompson. Mr. Thompson has another alter ego, and that’s Frank Black. With this side project, he explored some more traditional rock sounds than the Pixies had.

“San Antonio, TX” tells of a man who really needs to get out of that city. On a first listen, it seems like maybe he just hates the place. After all, he admits that he hasn’t even been to the Alamo, so it’s as if he’s not even trying. 

But a closer read of the lyrics reveals that the narrator is alone there. He misses his girl as the silence from the non-ringing phone in his motel room is pretty deafening.

7. “Ay Te Dejo En San Antonio” By Flaco Jimenez

Flaco Jimenez is a San Antonio native, gifted accordion player, and a Tejano and Norteño music giant. He’s made a considerable mark in the genres, and “Ay Te Dejo en San Antonio” is just one sliver of his wildly popular catalog.

His accordion, along with the traditional train-beat drum pattern, makes the song sound happy, like a stereotypical song played at a quinceañera, but it’s just another song about getting wronged. 

The woman of the singer’s heart has danced her way away from him, seducing men across Texas from dance hall to dance hall, and he’s finally had enough. The title translates to “Oh, I Leave You in San Antonio.”

8. “Tacoland” By Dead Milkmen

In the 1980s, punk band Dead Milkmen were riding high, traveling the country and playing live. At some point, they played in Taco Land, a legendary live music venue in San Antonio. This song is simply an ode to that joint. 

Since most people in the world haven’t been there, they might not get the reference to the ubiquitous liquor bottle late owner Ram Ayala carried with him, but the Milkmen noticed and called it out. This is a joyous song about a place truly beloved.

The song came out in 1987. In 2005, Ayala and a Taco Land employee were murdered during a robbery. After that, Taco Land struggled, eventually closed down, and now only exists in memories, a memorial at the bar’s old location, and a song by a punk band.

9. “San Antonio Rose” By Bob Wills And His Texas Playboys

James Robert Wills—better known simply as Bob Wills—was the king of Western swing, a musical style that served as a forerunner of modern country music. In the 1930s, Wills, a fiddle player and band leader, wrote “San Antonio Rose” as an instrumental piece. It was a huge hit for the group in 1939.

Two years later, it was a hit again, as the band had re-recorded it with lyrics Wills had added. While it’s not exactly a song about the city, the Rose of San Antonio in the song is the girl that got away.

Wills played “San Antonio Rose” for 40 years, becoming the group’s signature piece. Dozens of artists have since covered it.

10. “San Antonio Stroll” By Tanya Tucker

Country music singer-songwriter Tanya Tucker scored her fifth number one hit with “San Antonio Stroll,” released in 1975. The song’s events take place in South Carolina in the narrator’s hometown, but they revolve around a dance called the San Antonio stroll.

The singer would go to the dance hall with her family. There, they dance all night, and toward the end, a slow dance is played. She watches her sister and fiancé dance the stroll, which is a kind of line dance.

Years has passed now, and the singer wishes to share the song and dance with us. “San Antonio Stroll” is a song of nostalgia and the power of music.

Summing Up Our List Of San Antonio Songs

Texas has given the world many great things—Liquid Paper, nachos, 3D printing, Dr. Pepper—and San Antonio is on that list.

It’s a vibrant city that’s inspired many a songwriter to immortalize it, and these 10 songs represent a cross-section of all the music about the place.

Did we forget your favorite? Let us know and we’ll add it in!

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Laura has over 12 years experience teaching both classical and jazz saxophone and clarinet. She now resides in California where she works as a session and live performer.