“A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H—I got a gal in Kalamazoo!”
The opening line of Glenn Miller’s iconic 1942 hit, “(I’ve Got a Gal in) Kalamazoo,” was perhaps the West Michigan city’s first major cultural reference, but it was certainly not the last.
Kalamazoo has been mentioned in pop culture dozens of times before and after the wartime jazz chart was a top hit.
Back in the 19th century, novelist James Fenimore Cooper set his novel “The Oak Openings” in Kalamazoo. Then, in 1940, Dr. Seuss published “Horton Hatches the Egg,” which included a reference to the city.
Perhaps it got the attention of the writers behind the Glenn Miller Orchestra jazz standard just a few years later.
The city’s reputation for being far off the beaten path made sure it got mentions from Bob Seger in his 1976 song “Mary Lou,” Hank Snow’s 1962 revision of “I’ve Been Everywhere,” and The Black Keys 2014 song “Gotta Get Away.”
In Steve Goodman’s 1971 song “Turnpike Tom,” the city is baked into the story: The main character commits a felony in Kalamazoo.
Creedence Clearwater Revival’s 1969 number “Down on the Corner” mentions the city metonymously: Kalamazoo stands for the Gibson Guitar Company, which made guitars here in Michigan through the 1980s. It’s now based in Nashville.
Others have used the name either for the narrative of a song, like The Show Ponies’ 2017 song “Kalamazoo” that describes someone who can’t return to the city, or as the name of a cat in Hoyt Axton’s 1979 “Della and the Dealer.”
In that one, the cat’s name is Kalamazoo. It rhymes with so much—including Timbuktu—and it adds local Midwestern color. But how did it even get its iconic name?
The name likely comes from indigenous tribes, but there’s a good chance that there was some corruption of words like “kikanamsoso,” which refers to smoke, or the “Kekalamazoo River,” which was referenced in the 1821 Treaty of Chicago.
Throughout history, names change, letters get switched, but remnants remain. And since it hit the mainstream, Kalamazoo has stuck.
Brendan Clarey is deputy editor of Michigan Enjoyer.
