Playlist of the week: Scottish songs for Tartan Day

Posted on Apr 2 2019 - 5:50am by Adam Dunnells

While some people may not realize it, this Saturday marks Tartan Day, a North American holiday that celebrates Scottish Heritage. Tartan Day is similar to the 4th of July in America, as it celebrates the Scottish Declaration of Independence, from which America’s Founding Fathers may have drawn inspiration. To celebrate this, here are some notable Scottish songs.

  1. “Pick Up the Pieces” – Average White Band
  2. “Lloyd, I’m Ready to Be Heartbroken” – Camera Obscura
  3. “I Only Wanna Be With You” – Bay City Rollers
  4. “Happy Birthday” – Altered Images
  5. “Club Country” – The Associates
  6. “I Was a Maoist Intellectual” – Momus
  7. “Ebeneezer Goode” – The Shamen

“Ebeneezer Goode” is easily the strangest song on this list. While Scottish accents aren’t prominent in all of these songs, The Shamen make no attempt to hide their accents in this fast-paced song that finds a way to blend pop, rock and rap styles into one wild beast of a song.

  1. “Hang Ten!” – The Soup Dragons
  2. “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” – The Proclaimers
  3. “Waterfront” – Simple Minds
  4. “I Don’t Want a Lover” – Texas
  5. “To Sir With Love” – Lulu

If you’re anything like me, you first heard this song covered at the end of the first season of the television show “Glee,” but this song was actually first used as a theme song for a 1967 movie of the same name. It also topped Billboard’s Hot 100 in that year.

  1. “Rip It Up” – Orange Juice
  2. “Running Away” – Paul Haig