On this day in history in 1931, Al Capone was sentenced to 11 years in prison for tax evasion. In light of this event, and also to complement my earlier post on walls in pop music, I ran a marker set comprising terms associated with prison life (e.g. prison, convict, doing time, behind bars, jail, inmate, warden) on the Billboard year-end Top 30 collection (1951-2015). In all, the search resulted in 59 hits in 22 songs. These include both literal and figurative (e.g. "passion's a prison") references. A subset of these songs is presented below (in chronological order). Contact me for a full list of songs. As always, thanks go to Dr. Clayton Darwin and his KwicKwic program for making this work possible.

1965

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Chain Gang - Sam Cooke

Eagles - Hotel California Live At The Capital Centre, 1977 HMA - Heavy Metal Art

"Back on the Chain Gang" is a single by The Pretenders released in November 1982. The song was also released on The King of Comedy soundtrack album (March 1983) and later included on The Pretenders' next album Learning to Crawl in January 1984. It reached number five on the U.S.

"How Do U Want It" is a song of 2Pac featuring K-Ci and JoJo and was the third single from his album All Eyez on Me. It was a Double A-side single to "California Love", and the tracks combined were credited as a #1 single on the U.S.

feat. Eminem from the movie 8 MILE No copyright infringement intended. All contents belong to its rightful owners. This is for entertainment purposes only.

OutKast's official music video for 'The Way You Move' ft. Sleepy Brown. Click to listen to OutKast on Spotify: http://smarturl.it/OutKastSpotify?IQid=OutKWYM As featured on SpeakerBoxxx/The Love Below.

And bonuses, of course, the first being a clip from one of my favorite bands and then a few by that great singer of (as well as, to) prison life, Johnny Cash:

Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak Live HQ

Well, I left my motel room, down at the Starkville Motel, The town had gone to sleep and I was feelin' fairly well. I strolled along the sidewalk 'neath the sweet magnolia trees; I was whistlin', pickin' flowers, swayin' in the southern breeze. I found myself surrounded; one policeman said: "That's him.

Johnny Cash - San Quentin (Live from Prison)

For prison albums not by Johnny Cash, see this link.

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