On this day in history in 1945, U.S. Marines raised the American flag atop Mt. Suribachi at Iwo Jima. Captured on film by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal, the event would become one of the most popular icons of the 20th century. To commemorate this moment in time, this post takes a look at songs from the Billboard year-end Top Thirty charts (1951-2015) that mention the word flag in them.

In all, there are nine songs in the corpus that include the words flag or flags. Eight of these songs use the word as a noun, as we might expect, generally adhering to the definition of the word as given by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary: "n. a usually rectangular piece of fabric of distinctive design that is used as a symbol (as of a nation), as a signaling device, or as a decoration." However, unlike at Iwo Jima, the flags that are mentioned in pop lyrics do not explicitly represent countries, and the only possible reference to the American flag in the collection is in Elton John's "Philadelphia Freedom" (1975):

Live in New York at Central Park September 13, 1980

In Peter, Paul and Mary's "Puff the Magic Dragon" (1963), the flags that are referred to are those of the pirate ships that "would lower their flags when Puff roared out his name":

Peter, Paul and Mary -Puff The Magic Dragon

In Gym Class Heroes' "Cupid Chokehold" (2005), reference is made to a white flag, which is typically used to signal surrender:

Gym Class Heroes' music video for 'Cupid's Chokehold' featuring Patrick Stump from the album, As Cruel As School Children - available now on DCD2 Records / Fueled By Ramen.

In two songs, Snoop Dogg's "Drop It Like It's Hot" (2004; NSFW!) and Chris Brown's "Look at Me Now" (2011), flag is used to represent gang colors:

Snoop Dogg - Drop It Like It's Hot (Feat. Pharrel) (Dirty) (HD 720p) From Album: R&G (Rhythm & Gangsta): The Masterpiece Label: Doggystyle

Chris Brown's official music video for 'Look At Me Now' ft. Lil Wayne & Busta Rhymes. Click to listen to Chris Brown on Spotify: http://smarturl.it/ChrisBSpot?IQid=CBLAMN As featured on F.A.M.E.

In two songs, The Escape Club's "Wild Wild West" (1988) and Imagine Dragons' "Radioactive" (2013), the word has no clear reference:

This is one of my more favorite hits from 1988. Wild, Wild, West was a number hit on the Billboard Charts. The band consists of Trevor Steel, John Holliday, Johnnie Christo and Milan Zekavica. This single is off of the groups second album with EMI records Wild, Wild West.

Get Smoke + Mirrors on iTunes now: http://smarturl.it/IDSmokeMirrors Get Smoke + Mirrors Deluxe version with 4 exclusive songs only at Target: http://smarturl.it/SmokeMirrorsTgt Music video by Imagine Dragons performing Radioactive. © 2012 KIDinaKORNER/Interscope Records

And, finally, in Vicki Lawrence's "The Night the Lights Went out in Georgia" (1973), flag is used a verb because, of course, English loves to verb its nouns.*

Vikki Lawrence The night the lights went down in Georgia

*A process variously referred to as "functional shift", "zero-derivation", and "conversion" in linguistics literature.

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