Gary, Indiana

Everything Gary is known for

45 songs mention this city 53 artists from here

Gary, Indiana, located along the southern shore of Lake Michigan and about 25 miles southeast of downtown Chicago, is widely recognized as the birthplace of the Jackson family, a prominent name in entertainment. This industrial city, known for its large steel mills, has a rich musical heritage that extends beyond its industrial roots.

With 53 artists calling Gary home and 40 songs mentioning the city in our collection, its musical influence is undeniable. Notable artists from Gary include pop icon Michael Jackson and the legendary soul group The Jackson 5. The city is also referenced in songs such as "2300 Jackson Street" by The Jacksons and "Harold’s" by hip-hop artist Freddie Gibbs.

Music in Gary

Songs About Gary

Harold’s
Freddie Gibbs
96%
"William School niggas was wearing budgets"
2300 Jackson Street
The Jacksons
95%
"2300 Jackson Street"
Gary, Indiana
Robert Preston & Meredith Willson
81%
"Gary, Indiana"
Gary, Indiana 1959
Dave Alvin
79%
"Back in Gary, Indiana in 1959"
Palmolive
Freddie Gibbs
55%
"Scary Gary nigga, my neighborhood something like Fallujah"
Chocolate City
Parliament
46%
"We've got Newark, we've got Gary"
beat it
michael jackson
45%
billie jean
michael jackson
45%
black or white
michael jackson
45%
smooth criminal
michael jackson
45%
thriller
michael jackson
45%
The Shake
Neal McCoy
30%
"Gary, Indiana, Mobile, Alabama, Phoenix, Arizona, Bismarck, North Dakota, New York, L.A., Houston, Tampa Bay, London, Tokyo, everywhere you go"
Can I
Kehlani
10%
"song that's sang from Mike Jack"
5% TINT
Travis Scott
8%
"grab the bad sister like Janet"
Excursions
A Tribe Called Quest
8%
"Way that Bobby Brown is just amping like Michael"
God is Perfect
Freddie Gibbs
8%
"That east side insane-ass shit"
Perfect Imperfection
Kevin Gates
8%
"I'm Michael Jackson, I'm reincarnated"
Victory (Drama mix)
Puff Daddy & the Family
8%
"I perform like Mike / Anyone -- Tyson, Jordan, Jackson"
I. The Worst Guys
Childish Gambino
7%
"Rather blast a Jackson 5 in the back of an Acura"
Eyez Closed
Snoop Dogg
7%
"Wonder if God ask Mike how to moonwalk"

Showing top 20 of 45 songs

Artists From Gary

M
Michael Jackson
pop Pop: 86
F
Freddie Gibbs
hip-hop Pop: 68
T
The Jackson 5
soul Pop: 68
J
Janet Jackson
r-n-b Pop: 67
J
Jackson 5
r-n-b Pop: 65
T
T‐Low
hip-hop Pop: 63
T
The Jacksons
pop Pop: 61
T
The Jackson Five
r-n-b Pop: 58
D
Deniece Williams
r-n-b Pop: 52
J
Jermaine Jackson
pop Pop: 49
B
Baby Huey & The Babysitters
r-n-b Pop: 45
J
Jlin
electronic Pop: 43
J
Jesse Powell
folk Pop: 43
L
LaToya Jackson
r-n-b Pop: 41
C
CJ SO COOL
hip-hop Pop: 40
R
Rebbie Jackson
r-n-b Pop: 39
M
Monica Parker
r-n-b Pop: 38
D
Don Vito
other Pop: 36
M
Marlon Jackson
r-n-b Pop: 35
K
Kym Mazelle
electronic Pop: 34

Showing top 20 of 53 artists

Rivers & Roads in Song near Gary

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Gary.

Interstate 65 22 songs U.S. Route 66 17 songs

Musical Heritage

The Gary Record Shop That Beat Capitol to the Beatles RoadyGoat

1953

One of the great untold stories in American music starts in a Gary record shop. Vivian Carter was a Gary radio personality who, with her husband James Bracken, ran Vivian's Record Shop. In 1953 they launched their own label and named it from their initials, V and J: Vee-Jay Records. Founded here in Gary and soon based up in Chicago, Vee-Jay grew into the most successful Black-owned record company in America before Motown. Its roster was staggering: the bluesmen Jimmy Reed and John Lee Hooker, the gospel of the Staple Singers, a young Curtis Mayfield with the Impressions, even the pop hitmakers the Four Seasons. And then came the moment almost nobody remembers. When the giant Capitol Records passed on an unknown British band, little Vee-Jay said yes. In 1963 it became the first American company to release the Beatles, and it put out their first U.S. album, called Introducing the Beatles. So before the British Invasion swept the country, the Beatles first reached America through a label born in a Gary record store. (Sources: Encyclopedia of Chicago; Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.)

Five Brothers, Four Number Ones, One Mural RoadyGoat

1970

Over in Gary's Miller neighborhood, on South Lake Street, a big mural celebrates the brothers who turned this steel town into a music legend: the Jackson 5. The full family that came out of one small Gary house is almost unbelievable, Michael, Janet, Jermaine, Jackie, Tito, Marlon, and more. But here is a record that still stuns. When the five brothers signed with Motown, their first four national singles, I Want You Back, ABC, The Love You Save, and I'll Be There, every single one of them shot to number one on the pop chart. No group had ever launched its career with four straight chart-toppers like that. The little two-bedroom house where they rehearsed is the quiet shrine a few blocks away; this bright mural is the loud, public thank-you, the city's way of putting its proudest sound up on a wall for everyone to see. (Source: city of Gary.)

6.3 mi away

History of Gary

The Magic City Under Martial Law RoadyGoat

1919

Boosters called Gary the Magic City, a whole town conjured out of the dunes by U.S. Steel. But the magic was built on brutal work. Inside Gary Works, men commonly pulled twelve-hour shifts, seven days a week, in heat and danger. In September 1919, Gary's steelworkers joined a nationwide strike, demanding shorter hours and the right to a union. The city became one of the strike's flashpoints. Tension boiled over between strikers, police, and the replacement workers brought in to break them. When the local and state forces could not hold order, the federal government sent in the U.S. Army. About a thousand troops marched into Gary in October, a force that swelled toward four thousand, and their commander declared martial law over the city. U.S. Steel simply refused to bargain, and the great strike collapsed without winning its demands. The company would not even grant the eight-hour day until 1923. So the same planned streets the promoters bragged about had, for a few weeks, soldiers patrolling them, the hidden cost of the Magic City. (Sources: Encyclopedia of Chicago; Indiana University.)

The Gary Kid Who Flew Around the Moon First RoadyGoat

1928

The first human being ever to fly all the way around the moon was born right here in Gary. Frank Borman came into the world in this steel town in 1928. He grew up to become an Air Force pilot and then a NASA astronaut, and in December 1968 he commanded one of the boldest missions ever attempted: Apollo 8. Until that flight, no human had ever left Earth's gravity to circle another world. Borman, along with Jim Lovell and William Anders, rode their spacecraft a quarter million miles out and looped around the moon ten times, the first crew to see its far side and the first to watch the Earth rise over the lunar horizon, a photograph that changed how people saw our planet. It was a daring dress rehearsal that made the moon landing possible just seven months later. Not bad for a kid from Gary, Indiana. (Source: NASA.)

Gary, IN: Named for a Lawyer, Not a Metal RoadyGoat

1906

Gary, Indiana is one of the great steel cities, a place built on iron, fire, and molten metal pouring out of enormous mills. So you might assume the name comes from some material, some alloy or metal term. It doesn't. Gary is named for a man: Elbert H. Gary. And he wasn't a steelworker or a metallurgist. He was a lawyer, and the founding chairman of U.S. Steel, the corporation that built the city from scratch in nineteen-oh-six to house its workers. So the most steel-soaked city in America carries the name of a man in a suit who ran the company from a boardroom. A person, not a product. A lawyer, not a metal.

RoadyGoat →

Jackson 5 Family Home

1950

The small Gary, Indiana house at 2300 Jackson Street where Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5 grew up and rehearsed.

Chicago Pile-1 - Site of First Nuclear Reaction

1942

On December 2, 1942, Enrico Fermi achieved the first controlled, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction in a squash court under the football stands at the University of Chicago.

19.0 mi away

Pullman Historic District

1880

America's most famous company town, built by George Pullman for his sleeping car workers, and site of the 1894 Pullman Strike.

15.2 mi away

Indiana Dunes National Park

1899

Fifteen miles of Lake Michigan shoreline with towering sand dunes, the birthplace of modern ecology in America.

15.7 mi away

Barack Obama Kenwood Residence

2005

The Georgian Revival home in the Kenwood neighborhood where Barack and Michelle Obama lived from 2005 until moving to the White House in 2009.

19.2 mi away

Things to Do in Gary

historical 24.5 mi away
Route 66 Starting Point

The beginning (or end) of the Mother Road. A sign on Adams Street in Chicago.
quirky 24.6 mi away
Cloud Gate (The Bean)

A liquid mercury-shaped sculpture that reflects the Chicago skyline. Everyone takes a photo.
historical 24.7 mi away
Willis (Sears) Tower Skydeck

Stand on a glass box 1353 feet above Chicago. Your stomach will drop.

Everything Near Gary

59 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

Explore Gary on the Map
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