In 1990, the alternative rock band "They Might Be Giants" released a song called "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" on their album Flood.
Originally recorded by the Canadian group, The Four Lads in 1953, it was TMBG's first gold record.
The swing-style song, with lyrics by Jimmy Kennedy and music by Nat Simon, referred to the change of the name of the city in 1924:
Even old New York was once New Amsterdam
Why they changed it I can't say
People just liked it better that way
So take me back to Constantinople
No, you can't go back to Constantinople
Been a long time gone, Constantinople
Why did Constantinople get the works?
That's nobody's business but the Turks
Emperor Constantine had made Constantinople
a center of Christianity, and when it was
conquered by the Ottomans under Mehmet I
in 1453, it became the most important center of Islam.
Sultan Mehmet began construction of Topkapi Palace, a complex of buildings on three courtyards surrounded by a five-kilometer wall, which served as the center of administrative affairs, site of the University of the Sultan for the training of administrators, and living quarters for the Sultan.
The largest and oldest palace in the world, it occupies 700,000 square meters at the tip of the peninsula. It now serves as a museum, reflecting the development of Turkish art and architecture with its distinctive turquoise (color of the Turks) tilework and decorative arches and divans, the forerunner of our couches.
The Ottoman Empire ruled for 622 years over Asian, European and African lands around the Mediterranean. When Ataturk founded the Turkish Republic in 1924, he moved the capital to Ankara and changed the name
of Constantinople to Istanbul, which remains the trade, art and cultural center of Turkey.
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