In the city of New Orleans, Carnival season lasts a full month, a sensuous spectacle of street parades, lavish meals, and masquerade balls. It culminates on Mardi Gras Day, aka Fat Tuesday, when more than a million people pack the tree-lined avenues of Crescent City to join one of America’s grandest, wildest traditions. Mardi Gras in New Orleans has accumulated a lot of signature songs over its 300-year history, comprising a riot of sounds from Dixieland jazz to outlandish funk to brass-band chants to bounce music. Here are 25 iconic tunes to put you in that “Life Is a Carnival” state of mind.
