Dire Straits refer to the Spanish City in their 1980 song "Tunnel of Love", which became the fairground's unofficial theme song, played every morning when it opened.[1] The town mentioned in the song, Cullercoats, is a stop on the train line (now part of the Tyne and Wear Metro) along the coast from Whitley Bay. The song refers to other permanent funfairs: Steeplechase Park in Coney Island, New York, open from 1897 to 1964; Palisades Amusement Park in Bergen County, New Jersey, open from 1898 to 1971; and Rockaways' Playland on Rockaway Beach in Queens, New York, open from 1902 to 1982.