“City of a Million Dreams” is a song by New Orleans native Raymond Burke (1904-1986) that was copyrighted on April 2, 1958. “City of a Million Dreams” has been an infrequently used nickname for the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, although the nickname is usually strongly associated with the song.
 
Other New Orleans nicknames include “America’s Most Interesting City,” “Baghdad-on-the-Bayou,” “Big Crescent,” “Big Easy,” “Big Greasy,” “Big Sleazy,” “Birthplace of Jazz,” “Chocolate City,” “Chopper City,” “City of Yes,” “City That Care Forgot,” “City That Forgot to Care,” “Convention City,” “Crawfish Town,” “Creole City,” “Crescent City,” “Erb City,” “Gateway of the Mississippi Valley,” “Gumbo City,” “Hollywood South,” “Jump City,” “Mardi Gras City,” “Metropolis of the South,” “N’Awlins,” “Necropolis of the South,” “Nerlins,” “No Orleans” (after Hurricane Katrina), “NOLA,” “Northernmost Banana Republic,” “Northernmost Caribbean City,” “Old Swampy,” “Paris of America,” “Queen City,” “Saint City,” “Silicon Bayou,” “Silicon Swamp” and “Sweet Lady Gumbo.”
     
   
Wikipedia: New Orleans
New Orleans (/njuː ˈɔːrli.ənz, -ˈɔːrˈliːnz, -ˈɔːrlənz/, or /ˈnɔːrlənz/; French: La Nouvelle-Orléans [la nuvɛlɔʁleɑ̃]) is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana.
 
The population of the city was 343,829 as of the 2010 U.S. Census. The New Orleans metropolitan area (New Orleans–Metairie–Kenner Metropolitan Statistical Area) had a population of 1,167,764 in 2010 and was the 46th largest in the United States.
     
Wikipedia: Raymond Burke (clarinetist)
Raymond Burke (6 June 1904 – 21 March 1986) was an American jazz clarinetist.
 
Biography
Raymond Burke was born Raymond Barrois on June 6, 1904, in New Orleans, Louisiana. He gave few interviews and believed the life of a musician had little to do with his music.
       
Google Books
The Minnesota Review
Volume 1, Issue 2
1961
Pg. 176:
The story of jazz music in the twenties began, perhaps, in 1917 with many New Orleans musicians leaving their city of a million dreams and looking for a home.
 
17 October 1964, Billboard, “New Album Releases,” pg. 84, col. 2:
KID MARTIN NEW ORLEANS RAGTIME BAND—City of a Million Dreams
 
22 March 1965, Tampa (FL) Tribune, “Al Hirt, Modern Pied Piper, Blows Away ‘Blues’ for Tampa Crowd” by John Parker, pg. 1-B, col. 4:
Later on King Oliver took over the trumpet throne in the City of a Million Dreams, ...
(New Orleans.—ed.)
 
2 December 1965, Tampa (FL) Tribune, “The Jazz Was Impromptu at Tampa Airport” (photo caption), pg. 1-B, col. 2:
Dr. Edmond Souchon played hot licks on the guitar reminiscent of the City of a Million Dreams.
 
OCLC WorldCat record
City of a million dreams
Author: Johnny Wiggs; Ray Burke; Bill Allred; Graham Stewart; Art Hodes; All authors
Publisher: Manassas, Virginia : Fat Cat’s Jazz, [1973?]
Edition/Format:   Music LP : English
   
Lyrics Playground
CITY OF A MILLION DREAMS
Raymond Burke
As recorded by Maxine Sullivan,
New York, January 1973. 
Also recorded by Johnny Wiggs Bayou Stompers and others.
 
Dreamin’ in the evening
Down in happy New Orleans,
Nearest thing to heaven,
A city of a million dreams.
 
30 January 1975, The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), “Remoulade” by Howard Jacobs, sec. 1, pg. 15, col. 1:
NEW ORLEANS is aptly described as CITY OF A MILLION DREAMS in a profusely illustrated brochure heralding the exhibit of drawings by George Schmidt through Feb. 20 at the Downtown Gallery at 532 Chartres.
 
30 January 1975, The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), “The World of Art” by Alberta Collier, sec. 2, pg. 2, col. 1:
GEORGE SCHMIDT, a native of New Orleans, will explore this “City of a Million Dreams” in the paintings he presents at the Downtown Gallery.
 
16 October 1977, The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), “Sounding Board,” TV Focus sec., pg. 30, col. 3:
The cuts (on the album Summit Meeting—ed.) are “City of a Million Dreams” (written by clarinetist and club member Raymond Burke), ...
 
Google Books
High Society:
My Friends, the New Orleans Clarinettists
By Henning Bokelund
Holte: Golden Triads
2002
Pg. 161:
City Of A Million Dreams by Raymond Burke, and musician of a thousand tunes.
 
Google Books
Soul Resin
By Charles W. Cannon
Tuscalooosa, AL: University of Alabama Press
2002
Pg. 35:
After I moved down to New Orleans, that’s when they really went ballistic. “City of a Million Dreams” is what the tune says and that’s how many I started to have.
 
Google Books
In the Shadow of Statues:
A White Southerner Confronts History
By Mitch Landrieu
New York, NY: Viking
2018
Pg. 211:
I first got to know him (Jason Berry—ed.) well while he was exposing David Duke in the 1980s and ‘90s; he has been everything you could ask for in a collaborator. I know this was a heavy lift for him as he carved out time from work on his forthcoming history of New Orleans, City of a Million Dreams, to assist me, nights and weekends, given my daily schedule.