By Andy Bunch
Do people still create playlists? Seriously. I’ve had my head down, raising my family; bringing home the turkey bacon for so long I didn’t realize nobody buys CDs anymore. I guess everything is streaming now. Well, my daughter’s birthday is coming up and we’re planning a road trip. This may shock the millennials among us but there are still places with road and no radio reception. Before Satellite radio, we used to burn a playlist to CD’s for the trip (ok, I also made a few mix tapes). I started searching for some songs for the trip and couldn’t make up my mind what method to follow. How do you make your road trip soundtracks?
The first method I tried was to search for songs that had anything to do with cars, roads, or travel. It yielded the following list of 41 songs.
What I liked: The variety.
What I didn’t like: There are songs on there that I never cared for.
- Shut up and Drive Rihanna
- The Distance Cake
- Mustang Sally Wilson Picket
- Hit the Road Jack Ray Charles
- Green Onions Booker T and the MGs
- King of the Road Roger Miller
- Jack and Diane John Mellencamp
- Everyday is a winding Road Cheryl Crow
- The Golden Age Beck
- Fast Car Tracy Chapman
- Fade into You Mazzi Star
- I drove all Night Cyndi Lauper
- Ticket to Ride The Beatles
- Running on Empty Jackson Brown
- The Way Fastball
- Life is a highway Tom Cochrane
- Radar Love Golden Earring
- Interstate Love Song Stone Temple Pilots
- Don’t Stop Believing Journey
- Born to be Wild Steppenwolf
- Running Down a Dream Tom Petty
- On the Road Again Willie Nelson
- Ramblin’ Man Allman Brothers Band
- Ride like the Wind Christopher Cross
- I’m Gonna Be (500 miles) The Proclaimers
- Mr. Blue Sky Electric Light Orchestra
- Holiday Road Lindsey Buckingham
- I’ve Been Everywhere Johnny Cash
- Going up the country Canned Heat
- Route 66 Chuck Berry
- America Simon and Garfunkel
- Take it Easy The Eagles
- Graceland Paul Simon
- Road to Nowhere Talking Heads
- Truckin The Grateful Dead
- Sweet Home Alabama Lynyrd Skynyd
- Keep the Car Running Arcade Fire
- Where the Streets have no Name U2
- Here I go again White Snake
- Little Red Corvette Prince
- Born to Run Bruce Springsteen
I tried searching youtube and came up with playlists made by truckers.
What I like: Premade playlists full of songs I wasn’t that familiar with.
What I didn’t like: It’s almost all country!
If you’re into country music and can play youtube in your car or RV here’s a link for you.
Next I searched Google for road music. There’s a surprising number of roads in the world built to play songs. The goal is to prevent speeding because drivers find it annoying to hear songs at the wrong speed. On the downside, these roads seem to degrade and eventually play the songs wrong anyway.
What I liked: Very creative idea. The novelty alone would probably prompt me to take a detour.
What I didn’t like: They don’t have any between me and my in-laws.
And if you want the road itself to play you music here’s an option.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLNfN6-eA0g or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3fB4iBAxaU
I tried to do it the modern way. I think this is a link to my Spotify playlist?( https://open.spotify.com/user/224dbayf6naccd4b5qmwajpcq/playlist/3IfePIiQp241mgSzfHV4S6) I don’t really know what I’m doing so…
I finally broke down and did it the hard way. I asked everyone I know for recommendations.
What I liked: Pretty good results. My friends and associates have good taste.
What I didn’t like: It’s a lot of work. I can’t believe I used to have time for stuff like this (ok I actually enjoyed stuff like this.)
Some of these won’t make my final playlist, but I listed all the songs here as a resource to you. I tried to sort them by decade but if I’m wrong, be gracious.
80’s
- Shout Tears for Fears
- Song 2 Blur
- Panama Van Halen
- Hot in the City Billy Idol
- Take on Me Aha
- Pour Some Sugar on Me Def Lepard (Hysteria)
- Call Me Blondi
- Faith George Michael
- Don’t You Simple Minds
- You Spin Me Round Dead or Alive
- Tainted Love Soft Cell
- Hip to Be Square Huey Lewis
- Jessie’s Girl Rick Springfield
- Sweet Dreams Eurythmics
- Turn Me Loose Loverboy
- Addicted to Love Robert Palmer
- Under Pressure Queen
- Woman in Chains Tears for Fears (Everybody Wants to Rule the World)
- Zombie The Cranberries
90’s
- Semi-charmed Life Third Eye Blind
- Good Better than Ezra
- If you could only see Tonic
- You Get What you Give New Radicals
- Someday Sugar Ray
- All I want Toad the Wet Sprocket
- Remedy Abandoned Pools
- Flagpole Sitta Harvey Danger
- My Own Worst Enemy Lit
- 3 AM Matchbox 20
- Name Goo Goo Dolls
- Everything you Want Vertical Horizon
- Wonderwall Oasis
- Jeremy Pearl Jam
- No Excuses Alice in Chains
- Wicked Garden Stone Temple Pilots
- Epic Faith No More
- Enter Sandman Metalica
- Outshined Sound Garden
- High and Dry Radio head
- Tomorrow Silverchair
- Possum Kingdom Toddies
Regardless of what type of method you use to select your Spring Road Trip Playlist, you won’t regret prepping some music before you head out. Let us know if we’ve forgotten anything. You can contact us here or at our Facebook page.