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.