WE PICK THE TOP 40 DRIVING SONGS OF ALL TIME... (# 40-35)
There are two good reasons to go on the road: To get to where you want to go and to listen to the radio along the way. Music and car trips have been around for many decades, so there is a huge body of music to sift down to 40 songs.
Let’s face it, 40 songs will merely scratch the surface in this subject, but the Top 40 is a concept that has also been around for a very long time. So we will follow tradition and only pick the Top 40 driving songs of all time. Your choices may be different-completely different. We can live with that.
We’ll start this week with the also-rans of the also-rans: 40-35.
Number 40 on our list is “Fun, Fun, Fun” by the Beach Boys. Some people might have put this song in the Top 10 driving song list, but not us. That would be too easy and, even worse, predictable. Sure it’s a feel-good summer song with a classic T-Bird in the mix, but it has been beaten to death as a car song. Fun has actually been sucked completely out of this song. But it was a great song when it was played for the first time on a car radio.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpP7tWXjcnc
Number 39 on the list is “Autobahn” by Kraftwerk. This song was 22 minutes long in its original form, but the pounding relentless beat was shaved down to a radio-sized 3 minutes for North American am radio release. “Autobahn" feels like a driving song, but it fell back to 39 on my list for one good reason: It has a weird hypnotic effect when you hear the 22 minute version in the middle of the night while behind the wheel. “Autobahn” will put you to sleep faster than a triple-header of Sominex, ‘Who’s The Boss’ reruns, and a full-blown discussion on macro-economics in
Number 38 on our list is “Two Lane Blacktop” by Rob Zombie. It was released in 2003, but it shares the same name with a 1971 car cult movie of the same name. Rob Zombie likes to amp up the volume in his music, so you won’t find much dinner music in Zombie land. This song is no exception to the hard rock rule and it makes a solid 21st century addition to a hard driving road song. Plus a driver is very unlikely to fall asleep during this song.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prrACm_l2Fk
Number 37 on the list is “Two Lane Highway” by Pure Prairie League. The country rock sound of the song has a sing-along quality to it. It feels like a driving song with a laid-back style that celebrates a guy on his way home after a long trip. Anybody who has logged too many miles on the road knows the warm and fuzzy feeling of the trip home. “
Number 36 on our list is “Little GTO” by Ronnie and the Daytonas. There was quite a run on car songs in the early to mid 60s and "Little GTO” was the biggest song recorded by Ronnie and his friends. They couldn’t quite turn the corner on a long and memorable musical career, but they did alright in a straight ahead one hit race with this song. It was all about a time and a place when muscle cars met Top 40 music in the 60s...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_FSicQWimU
Number 35 on the list is “Little Deuce Coupe” by the Beach Boys. The boys of endless summer made a career out of beaches and horsepower in their early career. Feel good songs that didn’t exactly test the musical genius of head surf punk Brian Wilson, but eventually he got past the sand and horsepower phase. But, before ‘Pet Sounds’, the Beach Boys were all about hot cars and even hotter beach babes.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2scNZ1NrZg
COMMENTS
DENNIS:"I don't suppose that you'd like to jump to #1 right now."
Stay tuned for 34 to 30 next time.
