The 50 Most Essential Songs for Your Perfect Road Trip Playlist

Even if you’re stuck driving a Family Truckster, this song will take you right back to carefree days. (Who else thought this was Kenny Loggins?)

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You may not be able to name another song the Dutch band Golden Earring recorded, but this classic 1973 hit combines "midnight love" with the drive-all-night ballad for a road trip win.

A seventies version of the age-old musical trope of people who call the road their home and can't be burdened with staying in one place (see also: "Brandy," "Take It Easy" and "Me and Bobby McGee").

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Songs about cars are a favorite subset of the road trip song genre, and Prince sets the bar high with this song about a "car" (ahem) that goes too fast.

This rockabilly tribute to racing cars was first recorded in 1955 but has been covered by lots of fast-picking twangy guitarists since, most famously in 1971 by Commander Cody.

Everything about this song is engineered to pop perfection: Her purring vocals, bouncy melody, and double entendres. Every girlfriends' weekend playlist needs some RiRi — and one that starts with a road trip needs this song.

This Beastie Boys hit from their first album, Licensed to Ill, hits two well-traveled road trip sub-genres: the musician-singing-about-being-on-the-road genre and the paean to a specific destination. It's guaranteed to add a little energy to the playlist and revive the driver.

Recording as Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats, Ike Turner was instrumental in turning the key and igniting rock and roll with this jumping twelve-bar blues composition. You can feel the purring power of the car, and the undeniable attraction of going too fast. (Rocket 88 was a nickname for the recently minted Oldsmobile 88.)

You can feel good about getting lost with this tribute to a long aimless drive. Embrace the opportunity to yip, yodel, and scat along with lead singer David Byrne.

America's romance with the car had been jumpstarted by the end of WWII, but it really hit cruising speed in the 1960s with groups like The Beach Boys and Jan and Dean singing about being teenagers, driving fast cars, and having fun. 

Willie Nelson wrote his first song at nine years old and hasn't stopped yet, even at 87. This heartfelt love song for a life of touring with musician friends was reportedly written on the back of an airplane airsickness bag.

Here we have the perfect soundtrack to every miserable traffic jam along your road trip. Bon Scott's guttural vocals make singing along particularly satisfying when frustrated by a standstill.

This fast-paced litany of geographic destinations is the more entertaining musical version of sitting through someone else's travel slideshow. Johnny Cash takes a 1959 Australian song (in which all the destinations are Down Under) and makes it his own.

Not only does this song benefit from Paul McCartney's perfect formula for delicious pop confection, its final verse, "Beep beep'm beep beep yeah" is irresistible.

No road trip playlist is complete without a trucker song. Austin musician Junior Brown recorded arguably the perfect one, complete with twanging solos on his unique double-neck guitar: half electric, half pedal steel.

Pretty much every song on Springsteen's 1982 album Nebraska involves cars and driving, usually at night, but there's an urgency to "State Trooper" that is familiar to any driver who's flown past a speed trap and hoped not to get pulled over. 

Not only does this 2019 blockbuster combine Lil Nas X's rap and trap music bona fides with some classic country elements (banjo! Billy Ray Cyrus!), it even samples a song by industrial rock group, Nine Inch Nails. Besides being catchy and fun, the song made history by simultaneously appearing on both country and hip-hop charts.

You may think that a love song to a brand of car was written by an advertising executive, but this song was first recorded in 1948 by a blues musician from Mississippi. Lots of bands have covered "Mercury Blues" but country boy Alan Jackson had a hit with it in 2010, the year that Mercurys were discontinued.

The revving engine, the insistent riff of the saxophone, singer Charles Miller's Mariana Trench – deep repetition of "Low. Ri. Der" — no wonder the Chicago Tribune called this song the "quintessential cruising song."

Every playlist meant for driving should probably include a song that repeats "what a long, strange trip it's been" a few times. This particular Dead song has been singled out for recognition not just by Rolling Stone and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but in 1997, the Library of Congress declared it a national treasure.