The 10 best driving songs of all time
In a recent conversation with Bill Ryder-Jones, the songwriter rightfully proclaimed: “There’s some records that are just really good in cars, aren’t there? You can kind of be ‘in’ the record in a car, and I like that. It’s one of the only fucking things I do like about cars.” Never have truer words been spoken. The womb of a vehicle transforms music.
In fact, I think it is one of the main differences between American and European music. For the most part, their cars and roads are cooler. There’s a distinct difference between revving up a throbbing Mustang and driving through the desolate expanse of America’s heartland and trudging along in an economical hatch batch through steady urban traffic in Leeds or Cologne.
As a rule, I’d say that this has resulted in Americans making better driving music. As it happens, 96% of Americans drive automatics, while 80% of Europeans drive a manual—this is maybe a symptom of those in the States focusing more on their stereo and shunning other distractions where possible.
Digressions aside, we can hum and haw over the whys and wherefores endlessly, but the fact remains: some songs simply sound better in cars. With that in mind, we’ve whittled those that truly triumph when you’re behind the wheel down to just ten epic tracks. These driving anthems hit in different way, so we’ve even indicated the perfect conditions for them.
Finally, we’ve compiled these into a playlist too. But for the love of God, please don’t speed. It’s not big and it’s not clever.
The 10 best driving songs:
Driving to a heist at midnight: ‘The Four Horsemen’ – Aphrodite’s Child
All but the most prosaic of people have, at one point or another in their lives, fantasised about orchestrating a heist. It’s unhealthy if you haven’t. However, the cure is this epic anthem from a little-known Greek psychedelic band that eventually gave the world both Vangelis and Demis Roussos.
After a slow and, in typical prog fashion, overlong build-up, the biblical track erupts into the finest swell of guitar rock ever recorded. It provides a blast of adrenaline that only smashing a volley into the top corner of the net can match. People have certainly been spurred to make regrettable decisions with this song blasting. Perhaps this is why it demands the safe isolation of a car.
Driving a convertible home from work in the summer: ‘Under the Pressure’ – The War on Drugs
There’s no finer way to declare yourself as a prick to the world than to buy a flash red convertible. If you find yourself in this predicament, one that everyone secretly envies, then the only way to re-establish your stock as a human is to pump this summery balm out to us peasants on the pavement. Our joy will be yours to share in, because few songs cast worries aside quite as seamlessly as this ray of sunshine.
In truth, the bulk of The War on Drugs’ back catalogue could’ve made this list. There is something about the pulsing swell of their sound that suits movement, particularly if it is in the sunshine with a degree of greenery somewhere nearby.
Driving at dusk for something to do: ‘Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)’ – Arcade Fire
The Suburbs was a great driving album, kickstarted by the excellent opening title track’s decree: “In the suburbs I, I learned to drive”. With a brooding energy, a sense of movement in the melodies, and cityscape evocations in the nostalgic lyrics, the brilliant record was the soundtrack to many drives when it was released by Arcade Fire back in 2020.
Since then, the beauty of ‘Sprawl II’ has never lost its 1980s lustre. The 1980s was a good era for driving music, and something about futurised energy simply suits road-going for some reason. This anthem harnesses that mystic power, and a stunning performance by Régine Chassagne rams that home and roars you along.
Driving at the mid-point of a road trip: ‘Dreams’ – Fleetwood Mac
The sweet serenity of the music that undercuts the drama of the damaged lyrics in this Fleetwood Mac classic was perfectly showcased in that Oceanspray skateboarding video that helped to launch TikTok. While that tranquil video might, therefore, have a lot to answer for, it did at least showcase how songs can transform when set to motion.
This Stevie Nicks-penned pop-rock single takes on a sweeter dimension when you hit the singalong potential really make itself known. When you reach the midpoint of a long drive, you need a measure of mellowed drama to take over the playlist and ‘Dreams’ is perfect for that.
Driving on a Saturday morning: ‘Lloyd, I’m Ready to be Heartbroken’ – Camera Obscura
Camera Obscura are as selfless as Santa Claus, honing a sound aimed at delivering joy. With this epic indie anthem, they’re at their invigorating and evocative best. Traffic jams dissolve, and the sun starts to shine as this boon of ‘Lloyd, I’m Ready to be Heartbroken’ blares out of car stereo systems.
They say a good chugging melody makes for a good driving song; well, this one roars off like a train. It’s simple enough to withstand a tricky three-point manoeuvre without having to be turned down. And it’s got a chorus that may well cause you to succumb to an embarrassing singalong.
Driving towards a new start: ‘Don’t Change’ – INXS
The rather punky beginnings of INXS are often forgotten about in the annals of music history. For anyone unaware, you must immediately point them towards this classic serving that pairs the best elements of both punk and new wave. It then casts it into the notion of an Australian sunset and lets the nostalgia chords do the rest.
The mournful synth at the beginning hints at moving on, while the racing wail of drums and guitar that steadily build into the picture pushes the track into ‘a new career in a new town’ territory. This is undoubtedly one of the finest tracks the Southern Hemisphere has produced. A great roaring triumph of a song.
Driving through the night: ‘The Killing Moon’ – Echo & The Bunnymen
Ian McCulloch claims that ‘The Killing Moon’ is “the greatest song ever written,” and he should know because he’s the bloke who wrote it. Check the songwriting credits, though, and you’ll see he had a helping hand, with none other than God ascribed as his co-scribe on the ballad. Catch the 1984 track in the right, and you’d be hard-pushed to say he’s wrong.
In truth, as much as this list has implied otherwise, driving can be the most mundane task a human can embark upon. It speaks to the magic of music much more than machinery that epic artworks like ‘The Killing Moon’ can suddenly embellish with untold drama and a deep sense of meaning. Meandering through miles beneath the lunar glow with this twinkling away is heavenly.
Driving to work in the rain: ‘I Hear You Calling’ – Bill Fay
Not every drive is a nice one; that’s a fact of life. However, the good news is that there are plenty of songs for that, too. Alice Boman’s ‘Everybody Hurts’, for instance, is ideal for the most solemn drives you can undertake. But for the rather more regular dreary drive to work in the rain, then there’s the beautiful ‘I Hear You Calling’.
While there might be an understandable fear that this tragic track might make matters worse with its words of wasted time, Mr Bill Fay eases the pain with an arrangement that exudes grace as it oozes out of entombed car speakers. There is a certain magic to the bleak sense of lowly solidarity you experience with the track that transfigures hardship thanks to the beauty that can often be borne from it.
Driving, just generally driving: ‘Haunted When The Minutes Drag’ – Love and Rockets
Formed in 1985 by former Bauhaus trio Daniel Ash, David J, and Kevin Haskins, Love and Rockets seemed to take the moody, atmospheric tenets of their former project and bolster them with a punky rev. This truly epic effort is taken from their debut album, Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven, are it kicks like a mule.
You can travel a hundred miles in the eight minutes that the song lasts without ever breaking the speed limit. It’s a sleek and sultry beast that captures the same energy as the Drive soundtrack without making you look like the sort of fellow who has had the Scorpion jacket from the film in a checkout basket on several occasions. In other words, it’s brooding and boomingly atmospheric but with bottomless depth and oodles of refined musicianship. You could drop a bomb into this song and never live to hear it explode.
Driving through the heart of Nebraska: ‘Born to Run’ – Bruce Springsteen
Inevitable. Bruce Springsteen simply had to pop up on this list. Love him or loath him, the bastard simply has to pop up on your car stereo. The Boss owns the open road. By rights, he should be entitled to a fraction of our road tax. It’s not only that most of his songs seem to be about hightailing out of some nowhere town in a beat-up Cadillac to race towards a more hopeful horizon, but there’s something in his exultant melodies that seems like fuel.
Hunter S. Thompson once said, “On some nights I still believe that a car with the gas needle on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio.” I second the Dr’s motion on the matter and further it by asserting that ‘Born to Run’ may very well sort out the global petroleum consumption crisis if applied by the powers that be correctly.
