Category: Songs About Cars

Last week, we revved up the engines and put the pedal to the metal to set out on a road trip to gather up great songs about cars. Thanks to the help from our readers along the way – Songs About Cars (Vol. I), is perhaps the most extensive and diverse collection of songs about cars to be found on the web.

And if one mix didn’t achieve that goal, it’s a good thing that there were plenty of left-over, relevant songs to in fact put together another well tuned, all engines go mix of car songs for this week’s S-25 Mix.

Many of the songs in this second mix of Songs About Cars came from our own combined playlists, and of course the recommendations of visitors to the cafe. The songs are not in any particular order of importance, release date, artist, or any other categorization, other than they all have something to do with cars, and of course are songs we really like.

Also, as with all of the Sunday mixtapes on IRC, the featured songs are from various genres, and time periods, of music as long as they fit whatever happens to be the theme on any given Sunday.

As you can easily imagine, there are thousands of songs that span six decades of music in which cars are the central theme. Therefore, choosing which ‘car songs’ would be included in the mix, and which would not be, was accomplished through an evolution that relied heavily on a process of elimination, wherein a number of people rated the songs in iTunes from one to five stars (only songs with at least three stars are kept).

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Because there are so many fantastic songs about cars, we broke up the mix into two volumes, with the first installment published last Sunday.

“Getaway Car” – Grouplove from Grouplove EP (2009)

“Asleep At The Wheel” – Working For A Nuclear Free City from Businessmen & Ghosts (2008)

“Wheels” – Pete Yorn from Pete Yorn (2010)

“Car” – Atlas Strategic from Rapture, Ye Minions! (200

“Autocade” – Prolapse from Autocade (2003)

“Go Lil’ Camaro Go” – The Ramones from Halfway to Santiy (1987)

“Trees Get Wheeled Away” – Bright Eyes from Noise Floor (2006)

“Drive My Car” (The Beatles) – The Donnas

“One Piece At A Time”– Johnny Cash from One Piece at a Time (1976)

“Asleep At The Wheel” – New Amsterdamns from Worse for the Wear (2003)

“Calling All Cars” – Dashdown from Rock N Roll Vacation (2010)

“Cars And Calories” – Saves The Day from Stay What You Are (2001)

“If I Could Drive Forever” – Smog from Knock Knock (1999)

“Thunder Road” – Bruce Springsteen from Born To Run (1976)

“Hollywood Nights” – Bob Seger from Stranger in Town (1978)

“Survival Car” – Fountains Of Wayne from Fountains of Wayne (1996)

“409” – The Beach Boys from from Made in the U.S.A. (1962)

“Jeepster” – T-Rex from Electric Warrior – Remastered & Expanded U.S. version (1971)

“My Car” – Atlas Sound from The Free Things That I’ll Miss EP (2008) – free download

“Radar Love” – Golden Earring from Continuing Story of Radar Love (1974)

“After The Car Crash” – Aeroplane Pageant from Even The Kids Don’t Believe Me (2008)

“Company Car” (Switchfoot) – The Gregs from Historical Doubt (2005)

Last Sunday, at the end of the mix for “Red Songs” (songs with ‘red’ in the title), we asked for song suggestions to help us create today’s S-25 Mix, “Songs About Cars.”  IRC readers stepped up and provided more than a couple of dozen prime picks, ranging from Arcade Fire and David Bowie, Radiohead and Blind Melon, R.E.M. and Built to Spill, and Tom Waits to Beck, to name just a few. While some of IRC readers’ suggestions were already on our draft list, many others were not.

In our own playlist collections, we have hundreds of songs about cars – and activities commonly related with cars – so it was a challenge, to say the least, to choose which would be included in this playlist mix.  Some artists have more than one song about cars that will be featured – like Arcade Fire, Radiohead, Cake, Belle and Sebastian, The Kinks – and in those cases, there will be just one in each installment. In fact, there are so many excellent car songs, that we had to break this mix into two volumes. The second mix will be posted next Sunday, so make sure to check back for that.

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For the most part, we decided to focus on songs that actually have the words ‘car’ or ‘drive’ or ‘automobile’ in the title (with a few exceptions like Led Zeppelin and Tom Waits) since, as you can imagine, there are loads of songs about cars, driving, road trips, racing, plus not to mention dozens upon dozens of songs about non-car vehicles (depending on your definition of what is and isn’t a car), like trucks (including pick-ups, trailers and 18-wheelers), vans, jeeps, limousines, and other ‘vehicles’ like motorcycles, scooters, and even some bicycles.

One of the best parts of the S-25 Mix series is that it’s not restricted to just indie music, but can include songs from any genre, and any era, of music. Every Sunday, we post a S-25 mix that is centered around a subject or theme, and then scour our music collections to find the best songs we can related to whatever the theme is.

Over the past few months, there have been very popular S-25 Mixes about Egypt, Love, Winter, and others.

Other popular S-25 Mixes have not had a theme, but instead featured a profiled band, along with a mix of various favorite songs from classic rock and punk, folk and new wave, alternative rock and golden oldies. Some of those S-25 Mixes highlighted bands like The Strokes, The Clash, The Decemberists and Beach House. But for right now, it’s all about cars. 

“No Cars Go“ – Arcade Fire from Neon Bible (2007)

“Car“ – Built To Spill from There’s Nothing Wrong With Love (1994)

“Mint Car“ – The Cure from Wild Mood Swings (1997)

“Killer Cars“ – Radiohead from The Bends (Collectors Edition) [Explicit] (1995)

“Someone Take The Wheel“ – The Replacements from All Shook Down (1990)

“Drivin Sister“ – Mott The Hoople from Mott The Hoople (1973)

“Drivin“– The Kinks from Arthur Or The Fall and Decline of The British Empire (1969)

“Race Car Ya Yas“ – Cake from Fashion Nugget (2001)

“Rental Car“ – Beck from Guero (2005)

“Drive“ – The Cars from Heartbeat City (1987)

“Drive My Car“ – The Beatles from Rubber Soul (1966)

“The Back Seat of My Car“ – Paul McCartney from Ram (1971)

This single from Paul McCartney followed not long after The Beatles announced to the world that they would be disbanding. As he apparently felt about many of the songs on RAM, John Lennon is said to have believed the protagnonists’ lines: “We believe that we can’t be wrong” in “The Back Seat of My Car” were directed by McCartney at him and Yoko Ono. The song peaked at No. 39 on the U.K. charts.

“Car Seat (God Presents)“ – Blind Melon from Soup (1995)

“Route 66“– Depeche Mode from Route 66 (2004)

“Low Rider“ – War from War (1975)

“Drive“ – R.E.M. from Automatic For The People (1992)

“Cars” – Gary Numan from The Principle Pleasure (1979)

“Always Crashing In The Same Car“ – David Bowie from Low (1997)

“Cars Are Weird“ – Human Television from Human Television (2004)

“Car Radio“ – Spoon from A Series of Sneaks (1998)

“Car Crash“ – Telekinesis from 12 Desperate Straight Lines (2011)

“Two-Tone Car (An Auto-Body Experience)“ – Chuck Weiss from Old Souls And Wolf Tickets (2006)

“Vegetable Car“– Joshua Radin from Simple Times (2008)

Make sure to check back next Sunday for the second volume of “Songs About Cars.” There are lots of fantastic songs in volume two as well.