6 obscure car songs to liven up your next cruise | Hagerty Media

[Hagerty]

If you have fuel in your veins, chances are you've read articles about car songs. Heck, you've probably read one or two on this website! But generally they tend to be the same, old same-old that are overplayed at local car cruises.
https://www.hagerty.com/media/music/6-obscure-car-songs-to-liven-up-your-next-cruise/

[Tim]

Dr. Demento introduced me to that one.

[ACE_Sonoma]

Great Catch!

A staple of early Hot Rod Revival Years (70's) Bands and DJ's...

[Edredsel]

If it's not cruising season, and your in the garage. Jef Jaisun's "I smell like 90 weight" is my favorite working on the car song.

[Diego]

Is that the guy who does the narco agent song? Haven't heard that name in years but that song is what's coming to mind.

[Markymark]

Fun feature. Talk about musical obscurity I guess I grew up in a conservative community. No one openly boasted about their Hot Rod being the best though there were always rumors.

[JeffBo]

Great! Thanks for list. I hadn't heard of any of those songs, and I'm a recovering half-arsed Music Snob. I'd expected Springsteen and Nat to be on list. So while I still didn't see the song I wanted to submit, I can't do it with the self-assured smugness I'd been planning. Therefore I simply but enthusiastically submit the following. It's been rocking me since I got the pink vinyl 7" 45rpm recording in, like, 1988 or 89. 90 maybe... Anyway, here it is:

Junkyard, by Pink Slip Daddy, on Sympathy For The Record Industry records (SFRTI 144). You should check it out.

[bpar73]

Highway Star by Deep Purple

[Timbo]

Obsure?! They open their shows with this song!

[Guitar74]

Used to listen to that one right before a race. My e.t.s were always lower. I don't care if it's not obscure, it's great. And that John Lord solo on the organ and Ritchie Blackmoore......I need say no more.

[Rider79]

BEST CAR SONG EVER!!!

[Corravoo]

ZZ TOP - She loves my automobile

[75triumph]

Creedence Clearwater's 'Keep on Chooglin"

[THETIKITWO]

"She loves my automobile" by ZZ Top

[Longbranch]

“My Little Austin Seven”
https://youtu.be/zijmLQ7cb1c

Austin Unity Song
https://youtu.be/-VHb7g6uEyc

[Orict0015668]

You’re going to drive me to drinkin’ if you don’’t stop driving that Hot-Rod-Lincoln!!!

[ModelT]

Yep! That's right up there at the top of cruisin songs!

[OkJustOneMore]

"455 Rocket" by Kathy Matteau.

[DHR]

15 Days Under the Hood by the New Riders of the Purple Sage was one of my favorites.

[DUB6]

   I've got a playlist of "car-related" (very loose connections in some cases) tunes that I play when working on vehicles in the shop, and sometimes when on road trips.  It contains some of those "trucker" songs - basically stuff that mentions 'cars. hot rods, trips, roads, driving, etc.).  Once I thought I had all there were, but I keep running across more - found a couple here - to be added.  The old radio show "Click and Clack - The Tappet Brothers" used to play some during their breaks that I've never found yet.  So I keep looking.  If this keeps up, I'll be able to to do my dream road trip: Cruise Route 66 in my '66 Pontiac - and have enough road trip music to make the entire trip! 😎

[Longbranch]

You’d have to do it in a Dodge Dart to channel your inner Magliozzi.

[ModelT]

As a retired trucker and recovering car nut, I still play the old cruisin and trucking songs of days gone by. Whether I'm in a VW beetle or a hot Corvette, in my mind, I'm burnin rubber down the quarter mile.
I learned to drive a car and an 18 wheeler on parts of Illinois rt 66. Always dreamed of cruising it out west.

[acegan]

Let  me know when you’re doing the run I’ve been wanting to too! In the mean time you can send me that playlist anytime 🙂

[N8KFE]

Da Yoopers – Rusty Chevrolet ......https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeZ0BUc3kMw

[RokemRonnie]

Somewhere I have a Da Yoopers cassette. Bought it at their gift shop in the UP.

[ModelT]

Sadly when one of my computers died I lost all of my car cruising and car comedy songs.

[Robin]

That was hysterical!

[DHR]

Don't forget "Hot Rod Lincoln". My favorite version is by Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen.

[RSorenson1]

Bill Kirchen (Cody's guitar player) does a great version on his own.

[HistoricAfton]

More obscure is the precursor to "Hot Rod Lincoln" written by Charlie Ryan: "The Hot Rod Race" by Jimmie Dolan was a rhyming, talking rock-a-billy song about a Ford and a Mercury racing up Grapevine Hill and as they were about to decide the race they were passed "by a kid in a hopped up Model A, just a hopped up Model A". Referenced by the line "when Fords and Lincolns were settin' the pace" in "Hot Rod Lincoln". Not a great song in itself, but certainly inspired a classic. You can find it on Youtube.com.

I talked to Bill Kirchen (guitar player for the Commander) and Redd Vollkert (both masters of the Telecaster) after a performance at the Mn State Fair two years ago. I told them I played both songs for my auto class students. Kirchen told me they didn't know "The Hot Rod Race" existed when The Commander recorded "Hot Rod Lincoln" in 1971. I had him sign my hot rod Hawaiian shirt and Redd Vollkert who owns a 1970's Corvette sign my Corvette shirt the next day. If you get a chance go see these guys play before they retire. Redd was Merle Haggard's guitar player for years. Great shows. Their versions of "Hot Rod Lincoln" are on Youtube.com.

[jowcol]

Back Seat '38 Dodge by Opus 1 - ultra obscure but amazing

[sclin10]

A tribute to Edward Kienholz's naughty installation work.

[Diego]

That's truly in the spirit of the article. Thank you!

More info here:

https://garagehangover.com/opus1/

[knucklebusted]

When actually driving in a spirited manner, I like to listen to Foreigner's "Tramontane" while shifting gears. If you listen to it, you can get the gist of starting it up, driving out of town and onto the back roads where you can open it up, wind it out and grab another gear. Then you have to brake and downshift and do it all again. If I ever get to drive on the Nürburgring, this will be playing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V_qwXGnkUc

[stanger351]

"The Jeep Song" by The Dresden Dolls

[Timbo]

How about "Shlock Rod" by Jan and Dean? "I got a '48 Buick and it's olive green"

[treefrogbeer]

Lights in the wheel wells and quarter walls, burns cheap gas and always stalls.....

[Timbo]

That's "porta-walls". They were white rubber circles to pretend you bought whitewalls.

[ModelT]

The good ones lasted almost a year.

[MrKnowItAll]

All way too new.

Chevrolet Six- Frank Hutchinson

The Hot Rod Race- Arkie Shibly, 1951. Charlie Ryan’s 1955 “Hot Rod Lincoln” is an answer song to this.

[RokemRonnie]

I doubt Hot Rod Race could get played on radio (or streaming services either) today. The lyrics are, ahem, problematic:
"Now along about the middle of the night,
we were rippin' along like white folks might,"

[acegan]

truth isn’t dependent on era; it’s still white privilege to speed

[TonyT]

Didn't Chuck Berry's "Maybellene" say it best?
"...nothin' will outrun my V8 Ford..."

[llawrence9]

There is a reason they got little air play.

[DHR]

How about "The Distance" by Cake or "Jerry was a Race Car Driver" by Primus.

[Longbranch]

Rush...Little Red Barchetta

https://youtu.be/FAvQSkK8Z8U

“I strip away the old debris
That hides a shining car
A brilliant red Barchetta”

[gyashko]

Wonderful song, but hardly obscure. My favorite lyric is:
/Tires spitting gravel/
/I commit my weekly crime/

When I first heard it, it seemed impossibly dystopian. Now I'm afraid I may live to see "the motor laws" enacted.

[OldFordMan]

Chuck Barry song "Maybeline"! I have been known to sing it while driving.

[Jumberlack]

79 Yellow Camaro by Chris Austin Martinez

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pHMxDLJR6TU

[Rich8]

Nice. Certainly (as mentioned) a bunch of obscure songs....I particularly like the “The Hot Rod Song” by the Nightshadows... use your imagination!

And the cool sound/beat of "She Took My Oldsmobile” by the Romancers, good one for a car show.

[Bullit]

Don't need your imagination, hell the song practically paints you a picture! 😳 LOL 😂