Top Ten Songs for a Road Trip

There's a lot of negatives to driving. Traffic, careless drivers, gas prices, etc. Thanks to the miracles of nanotechnology the iPod has made one of the joys of driving easier. No more flipping between stations or carrying tons of CDs on that next road trip. Just plug in the iPod, select a playlist and you're ready to go.

I will be driving to Cleveland from Lexington, Kentucky in a couple of weeks to meet up with some high school buddies before our 20-year reunion at the end of July and engage in some wholesome activities that the whole family can enjoy (right). Since the drive takes about five hours I will be listening to a lot more than ten songs but here are ten that fit the time period we grew up in as well as our common musical tastes.

Top Ten Songs From Lexington to Cleveland (No Order of Preference)

10 - "Ain't Talkin' About Love" by Van Halen. Eddie and the boys show up more than once on this list mainly because most of us are big fans and have seen them in concert multiple times. What better way to kick off this list than this popular rocker from the band's debut album?

9 - "Cars" by Gary Numan. Interestingly enough, Numan wrote this song after a road-rage incident₍₁₎. Hopefully this should be an uneventful trip but it helps to swear at your fellow motorists while sitting in a metal cage going eighty miles an hour.

8 - "Switchin' To Glide" by The Kings. The Kings could be considered a one-hit wonder but this is the best celebration of ending the workday I've ever heard. Very appropriate since I'll be leaving on a Friday.

7 - "Kickstart My Heart" by Motley Crue. This is one of those songs that can get the party started and also net you a speeding ticket if you're not careful. However, it's very hard not to put the pedal to the metal when this comes over the speakers.

6 - "Take Five" by Dave Brubeck. I've gone with strictly rockers but this jazz piano classic will fit in nicely when I'm on I-71 and there's not much out there on the flatlands. Good tune for thinking random thoughts.

5 - "Shout It Out Loud" by KISS. OK, now that we've gotten the intelligent portion of the program out of the way it's back to some good, dumb fun. The live version of this song is a must - I selected the version from Alive!

4 - "Wild Side" by Motley Crue. See the previous entry from Vince, Nikki, Mick and Tommy.

3 - "Ain't Comin' Home" by Silvertide. Silvertide would have been right at home in the '80s when me and my boys had questionable hairstyles but impeccable tastes in music. Hopefully, we'll be having too good of a time not to want to come home though our significant others will hunt us down if we don't.

2 - "Thunderstruck" by AC/DC. Any road trip soundtrack that doesn't have AC/DC is not a road truip soundtrack. Simple as that.

1 - "Unchained" by Van Halen. I'll time it so this song is playing as I enter Cleveland. Yeah, I know it's not "Cleveland Rocks" by P.U.S.A. but it's a great party song from VH's height of debauchery in the early 80s. Party on!

Sources

(1) - Anderson, Philip. "Numan Drives Music More Than Cars." KAOS2000 Magazine, http://www.kaos2000.net/interviews/garynuman/