Expert-Curated Playlist of the Best Road Trip Songs for Your Next Journey
Mar 25, 2025
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Where’s your next road trip taking you? Whether you’re driving coast-to-coast along the Interstates or planning a short weekend drive to get away from city life, one of your traveling prerequisites is music.
Adding a road trip playlist of the best driving songs to your journey is a great way to hasten those long hours spent behind the wheel while you’re bonding with the boys across Route 66, with family visiting relatives or alone.
How to Compile a Playlist With the Best Songs to Drive to
If you want an expert playlist of travel songs that truly fit the bill, you must spend a little time compiling it. The trick is to find tracks that are timeless classics that you can sing along to and span several genres and decades. Always throw in a few more recent titles, especially if you have youngsters in the car, bearing in mind their lyrical family-friendliness.
You’ll want to mix up your playlist with more up-tempo songs to cater to the excitement level when starting your trip but chilling things out intermittently when you’re more settled on the road. As the sun begins setting, you may want to relax things more often.
If you’re traveling for several hours at a time, ensure you’ve enough music to last the duration without getting repetitive — include as many songs about traveling, cars and routes as you can create a theme — and if you want a break from the music, there are always other road trip options to consider for a while.
Use this expert-curated playlist of the best road trip songs, with enough tracks for two hours on the road, to guide your personal selection.
1. Red Hot Chili Peppers — Road Trippin’
How better to start your playlist than with a song about what you’re busy doing? With its even tempo and Anthony Keidis’ mellow vocals, this 1999 classic fits the bill perfectly to ease you into the journey ahead.
2. Bruce Springsteen — Born to Run
Get this one in early. The Boss has some incredible tracks suitable for road-tripping, but you won’t beat this timeless 1975 rock classic for impactful energy and singalong quality.
3. AC/DC — Highway to Hell
The Aussie rockers pick the energy levels up another notch as you near the Interstate. On its release in 1979, this traditional track had more menacing undertones, but nowadays, it’s a classic heavy rock track that aptly fits into an extended road trip playlist.
4. Tom Cochrane — Life is a Highway
Cochrane’s 1991 driving anthem keeps the tempo rolling with its singalong ability, prompting a slight urge to headbang behind the wheel. Worldwide, millions of people enjoy this classic, and it is just what you need early on to maintain the anticipation of an enjoyable journey.
5. Incubus — Drive
Cali-rockers Incubus will tone things down slightly after Tom Cochrane’s energy with 2000’s “Drive,” bringing the playlist into the new millennium for the first time. Brandon Boyd’s consistent vocals bring an evenness without disrupting the uptempo feel.
6. Arctic Monkeys — One for the Road
You’ll cross the Atlantic for the first time with the Arctic Monkeys, maintaining the even tone of your trip with this 2013 modern classic — also adding a slight R&B influence to the predominantly rock opening to your road trip playlist.
7. The Jezebels — Long Highway
Hayley Mary’s slight Australian twang adds femininity to the playlist, with the 2011 “Prisoner” album track easing the tempo with the track’s initial relaxed start picking up in the middle before reaching a full crescendo before the song ends.
8. Vanessa Carlton — A Thousand Miles
It’s time to sing along again. This piano-driven 2002 classic introduces a strong pop melody to Pennsylvania native Carlton’s catchy lyrics to ensure variety and easy listenability hold pride of place on your trip.
9. Time Bandits — Endless Road
You’ll travel back in time as this Dutch 80s band maintains the easy-listening song with its 1985 Australian hit, which reinforces a theme that The Jezebels started and Vanessa Carlton continued. It’s a long road ahead, but there’s enough great music to keep you enjoying the drive.
10. Rolling Stones — Start Me Up
Mick Jagger picks up the momentum again with “Start Me Up,” doing enough to raise your vibe levels as your road trip ends its first hour. It’s hard to believe the Rolling Stones had already been performing for nearly 20 years when this 1981 driving staple hit the airwaves.
11. The Beatles — Drive My Car
You couldn’t like both The Rolling Stones and The Beatles back in the 1960s. Nowadays, Liverpool’s Fab Four and the London rockers complement each other perfectly while on the road — “Baby, you can drive my car. Yes, I’m gonna be a star.” Is it time for your beloved to drive for a while already?
12. Wilson Pickett — Mustang Sally
Staying in the 1960s but raunching things up slightly with Wilson Pickett’s R&B cover extends your trip’s singalong status further. If you prefer a more modern cover, replace this one with The Commitments’ 1991 version.
13. Rihanna — Shut Up and Drive
Rihanna really rocks with this 2007 follow-up to the popular “Umbrella.” The blend of 1970s and 1980s influences inspires a song that’s on theme and catchy enough for any road trip playlist.
14. Prince — Little Red Corvette
“Little Red Corvette, baby, you’re much too fast.” Prince issues a gentle reminder to stick to the speed limit while encouraging you to sing along to the familiar lyrics first heard back in 1983 as part of his classic “1999” album.
15. Tracy Chapman — Fast Car
For the first time, the playlist moves into true slow song territory. You’ve been on the road for close to an hour, and a mood of relaxed calm is replacing the initial excitement. There’s no better time to chill a little and reflect on the smoothness of the trip and how well the kids are behaving. Is it the road trip movie they’re watching or the music? It must be the music, right?
16. Norah Jones — Come Away With Me
Let Norah Jones’ sultry sounds allow you the chance to speak with your family for a while, or, if you’re alone, take the opportunity to make a quick stop to call and update your loved ones.
17. Snow Patrol — Chasing Cars
Ease back into focusing on the trip with a new-millennium traveling track. In 2006, Snow Patrol captured the world’s attention with this up-tempo ballad, which is now a firm favorite to sing along to on car journeys everywhere.
18. Willie Nelson — On the Road Again
Now that you’re behind the steering wheel and on the road again, who better to help pick up the momentum and prepare you for a few hours of uninterrupted driving than Willie Nelson? Turn this one up loud and get into the mood for the road (and the music) ahead.
19. Sheryl Crow — Every Day is a Winding Road
Keeping it slightly country after Willie’s familiar anthem, Missouri’s country rock megastar provides an upbeat, heartland feel with her 1996 Canadian number-one single. This era saw Sheryl Crow at her most popular, and this number epitomizes being on the open road.
20. The Weeknd — Blinding Lights
Instantly familiar, this 2020 global synth-pop smash hit will go down well with the kids but is feelgood and vibey enough to also get you bopping behind the wheel. You’ll be nearly 90 minutes into your road trip at this point, and its welcome lively sound will revitalize your mental fortitude further.
21. Charli XCX — Vroom Vroom
Perfectly themed for a car trip, “Vroom Vroom” will likely further delight your growing offspring, and while it might not be your musical taste, it’s catchy enough to keep your spirits up if you’re on a slower route — and your children are happy, so why not? If you’re a younger traveler, you’ll likely have more sounds from the 2010s already lined up.
22. Calvin Harris (ft.Future & Khalid) — Rollin’
On a two-hour journey, you’ll be closing in on your destination, but there’s still enough time to squeeze in a few more road trip songs before you arrive. Scottish DJ Calvin Harris eases you into the final part of the trip with some mid-tempo synth-funk hip-hop.
23. Jackson Browne — Runnin’ On Empty
Are you running on empty yet? Not quite, but Jackson Browne allows for a nostalgic trip to 1978 with his dulcet vocals, allowing time to reflect on your trip and calm you into the perfect mood and state of mind for its conclusion.
24. Lucinda Williams — Car Wheels on a Gravel Road
You’re almost there. You may even have turned onto the gravel road to a camping site or your uncle’s farm. Whatever the case, country music’s own Lucinda Williams’ traveling staple provides the perfect winding-down song at the end of an extended road trip.
25. Cyndi Lauper — I Drove All Night
Although you likely didn’t drive all night, it might feel like it when you finally arrive at your destination. Cyndi Lauper released this track in 1989, and it has been ever-present on road trip playlists since. It encapsulates the road trip experience, indicating a determination to reach the finishing point. You’ve done just that.
Other Notable Road Trip Playlist Inclusions
If you’re taking a longer road trip, you may consider the following songs as worthy additions, bringing the total to 40. That seems like a good number, doesn’t it?
- America — Ventura Highway
- Beach Boys — Little Deuce Coupe
- Bob Dylan — Highway 61 Revisited
- The Cars — Drive
- Creedence Clearwater Revival — Up Around the Bend
- Deep Purple — Highway Star
- Depeche Mode — Route 66
- The Doors — Roadhouse Blues
- The Eagles — Life in the Fast Lane
- Fleetwood Mac — Go Your Own Way
- Kings of Leon — Pickup Truck
- Nelly — Ride Wit Me
- Pearl Jam — Rearviewmirror
- Talking Heads — Road to Nowhere
- Train — Drive By
Choose Road Trip Songs That Move You
Everybody has specific songs that move them by bringing back memories of special people and occasions, life events and circumstances they enjoy reliving. An extended road trip affords you the chance to do this, so take the above playlist as a guideline to choose a playlist that sincerely speaks to you. Enjoy your trip.
