Hello readers! One of my goals for 2011 is to buy a new car and while looking through a huge cadre of what I may want to invest in, it came to my attention that there are no really good songs about cars today like their used to be. So I would like to present to you some great classic song about cars. Keep in mind readers there are hundreds of songs about cars and about driving so I have decided to narrow the field down to a few of my favorites. I have also tried to find versions of these songs that include pictures of the chariots. So here we go, gentlemen start your engines……
This song by Ronnie and the Daytonas talks about a Pontiac GTO. The Pontiac GTO was built by the Pontiac Division of General Motors in the United States from 1964 to 1974. It is considered an innovative and now classic muscle car of the 1960s and 1970s. Ronnie and the Daytonas were an American surf rock group of the early 1960s that was formed in Nashville, Tennessee in 1964. Their primary contribution to popular music was in injecting country sounds into the burgeoning surf rock scene, an innovation that can still be found in surf music today.
The Beach Boys had a string of hits about cars in the 1960’s. The song 409 is about a Chevrolet 409, a 409 cubic inch W-series V8 engine popular with "hot rodders" of the time. Gary Usher, who wrote the majority of the lyrics for the song dreamed at that time of one day owning a Chevrolet 409. Drag racing, while illegal in many parts, is nonetheless an American tradition and The Beach Boys paid tribute to it in this buoyant ode to a ’32 Ford with a big V8 that is custom made to blow the doors off gear-headed rivals. There are references to a “flat head mill” and “competition clutch” that only a grease monkey could fully appreciate. Also, there’s the suggestion the little deuce coupe can do 140 mph, the kind of exaggeration that’s only allowed in art, although it may very well be true when it claims, “I got the pink slip, Daddy.” The song reached No. 15 on the U.S. pop charts in 1963 and has outlived most of the ’32 Fords it describes.
Because rock ’n’ roll has had lots of influences leading up to the ‘50s, several have laid claim to being the “first rock ’n’ roll song,” and the argument still rages today. Legendary producer Sam Phillips claimed it was “Rocket 88,” which was written by Ike Turner and credited to a group called Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats, which wasn’t an actual band. It was Turner in 1951 who created it and performed the Oldsmobile 88 tribute, which was produced by Phillips, although Brenston sang on it. This is an example of song where an American car represents sexual prowess: “Gals will ride in style, movin’ all along.” The Olds 88 had just come out and was considered to be the fastest car on the road.
Though there have been several versions of this classic, most people know the version by the country/rockabilly band Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, which was released early in 1972 and rose to No. 9 on the pop charts and No. 51 on the country charts. One of the more famous lines goes like this: “My pappy said, ‘Son, you’re gonna drive me to drinkin’, if you don’t stop driving that Hot Rod Lincoln.”
Pink Cadillac and Ramrod
Bruce Springsteen has written several songs about cars and racing. Also parts of cars are prominent in many of songs such as “chrome wheeled, fuel injected and steppin out over the line” from Born to Run. Pink Cadillac is a humorous rockabilly song that, like Prince's "Little Red Corvette, follows the tradition of the Wilson Pickett R&B classic Mustang Sally in using automobile travel as a metaphor for sexual activity. This is particularly evident as sung by Springsteen in the lyric: "I love you for your pink Cadillac" originally a veiled reference to, well you get the picture… Ramrod is just a great Springsteen song and if you get a chance to see him live, I hope you get to see him perform this live, if not check out the above video.
Recorded by Johnny Cash the song tells of a Detroit auto worker who watches Cadillacs roll by day after day on the assembly line, knowing that he will never be able to afford one.
He and a co-worker decide to steal a Cadillac, using their assembly line jobs to obtain the parts via salami slicing. He takes the small parts home hidden in his large lunchbox; larger parts are smuggled out in his co-worker's mobile home. Once they have a complete car, they assemble the pieces. The result is an odd-looking Cadillac created from parts of many different models. The vehicle title document weighed 60 pounds, and required the entire staff to type it. This song would be the last song performed by Cash to reach number one on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart, and the actual car can be found at Historic Auto Attractions located in Roscoe, Illinois.
In the 1950’s the Playmates released the song Beep Beep about a Little Nash Rambler. The song tells of a Cadillac driver and his woes of not wanting to get passed by a smaller car. The song was on the Billboard Top 40 chart for twelve weeks and sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. Concurrently with this song, American Motors (AMC) was setting production and sales records for the Rambler models. Ironically because of a directive by the BBC that songs do not include brand names in its lyrics, a version of "Beep Beep" was recorded for the European market replacing the Cadillac and Nash Rambler with the generic terms limousine and bubble car. The song starts slow and gets faster and faster to simulate racing, and to me it is what makes the song so much fun.
So there you go road hogs, some song about cars. There are tons more I could mention such as Mustang Sally, Little Red Corvette, Hey Little Cobra, Chevy Van, Silver Thunderbird, etc, but I’d like to hear from you. When you think of car songs, which ones come to mind? Until next time keep your eyes on the road and hands upon the wheel…..
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