I was driving along the road, and all of a sudden, “Born to Be Wild” came on the radio. This got me to thinking, what are some of the best songs to crank up your car radio to? I was thinking that one, Golden Earring’s “Radar Love,” practically anything by AC/DC (I was raised on them.) So, what am I missing?
Hum, hum!
May I suggest “100,000 Fireflies” by Magnetic Fields?
Though the song sounds best in the car if it’s winter and you’re driving through a winding road with plenty of trees, and it’s getting dark and the sky turns that unique winter-shade of Phalo-blue.
Maybe it would sound good while driving through a suburban woodsy-type place in the early summer evening when there are actually fireflies flitting about, but I haven’t tried that yet.
There aren’t too many lightning bugs in the city 
Anything by the Reverend Horton Heat, particularly on lonely deserted highways during the summer that go on and on and on without a single turn…
“Sweet Home Alabama” by Lynyrd Skynyrd
“Kashmir” by Led Zeppelin
Most anything by Ted Nugent
I’ll second the “anything by AC/DC”, but only if it’s the live versions.
Again on the ac/dc and skynyrd.
Most any collection of 70s classic rock will be full of cruisin tunes.
I’m a big fan of hauling ass down the street with Motley Crue playing that Dr Feelgood song on the stereo cranked up to level 55, the windows rolled down and all my friends screaming along with it even though all we know is “nanananana FEELGOOD! sumthinsumthinsumthinsumthin ALRIGHT!”
Cruizin’ tunes comes in two flavors for me:
Rock: “Up To No Good,” a solo album by J.Giels front man Peter Wolf. Kick-ass rock ‘n’ roll performed with session musicians in Nashville, who probably appreciated the chance for some hard playing. Even has a road song (“I’m gonna drive all night / baby, just to be with you / it’s gonna be all right / long as i can get to you.”)
Then there’s Yello, a group out of Germany. If you remember the “Oh, Yeah” jingle from the candy commercial (Twix? Something like that), that’s the group. Their “Flag” album is a combination of driving music that uses some repetitive loops and pounding rhythms that sound more European than American. “The Race” is an incitement to speed.
Aw heck, lemme give you the amazon.com link and you can hear for yourself:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000001FPC/o/qid=987820102/sr=2-3/107-2547021-6493330
Violent Femmes–Blister in the Sun
(a must to start out any road trip)
Heart–Barracuda
Tom Petty–Running Down a Dream
Talking Heads–Wild Wild Life
Lenny Kravitz–Fly Away
Southern Culture on the Skids–Camel Walk
(an odd but great driving tune)
Cornershop–Brimful of Asha
(great for the Beltway–95 and 495)
Turpentine-Great, now you’re inducting me into the Magnetic Fields club, too? (Actually, i did download it today, and for some reason, it’s taken control over me…)goes to download “when my boy walks down the street” and "Busy Berkeley Dreams
Gunslinger-forgot Ted Nugent. He’s the other person I was raised with…
~heard “hell’s bells” on the radio today, as I was cruising along… 
Forgot some Metallica music. And American hi-fi’s “Flavor of the Weak”
Turpentine is very right about 100000 Fireflies (she got me addicted!). The other upbeat songs are good ones as well (When My Boy Walks Down the Street and The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side) but Busby Berkeley Dreams will make you cry and hit a tree. Another great one by them is The Way You Say Good Night, good to listen to at–you guessed it–night! It is romantic.
Other suggestions:
music by:
The Beatles
Dead Kennedys
The Dead Milkmen
Cake
Weezer
some songs I can think of
Video Killed the Radio Star
I Want You To Want Me – Cheap Trick
Whip It–Devo
Somewhere Over the Rainbow–Israel Kamakawiwo’ole
Turning Japanese–The Kinks (it’s by the Vapors, but Ray says that the Kinks version seems more impressive)
I can think of more later.
Ta!
Daytime?
White Room by Cream or Hold On, I’m Comin’ by Sam & Dave
Night?
Riders On The Storm, or virtually anything else by the Doors.
Also With Or Without You.
Who (no pun intended) can forget “Who’s Next”?
its short, its loud, and it has a song about driving, dammit. (mobile.)
The soundtrack to Out of Sight is pretty funky and fun, IMHO.
Not many will know this song but it is great if your young and you are driving fast, especially when driving up to the mountain to go snowboarding.
Jesus Built My Hotrod by Ministry
CAKE!
:: nods for Welfy ::
“He’s going the distance
He’s going for speed
She’s all alone
(allalone)
All alone in her time of need”
Ooh, ooh. It’s almost 4 a.m. but now i feel an urge to go driving!
-Mothra
I’m with Welfy and Weezer - a definite must have for the car IMO. And Bad Reputation by Joan Jett is pretty cool in the car, too.
Magic Carpet Ride - Steppenwolf
Cheap Sunglasses - ZZ Top (think I got the song name right)
Money - Pink Floyd
Theme to Airwolf - ??? (it’s GREAT to drive to if you loop it a few times :))
Push - Moist
Starseed, 4am, or Thief - all by Our Lady Peace
Anything by Ozzy works for me.
I’ll second votes for the Doors, Zeppelin, Heart; all great tunes.
FD.
Metallica - Fuel
Megadeth - High Speed Dirt
U2 - Where the Streets Have No
Jackson Browne - Running on Empty
Lynyrd Skynyd - Call Me The Breeze
Ozzy Osbourne - Crazy Train
Joe Satriani - Surfing With the Alien or Speed of Light
There Is A Light That Never Goes Out- The Smiths
The Sweater Song- Weezer
Perhaps the greatest love song ever written to one’s car:
Little Floater by NRBQ.
Check this out:
http://www.cdnow.com/cgi-bin/mserver/SID=747694054/pagename=/MN/PROMO/promo_in_the_media.html/promoid=5022/languageID=0
Most of my favs have already been mentioned, so I’ll nominate “A Passage To Bangkok”, by Rush.