The editors of WorldHum, the online site of the Travel Channel, decided to take on the formidable task of naming the greatest travel songs of all time.
We gave them broad voting criteria: If it’s a song about travel or inspires travel or just a song that they must listen to while they travel, it’s eligible.
What’s notable about the WorldHum list is it managed to track down YouTube videos of each of the songs. And check out the interactive map that includes a few songs not on the main list.
Here’s the top 40, ranked by the total number of votes:
- “On the Road Again,” Willie Nelson (60 points)
- “City of New Orleans,” Arlo Guthrie (57)
- “Graceland,” Paul Simon (46)
- “America,” Simon & Garfunkel (44)
- “I’ve Been Everywhere,” Hank Snow/Johnny Cash (42)
- “Born to Run,” Bruce Springsteen (42)
- “(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66,” Nat King Cole (33)
- “This Land is Your Land,” Woody Guthrie (32)
- “Me and Bobby McGee,” Roger Miller, Janis Joplin (28)
- “Southern Cross,” Crosby, Stills and Nash/Jimmy Buffet (27)
- “Road to Nowhere,” Talking Heads (27)
- “Runnin’ Down a Dream,” Tom Petty (26)
- “Tangled Up In Blue,” Bob Dylan (25)
- “King of the Road,” Roger Miller (25)
- “Roam,” B-52s (21)
- “Long May You Run,” Neil Young (21)
- “Born to be Wild,” Steppenwolf (20)
- “Proud Mary,” Ike and Tina Turner/Creedence Clearwater Revival (18)
- “Back in the USSR,” The Beatles (18)
- “Like A Rolling Stone,” Bob Dylan (17)
- “When I Paint My Masterpiece,” Bob Dylan/The Band (17)
- “Thunder Road,” Bruce Springsteen (15)
- “Midnight Train to Georgia,” Gladys Knight & the Pips (15)
- “Leaving on a Jet Plane,” Peter, Paul, & Mary/John Denver (14)
- “Ol’ 55,” Tom Waits (14)
- “Wagon Wheel,” Bob Dylan/Old Crow Medicine Show (14)
- “Africa,” Toto (13)
- “Truckin’,” Grateful Dead (13)
- “Travelin’ Prayer,” Billy Joel/Dolly Parton (13)
- “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” John Denver (12)
- “American Girl,” Tom Petty (12)
- “The Long and Winding Road,” The Beatles (12)
- “Radar Love,” Golden Earring (12)
- “California,” Joni Mitchell (12)
- “Ramble On,” Led Zeppelin (11)
- “Katmandu,” Bob Seger (11)
- “Where the Streets Have No Name,” U2 (11)
- “Sweet Home Alabama,” Lynyrd Skynyrd (11)
- “Roadrunner,” The Modern Lovers (11)
- “Ramblin’ Man,” The Allman Brothers Band (11)
It’s a good list. And Nat King Cole’s “Route 66” made the Top 10.
But it’s an oversight to leave off Dave Dudley’s “Six Days on the Road” from the Top 40, the ultimate truck-driving song and a major hit in 1963.
Wow, I have a couple of these on my computer including the Nat King Cole song which I just got today.
Good to see your post invoking Arlo Guthrie’s version of Steve Goodman’s “City of New Orleans.” Goodman often doesn’t get his due. You might be interested in my 800-page biography, “Steve Goodman: Facing the Music.” The book delves deeply into the genesis of “City of New Orleans,” and Arlo Guthrie is a key source among my 1,050 interviewees and even contributed the foreword.
You can find out more at my Internet site (below). Amazingly, the book’s first printing sold out in just eight months, all 5,000 copies, and a second printing of 5,000 is available now. The second printing includes hundreds of little updates and additions, including 30 more photos for a total of 575. It won a 2008 IPPY (Independent Publishers Association) silver medal for biography: https://www.independentpublisher.com/article.php?page=1231. To order a second-printing copy, see the “online store” page of my site. Just trying to spread word about the book. Feel free to do the same!
Clay Eals
1728 California Ave. S.W. #301
Seattle, WA 98116-1958
(206) 935-7515
(206) 484-8008
ceals@comcast.net
https://www.clayeals.com
Speaking of Mr. Dylan, here’s an interesting bit of “lost” history from the highway:
On 5-18-1976, Bob Dylan invaded Oklahoma City with the second edition of his fabled Rolling Thunder Revue to play the State Fair Arena (a.k.a The Big House), just off still-existent Highway 66.
The night’s musical itinerary replicated a Fort Worth gig held two days prior that’s since been considered by hardcore Dylanites to be Dylan’s second greatest live performance ever (i.e., as counted amongst all the circulating tapes, of which there are a ton).
This equally fine OKC show managed to spawn a tape complete with an aptly grainy, “Dust Bowl” feel — benefitting from, ironically, a somewhat sub-par recording.
Just five days later, Uncle Bob & Co. went on to record the masterful “Hard Rain” TV special at Fort Collins, CO that was nationally aired the following September.
Thus, noted Dylan scholar Clinton Heylin has perceptively pegged this RTR “second leg” as one of the very finest tours of Dylan’s career—while accurately implying a steady growth of its cultural/historical stock.
(p.s. – And as many of us know, Dylan hails from Duluth, MN, along the uppermost stretch of America’s Mother Road of Music, Highway 61, and is recognized as the most famous apprentice of 66 hero Woody Guthrie—not to mention that Dylan & his band are amongst those who have performed “Route 66” a’ la Bobby Troup.)