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20 cars immortalized in song

Like heel and toe, cars and song work well together

Joe Duarte
Published: December 15, 2017, 5:55 AM
Updated: April 29, 2018, 4:15 PM

Like single-channel music from an AM radio

Since the first radio was installed in a car, driving and music have been intrinsically linked and that connection includes a lot of songs about cars themselves. It may not come as a surprise, though, that many songs about cars and driving over the years have really been about women and love and, specifically, acts of love. Mostly staying away from those, here are 20 songs that celebrate the vehicle. (Photo Credit: Wikipedia/Feddacheenee) ▲

Hot Rod Lincoln – Charlie Ryan

Charlie Ryan wrote and recorded Hot Rod Lincoln in 1955, though the most famous recording is probably by country rock band Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen in 1971. Ryan based the song not only on his own hot rod (a Model A body on a shortened 1948 Lincoln chassis, with a Lincoln-Zephyr V-12) but also documented a street race against a friend’s Cadillac in Lewiston, Idaho, though the song sets the race in California to fit in with the narrative of another street racing song, 1950’s Hot Rod Race by Arkie Shibley, which reportedly set the stage for the coming decades’ hot-rod culture songs. (Credit: Wikipedia/Sicnag) ▲

Little Deuce Coupe – The Beach Boys

Perhaps most closely tied to the car culture, The Beach Boys usually have several songs on anybody’s list of cars/driving songs, and there’s perhaps no song that better epitomizes the California hot rod scene than 1963’s Little Deuce Coupe. The song is about a customized 1932 Ford Model 18 Coupe (deuce referring to the 2 in the year of manufacture), with a flat-head V-8 (made between 1938 and 1948) that’s been ported (larger intake/exhaust ports), relieved (shaving metal for bigger valves), bored (bigger cylinder diameter) and stroked (longer piston travel), to push the car’s top speed to 140 mph (225 km/h). ▲

Hey Little Cobra – The Rip Chords

The Rip Chords were another California band that embraced the California surfing and cars lifestyle. In 1963, it broke through with Hey Little Cobra, celebrating the car Carroll Shelby commissioned to take on the racing elite on racetracks around the world. The song highlights the car taking on Stingrays and XKEs, eventually blowing by the Corvette. Shelby commissioned the UK’s AC Cars in 1961 to modify its Cobra to accept a V-8, then went to Chevrolet for an engine but the company didn’t want to create competition for its Corvette, so Shelby went with a Ford small block in what many consider one of the greatest cars of all time. (Credit: Wikipedia/Jaydec) ▲

Dead Man’s Curve – Jan and Dean

As with others in the California music scene at the time, the duo of Jan Berry and Dean Torrence were heartthrobs who sang about cars and surfing and general good times. Their classic Dead Man’s Curve documented a street race between the protagonist’s StingRay and a shiny new Jaguar XKE. At one point, the Corvette pulls away from the Jag, which can only see the StingRay’s six taillights, indicating that the Stingray is an aftermarket conversion, as production Stingrays at the time all came off the line with four taillights. ▲

Racing in the Street – Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen is another name closely associated with the car culture, as with just about every piece of American culture. In Racing in the Street, the protagonist has a 1969 Chevy with a 396 (the big block V-8), which would mean it’s either a Chevelle, Camaro, El Camino or, most likely, a Nova. He and business partner Sonny, equipped it for drag racing with fuellie heads (the race ready stock Chev cylinder heads ready for fuel injection) and a Hurst transmission. They then race the car on public roads, when the strips shut down for the season. (Credit: Wikipedia/dave_7) ▲

Mercury Blues – K.C. Douglas

There was a time when Mercurys were the premium automobile to which many aspired, and K. C. Douglas documented the love affair with the marque in his song originally titled Mercury Boogie. Covered by many artists in various genres over the years, Mercury Blues details how the protagonist wants to win his woman back by buying a Mercury or two, mainly because he lost that woman to a friend when the friend bought a Mercury, but she comes back to him when she gets her own Mercury. They’re all crazy ’bout a Mercury. ▲

Rapid Roy – Jim Croce

Not surprisingly, the car songs we’re familiar with mostly deal with American models (usually Chevys, Fords or Cadillacs) and usually involve some kind of racing (usually on public roads). However, Jim Croce actually told the story of a stock-car racer named Rapid Roy who raced from track to track in a ’57 Chevrolet. At the time the story took place, stock cars were primarily that – cars that came off the production line and underwent some minor tuning to make them faster than the other guys’ production cars – and Roy reportedly used his 1957 (likely a Bel Air Sport Coupe) to run moonshine in Alabama before making his money in a less criminal way on the dirt tracks on Sunday afternoons. (Credit: Wikipedia/Junglecat) ▲

No Money Down – Chuck Berry

In 1955, Chuck Berry wrote No Money Down about driving through a town and seeing a sign advertising Cadillacs for no money down. The dealer says he’ll get whatever car the protagonist wants within and hour and the latter outlines to the dealer what he is looking for. The problem is that the car he wants doesn’t exist. He wants a yellow De Ville convertible (which didn’t come along until 1961), 4-door (which Cadillac hadn’t made since the 1941 Series 62), with several options that were just being adopted in the industry (such as air-conditioning), and a wall-bed in the back seat (which would actually be a really cool option). ▲

Mustang Sally – Mack Rice

In May 1965, about a year after the Ford Mustang was introduced to the world, Mack Rice wrote and recorded Mustang Sally, about a woman who just can’t get enough time behind the wheel of her 1965 Mustang, which was apparently given to her by the author of the song. You’re probably wondering if the song is even about driving the classic pony car or more about the woman who can't get enough. Although the song was an instant success, it enjoyed greater success when Wilson Pickett recorded it a year later. (Credit: Wikipedia/Sicnag) ▲

Little Old Lady from Pasadena – Jan and Dean

The Beach Boys and Jan and Dean were closely tied, to the point that when Jan and Dean took Little Old Lady from Pasadena to the top of the charts, The Beach Boys recorded the song live for a live album about a half year later. The song was inspired by a Dodge marketing campaign, and was one of those funny/weird catchy songs. The “little old lady” of the song drives a Super Stock Dodge (probably a 1964 330) with a 426 (7.0-litre Hemi V-8, created for NASCAR racing). ▲

Beep Beep – The Playmates

Beep Beep is a novelty song about a guy out driving his Cadillac when a Nash Rambler pulls up behind and beeps his horn to pass. Of course, the storyteller can’t have the Cadillac, one of the more powerful cars at the time, passed by a Nash, so he speeds up various times to shake the Rambler only to discover it still behind him with the driver still beeping to pass. Finally, the Rambler pulls out beside the Caddy and asks for advice on how to get the car out of second gear. ▲

Revenge of a Middle-Aged Woman – Tracy Byrd

Revenge of a Middle-Aged Woman is a song about that classic story of the guy who leaves his wife and tells her to sell the luxury car and send him the money, and she honours his wish but practically gives it away. We’re not really sure what kind of 2-year-old Mercedes the woman scorned is selling for $700 but seeing as Tracy Byrd recorded the song in 2004, we assume it would be from around the turn of the century. And seeing as it can hold a set of Arnold Palmer golf clubs, we assume it has a fairly decent trunk, so we’re guessing it’s an S-Class. The final irony of the song is that the purchaser is apparently the woman who stole the seller’s husband. ▲

Red Barchetta - Rush

The term Barchetta was first used in 1948 to describe the Ferrari 166MM, the lightweight two seat open cockpit racecar that would win the Mille Miglia, 24 Hours of Le Mans and Targa Florio in 1949, and the term has stuck with Ferrari as its designation for roadster/spyder/sports car. When Rush wrote Red Barchetta in 1981, it was based on a short story that ran in Road & Track magazine in 1973. The car model is never mentioned in the song (it’s an MGB in the story) but the use of the term is synonymous with Ferrari, so we’re comfortable that’s what the shining car from a better vanished time is. (Credit: Wikipedia/Ton1-bot) ▲

Pink Cadillac – Bruce Springsteen

Springsteen wrote Pink Cadillac and recorded it in 1984, but Natalie Cole really made the song take off in 1988. When you listen to it, you get the feeling it’s not a song about a Cadillac at all, but rather about sex. That’s why the Cadillac is so loved even though some may think it’s too big (but the love is bigger than a Honda or a Subaru). So, it doesn’t really matter what make the Cadillac in question is, though we’d like to think it’s a classic De Ville convertible — probably the last large luxury car to look good in pink. (Credit: Wikipedia/Infrogmation) ▲

White Walls – Macklemore and Ryan Lewis

This may seem like stereotyping, but we doubt two rappers such as Macklemore and Ryan Lewis could be talking about some classic off-black De Ville in their song White Walls. Sure the classics had those prominent white wall tires but Cadillac carried them right through to the end of the century, so more likely the two are singing about the large, bold and chromed-up De Villes of the 1970s and ’80s, with their smooth highway rides and power sunroofs. (Credit: Wikipedia/That Hartford Guy) ▲

Night Drive (thru Babylon) – Model 500

In his 1985 song Night Drive, Juan Atkins (aka Model 500) is cruising in his black on black Porsche 924, the predecessor to the 944 that’s widely acclaimed as Porsche’s greatest front-engined car. In the song, he meets up with a girl who (probably to nobody’s surprise) is the embodiment of the Porsche, with parallels drawn between her black leather miniskirt and the car’s black leather upholstery, and her mirrored sunglasses that prevent a good look at her eyes being like the deep tinted windows that prevent a good look inside the car. At the end, she wrenches the wheel and smiles, presumably leading them both and the car to destruction. (Credit: Wikipedia/Kali924) ▲

The Car – Jeff Carson

In his 1995 hit The Car, Jeff Carson sings about a boy seeing a fixer-up Ford Mustang and wishing to his father that he could buy it, noting all the great attributes of the car, but confiding in the listeners that he wants the car in order to spend more time with his father, who has been working long hours in order to provide for the son after his mother died. Finally giving up on his dream of ever having that car, he learns of his father’s passing but finds a note detailing that he knew spending time together meant more to his son than the car, and a set of keys to the Mustang. ▲

Cool – Morris Day and the Time

Cool is a song written by Prince and recorded in 1981 by The Time, with Morris Day adding lead vocals in production. It details the live of a nouveaux riche with the narrator detailing his jewelry and perfumes, trips around the world in his personal jet, and his 1987 Seville. He says he has all these things because he’s cool, but one could argue the Seville of that era didn’t so much announce that you’d made it but rather that you didn’t have enough to get a real luxury model, so this would do. But then again, Prince wouldn’t really know back in 1981 what the Seville would be like in 1987. ▲

My Ol’ Bronco – Luke Bryan

In the 2015 song My Ol’ Bronco, Luke Bryan waxes poetic over his 42-year-old Ford Bronco utility vehicle not because of what it is but what it represents. After all, it has no doors, no windows, and is a bit rusty, but it has a roll bar and a radio and the trustworthy Windsor 4.9-litre V-8 controlled by a column manual shifter. But, it’s been down those dusty country roads countless times and visited many bonfires over its lifespan, and for those memories, he’s never gonna let it go. ▲

409 – The Beach Boys

Brian Wilson collaborated with Gary Usher on several songs, including 409, about the latter’s Chevrolet with the big block 409 engine (6.7-litre V-8). It had a 4-speed transmission, dual quad carburetors and the Positraction limited slip rear differential, which made it nearly untouchable when it came to drag racing. One of The Beach Boys’ most memorable songs, with its “giddy-up, giddy-up 409” chorus, it supposedly came together in an afternoon. ▲
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