19 classic songs about specific cars
We dedicated the May/June 2023 issue of Hagerty Drivers Club magazine to the deep connections between music and cars, including several fun lists featuring your favorite car songs. Click the Music & Cars tag to stay up to date on these stories as they roll out online. You can also jam out with our custom Music & Cars playlist on Spotify, available here. Click here for Jamie Kitman’s historical tour of harmony and horsepower, and read below for 19 classic songs about specific cars.
One of Prince’s earliest hits, allegedly a song about sex, can also easily be misunderstood as a song about a “Little Red Corvette.” Except that Corvettes aren’t that little. “Hot Rod Lincoln” was a rockabilly hit in 1955 for Charley Ryan (with an insistent slide guitar standing in for a horn) and again in 1972, with a faithful rendition by Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen. Illustrating that time wouldn’t dim the cultural significance of the car, the Tom Robinson Band’s punk classic “Grey Cortina” from 1978 is at once a sincere tribute but also a snarky takedown of the tackier elements of England’s motoring culture.
Of course, no discussion of car songs would be complete without reference to Tom Waits’ wistful 1973 classic, “Ol’ ’55,” (later covered by the Eagles and many others), a morning-after reminiscence that calls out what may have been Waits’ own 1955 Cadillac but could have been any of a bunch of different cars; 1955 was a good year for sentimental iron.
Cars have always been good fodder for sentimental songwriters, so please enjoy our absolutely incomplete list of songs about cars. If we missed your favorite, share it in a comment!
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Vince Taylor & His Playboys
“BRAND NEW CADILLAC” (later covered by The Clash)
Well, my baby drove off in a brand new Cadillac
Ooh, my baby drove off in a brand new Cadillac
Well, she looked at me, daddy, I ain’t never coming back
If she ain’t coming back, it’s safe to assume his baby was driving a 1980 Seville diesel, and she’s still stranded somewhere.
Jan & Dean
“BUCKET ‘T’”
Found her in a barn in TennesseeI paid five bucks for my Bucket T
Paging Tom Cotter! Paging Tom Cotter!
The Beach Boys
“FUN, FUN, FUN”
Well she got her daddy’s car
and she cruised through the hamburger stand now
Of course, they conveniently leave out the fact that she literally drove through the place. The CCTV footage is wild.
The Beach Boys
“409”
Well I saved my pennies and I saved my dimes
For I knew there would be a time
When I would buy a brand new 409
Today, those same pennies and dimes will get you a base Versa. Nobody writes songs about those.
Ronny & the Daytonas
“G.T.O.”
She beats the gassers and the rail jobs
Really drives ’em wi-ee-eye-ild
And when the late marketing man Jim Wangers got involved, she beat that other GTO.
The Who
“JAGUAR”
Every lovely spot, near or far
You can reach them, too, in your car
Or you might be there now if you own a Jag already
If by “you might be there now” they meant “in ‘Limp Home mode’ in my XK8,” then yes, I’m there already.
The Rip Chords
“HEY LITTLE COBRA”
The Stingrays and Jags were so far behind
I took my Cobra out of gear and let it coast to the line
Oh, so it’s an ode to SCCA A-Production.
Wilson Pickett
“MUSTANG SALLY”(actually a cover)
One of these early mornings
You gonna be wiping your weeping eyes
Fun fact: Mr. Pickett was standing at the exit to his local cars and coffee when this one came to him.
T. Rex
“JEEPSTER”
You slide so good
With bones so fair
You’ve got the universe reclining in your hair
Cause you’re my babe
Yes you’re my love
Oh, girl, I’m just a Jeepster for your love
They originally called the song “CJ-7,” but that didn’t make any sense …
Fountains of Wayne
“’92 SUBARU”
This thing is a beast, value will only increase
In negotiating terms like peace in the Middle East
There’s only three of its kind, they’re never easy to find
Got people waiting in line to pay me double for mine
LOWBALLERS WILL BE IGNORED! I KNOW WHAT I HAVE!
Janis Joplin
“MERCEDES BENZ”
Oh lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz
My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends
Potato-potahto, Janis.
Frank Ocean
“WHITE FERRARI”
You dream of walls that hold us imprisoned
It would seem that Mr. Ocean has spent some time in the back seat of a 365 GTC.
Bruce Springsteen
“PINK CADILLAC”
Honey, I just wonder what you do there in the back
Of your Pink Cadillac
She hawks Avon, Bruce.
The Playmates
“BEEP BEEP”
Now we’re doing a hundred and ten
This certainly was a race
For a Rambler to pass a Caddy
Would be a big disgrace
I think the bigger story here is a Nash Rambler going a buck ten without shaking itself to pieces.
The Beach Boys
“LITTLE DEUCE COUPE”
Well I’m not bragging, babe, so don’t put me down
But I’ve got the fastest set of wheels in town
Uhh, my buddy with the 409 would like a word.
The Routers
“STING RAY”
This song has no lyrics, so they could have called it literally anything. Like “DONKEY” or “COFFEE TABLE.” But because we’re talking cars, let’s go with “SCOUPE” and call it a day.
The Mountain Goats
“NEW CHEVROLET IN FLAMES”
We went down to Pete Brown’s Chevrolet
Cause Pete Brown can satisfy all your new car needs
Wait, is this about the Bolt?
Madness
“DRIVING IN MY CAR” (about a Morris Minor)
I like driving in my car
It’s not quite a Jaguar
I like driving in my car
I’m satisfied I’ve got this far
That’s more than we can say for the bloke limping home in his XK8.
Neil Young
“TRANS AM”
It crawled along the boulevard
With two wheels on the grass
That old Trans Am was dying hard
But still had lots of gas
Now THAT is a car just begging to be jumped.
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Thomas Dolby: The Key to Her Ferrari
So many great songs. Have to listen close, but Jan and Dean’s The Anaheim, Azusa And Cucamonga Sewing Circle was full of car notes…Driving around in their big Grand Prix’s….
Possibly the first classic song about a car is “In my Merry Oldsmobile.” At that time – Olds had only one model – so – – .
What about “SS 396”?
No mention of Vernon Green and the Medallions ’59 Volvo on Dootone Records
Beach Boys Shut Down 1963 Great classic
The song details a drag race between a Super-Stock 413 cu. in.-powered 1962 Dodge Dart and a fuel-injected 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray and is derived from a longer poem by Christian. The song is sung from the perspective of the driver of the Sting Ray who brags that he will “shut down” the 413. (In hot rod racing slang, to “shut down” someone means to beat that person in a race.) While the implication is that the Sting Ray will win the race, the song ends before the end of the race with the 413 still in the lead, with the Sting Ray closing the gap. Although the race is often interpreted as having an inconclusive outcome, the lyrics in the outro refrain do state, “Shut it off, shut it off/Buddy now I shut you down”, clearly indicating that the narrator, in his Corvette Sting Ray, has in fact won the race, as he tells the Dodge 413’s driver to “shut off” the car’s engine and accept the fact that he has just been “shut down”. It must be said, however, that many classic car enthusiasts and experienced muscle car drag racers have suggested over the years that in actuality, all things being equal (i.e. drivers of equal skill), an early 1960s SS Dodge Dart (most likely the 1962 Max Wedge variant) with its 413 cu. in. engine with twin 4-barrel carburetors (“dual quads”) and ram-air induction, producing 410–420 horsepower, 460–470 torque, would have most likely easily beaten a 1963 Chevy Corvette Sting Ray with its fuel injected 327 cu. in. engine producing roughly 350–360 horsepower, 352 torque. Also, the narrator even says that his “slicks” (tires) are starting to spin (lose traction) near the start of the race, and that the Dodge is “really digging in” with good traction, further suggesting that it is highly unlikely that the Sting Ray would have been able to catch up and overtake the superior powered and tractional Dodge Dart 413 in a ¼ mile drag race, even if the narrator did power shift and ride the clutch enough to burn the pressure plates.
Cash Box described it as “powerful” and having “top rock-a-teen sounds.”[5]
….he’s hot with ram induction but its understood…….I got a fuel injected engine sitting under the hood. Maybe good on the track but not a drag strip
“My Woodie” by the Trashmen of Surfin’ Bird fame circa 1064.
Sorry, none of us was around a millennium ago.
My favorite was “beep beep” and it was so old i dont remember who sang it but it was sort of an homage to light simple cars and was really pretty funny. Brad Paisley would probably have liked it. He has some pretty cool car songs, too like mud on the tires and hey mr policeman and out in the parking lot. He is also probably a good mechanic because he is always checking for ticks.😀
Hot Rod Lincoln by Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen needs to be on the list.
Schlock rod, a classic of the b sides
You left one out. The little old lady from Pasadena! With her Brand new red super stock dodge!!!
Just a minor correction: Pink Cadillac would be for Mary Kay Cosmetics, not Avon. My former was a “Consultant” at one time, and they dangle that Cadillac in front of you to entice more sales and recruitment.
I’m shocked that “Radar Love” never got a mention.
I guess it’s not about a specific car but what a great driving song! 🙂
Ok, what about Private Malone by David Ball. About a 66 ‘ Corvette
What about Detroit 442 by Blondie