Episode 25: The Road Test | My Top 8 Driving Songs

What is the greatest driving song ever recorded?

Not the obvious picks.
Not just loud guitars and open highways.

In this episode of Who Ordered the Pie?, Christopher Machado breaks down the songs that actually feel like driving. The ones where the road is part of the story.

Cars.
Speed.
Distance.
And the moments in between.

This is a countdown of true driving songs. Not just songs people throw on a playlist, but songs built around motion, momentum, and what happens when you are behind the wheel.

Along the way, we get into the real stories behind tracks like:

“Radar Love” and the hidden ending most people miss.
“I Can’t Drive 55” born out of real frustration during the 55 mph era.
“Highway to Hell” not about the devil, but the grind of endless touring.
“Life Is a Highway” inspired by a shift in perspective after a life-changing trip.
“Panama” written to prove a point and built around pure attitude.
“Driver’s Seat” a hit that may have been held back by production issues.
“Hot Rod Lincoln” one of the most literal driving songs ever recorded.

Plus a deep cut from the Heavy Metal soundtrack and one of the coolest opening scenes ever put to film.

And of course, a featured cocktail:

The Radar Rider. 
A bold, layered tiki riff built with Jamaican and Demerara rum, citrus, spice, and just enough edge to keep things interesting.

If you love classic rock, road trip music, and the stories behind the songs, this episode was made for you.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Alright, to you, what is the greatest driving song ever recorded? I'm not talking the usual suspects like Born to Run or Born to Be Wild, not even Take It Easy. Today I'm counting down the songs that actually make you feel like being behind the wheel. Car speed, long highways, songs where the music itself feels like motion. So today we're gonna talk about my top eight driving songs. And welcome back to Who Ordered the Pie, the podcast where music history, the stories behind the songs, and a little something in your glass all come together. Once again, this is Christopher, and today we're talking about driving songs. If you search for driving lists of driving songs online, you're gonna see a lot of familiar choices. Great songs, but not always the songs that you really live on the road. For this episode, I wanted songs where the car was part of the story. Songs about speed, distance, and the feeling of being behind the wheels. And once I started building the list, I realized that seven songs weren't quite enough and needed to be eight. So today we're counting down my top eight driving songs. Let's start with number eight and work our way all the way to number one. So let's start the road test. We're gonna start with number eight, and my pick is Hot Rod Lincoln by Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

My papy said, Son, you're gonna drive me to drinking if you don't stop driving that hot rod Lincoln.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Released in 1971, the song reached number nine on the Bulboard Hot 100, and it might be the most literal driving song ever recorded.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

It's got a Lincoln motor and it's really souped up.

SPEAKER_00 1:46

What made the Commander Cody version work so well was the way they performed it. It wasn't a polished studio vocal. It was delivered like someone telling a story at a bar, half sung, half spoken, almost like the singer's trying to keep up with the speed of the race itself. And that style fit the band perfectly. Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen were part of a strange little corner of early 70s rock that mixed country rockability, western swing, and straight-up bar band energy. They sounded like the kind of band you might stumble into in a roadhouse somewhere just outside of town. Which made the song feel authentic because High Rod Lincoln is not about winning the race, it's about the chaos of it. Two cars pushing faster and faster down the highway, engines screaming, drivers leaning forward over the wheel, and the song keeps building toward the moment that everyone knows is coming.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

Now all of a sudden she started knocking them down in the dude. She started to rock and I looked in the mirror, red light was blinking. The cops was after my hot rod Lincoln.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

Those flashing red and blue lights in the rearview mirror, and suddenly the race is over.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

He said, Son, you're gonna drive me to drinking if you don't stop driving that hot rod Lincoln.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

And coming up fast and moving up to number seven is my pick Panama by Van Halen. Released in 1984, the song reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100. By that point, Van Halen was one of the biggest rock bands in the world, and their album 1984 was packed with hits. But Panama might be the purest expression of the band's high octane personality. The song actually started out with a challenge. David Lee Roth once read a review from a journalist who dismissed his lyrics, saying he only wrote about girls, cars, and partying. Roth thought about for a moment and realized something funny. For all the swagger and Van Allen songs, he had actually never written a song about a car, so he decided to fix that. And the result was Panama. The song is said to have been inspired by a car that Davidley Roth once saw in a drag race, a car called the Panama Express. Roth loved the name, so he built the song around it. And that's your reminder that this is still a Van Halen record, which means that the lyrics are not exactly subtle. On the surface, the song sounds like a high-speed race, engines revving, pistons firing, rubber burning down the avenue. But Roth loved writing lyrics that worked in two different ways. Lines like gun on ramp coming through my bedroom on paper might sound like a highway line, but the bedroom reference makes the metaphor pretty clear. So yes, it might be a car, or it might just be a very Davidly Roth way of writing about something else. The track even includes a real engine sound. Producer Ted Templeman wanted the song to sound like a real car tearing down the highway, so he walked outside the studio with Eddie Van Halen. Eddie climbed into his Lamborghini, fired it up, and started revving the engine in the parking lot. Templeman recorded it and mixed it directly into the track. The roar you hear in the middle of the song is not a sound effect. That's Eddie's actual car.

SPEAKER_06 5:15

I can barely see the road from the heat coming off.

SPEAKER_00 5:21

And the famous breakdown in the middle of the song, the part where Roth starts talking through the scene, that was improvised. Templeman just kept the tape rolling as Roth let the moment unfold. None of that was scripted. Roth was reacting to the music in the moment, and the band kept the take. The spontaneous exchange ended up becoming one of the most memorable parts of the entire song. Because this is Van Halen, and chaos like that is exactly what you expect. The band's unusual name came from a Salvador Dolly painting titled Sniffing Tears. Lead singer Paul Roberts liked the strange phrasing and turned it into the band's name. Released in 1979, the song climbed to number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100, and for decades it felt like it should have gone much higher. Radio stations were playing the song constantly, but in the late 70s, charts depended heavily on physical singles. And just as the song was peaking, the label ran into distribution and pressing problems. Stations were overplaying it, listeners were requesting it, but stores simply did not have enough copies to sell. Ironically, a song about being in control of the wheel lost momentum because it's something completely outside the band's control. Now, musically, the song captures the feeling of cruising down the highway. The steady rhythm, the hypnotic keyboard line feels like a car settled in for a long stretch of road. And even though Sniffin' the Tears never had another major hit in the United States, driver's seat never really disappeared. The song kept resurfacing in films, televisions, and commercials, and slowly became one of those records that people rediscover again and again. Sometimes the song doesn't need a number one chart position, it just needs a long road. And now we move to my pick for number five. And it's Running Down a Dream by Tom Petty, released in 1989. The song reached number 23 in the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the mainstream rock charts. And the opening line might be the most honest beginning to a driving song ever written.

SPEAKER_03 8:10

I had the radio walk.

SPEAKER_00 8:15

Petty wrote the song with guitarist Mike Campbell and producer Jeff Lynn during the sessions for the album Full Moon Fever. Campbell first brought in the hypnotic guitar rift. Petty heard it and immediately pictured a simple scene: alone in a car, radio on, miles of highway ahead. And that approach was very much Petty's style as a songwriter. He once said, if it sounds good, it is good. From there, the song came together quickly. Petty built the lyric around the feeling of motion, chasing something just out of reach. Mike Campbell's riff is built like a highway rhythm, simple, steady, and impossible to rush. And Jeff Lynn's production leans into that, clean, layered, relentless in its consistency. The kind of sound that just keeps moving forward. And then there's the solo that keeps driving the song forward. Campbell's guitar solo stretches almost to the end of the track, something most radio songs would never allow, but Petty kept it because it felt right. Driving songs should not rush the road. They should stay with you mile after mile. We miss you, Tom. And now we shift gears and head down the long highways of Australia. And the quote, Mr. Bonscott, it would be criminal not to let the rest of that play. And I would gladly take the copyright hit for that one. My pick at number four, Highway to Hell by ACDC. Released in 1979, the song reached number 47 on the Billboard Hot 100, but became ACDC's breakthrough hit in the United States. Getting there was not easy. Up until that point, ACDC had built a reputation the hard way, touring consistently, sometimes playing multiple shows a day. They had a loyal following, but they had not yet broken through. Their label, Atlantic Records, believed they could be much bigger, and they pushed for a change. Until then, the band worked with producers Harry Vanda and George Young, and that Young is the older brother of Angus and Malcolm, and a key figure in shaping their early sound. But Atlantic wanted a new direction, and the band didn't like it at all. They were paired with famous producer Eddie Kramer, who had worked with artists like Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin. On paper, it made perfect sense. In reality, it didn't work. Malcolm Young later said that Kramer didn't quite get it. At one point, Kramer even suggested adding piano, which for ACDC is probably the worst idea ever. So the band did something bold. They told Kramer that they were taking a break, but instead they went back into the studio on their own and recorded the songs the way they wanted them to sound. Those demos were sent to a different producer, Mutt Lang, and that changed everything. Lang understood something immediately. The band didn't need to be reinvented, they needed to be sharpened. Malcolm later said he realized we were a great band who could play, so he let us just go for it. But Lang also brought structure and precision. He would come back with ideas on where to tighten things, where to build tension, and where to let the band breathe. That balance is what you hear in this song.

SPEAKER_06 11:56

Let the wheel go risk in.

SPEAKER_00 12:04

And then there's the title. It came from a real road, Canning Highway in Western Australia, a stretch the band drove constantly while touring. Long drives, hot nights, the same road over and over again. Bonscott started calling it the Highway to Hell. Now, of course, with lines like this.

SPEAKER_06 12:18

Hey Sasha! Hey my Jews!

SPEAKER_00 12:24

Led a lot of people to assume the song was about something much darker, and ACDC did not exactly push back on that image. They leaned into it, in fact, even putting double horns and tails on Angus Young on the album cover. But the real meaning was much simpler. It was about the grind, endless touring, long drives between small clubs, no break, no sleep, just the road over and over again. From the opening riff to the blazing solo, this song never lets up. And once the riff locks in, it carries you all the way through. And at that point, you're not just listening anymore, you're on the road with them. The album itself also marks another turning point. Highway to Hell was the final ACDC record released during Bon Scott's lifetime. He died months after it came out, which gives the song a whole new weight now. What started as a song about the grind of touring became the closing chapter of the band's original era. And shifting gears as we come out of that stretch, we moved to number three. This song reached number six on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1991. Before this, Cochran was the lead singer of a band called Red Rider, who had a major hit with their song Lunatic Fringe.

unknown 13:59

I know you're out there.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

But this chapter sounds very different. Life as a highway came from a real shift in perspective. Cochran had just returned from a humanitarian trip to East Africa, and what he saw there stayed with him. Poverty, resilience, uncertainty. When he got back on the road touring, the highway felt different. Not just travel, but reflection. And that's where the song comes from. Long stretches where nothing changes, and then the moments where everything does. Miles of road that all look the same until suddenly they don't. And through all of it, you just keep moving forward anyway. Musically, the song mirrors that idea. And that driving rhythm and the passion in his voice never let up.

unknown 14:55

Life is a highway. I won't ride it all night long.

SPEAKER_00 15:02

This is not just a driving song. It's a song about what the road represents. Because it's not really about the destination. It's about the miles in between, the people you meet and the moments that change you along the way. And a whole new generation found the song again when Rascal Flats turned it into a hit for the movie Cars, taking it to number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the country charts. Different voice, same road.

SPEAKER_02 15:31

Life is a highway. I want to ride it all night long.

SPEAKER_00 15:39

But if Tom Cochran gave us the road as reflection, Sammy Hagar gave us the road as a rebellion. Coming up fast on the home stretch, number two, my pick is I Can't Drive 55 by Sammy Hagar. In 1984, this song reached number 26 on the Billboard Hot 100, and this one came straight out of real frustration for Sammy. In the early 1980s, the United States set a nationwide 55 mile per hour speed limit. Before that, most highways were about 65 to 70, sometimes even faster.

SPEAKER_06 16:10

One foot over the brakes and one on the gas.

SPEAKER_00 16:16

Then in the mid to late 70s, everything changed. You might think that they lowered the speed limit for safety. Nope. It was about fuel. Hagar said that the idea hit while he was driving. He looked down at the spinometer, saw 55, and thought this is ridiculous. So he did whatever good rock artist does best. He turned it into a song. And you can hear that frustration in the track. It's not smooth or reflective, it's reactive. The guitars push, the tempo drives, and the vocals feel like it's about to break loose. And then there's the video for this. Hagar blasting through the desert in this Ferrari 512 Berlinetta boxer. Wide open road, no intention of slowing down. The song is not about the joy of driving. It's about the frustration of not being able to drive the way you want. And that's why it connected. For a lot of people, this is not just a song, it was a protest. I can still remember my friends and me learning every owl and huh of this song. So funny. Anyway, let's move on to our number one song, and it is. And coming in with the checkered flag is Radar Love by Golden Earing. Released in 1973, the song reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100. And this was not a new band either. Golden Earring had already been around for over a decade, and they had eight albums. Eight. Most bands do not break that late, but then this happened. The song came together fast. A riff, a groove, and a session that just clicked.

SPEAKER_05 18:17

I've been driving on that man's wet on the wheel.

SPEAKER_00 18:24

As lead singer Barry Hayes said, it just happened. That's the way things go sometimes. It was spur of the moment. But what sets the song apart is the lyrics, because it's not just a driving song, it's something stranger. Hay was fascinated with ESP, extrasensory perception, the idea that two people could be connected without speaking. And that became the story: a man driving through the night, connected to someone he cannot see.

SPEAKER_06 18:45

She says the cable coming in from above.

SPEAKER_00 18:52

Not by a phone call, not by a signal, by something like mental radar. Something in his head, something he can feel pulling him forward. He knows where she is. He knows when she needs him. And somehow she knows he's coming. And there's a cool part here that if you haven't caught this before, there's a song playing on his radio.

SPEAKER_05 19:17

Brandon Lee's coming on strong.

SPEAKER_00 19:23

So now the narrator has his own driving song, Coming On Strong, by Brenda Lee. Now, for years I never made that connection. I always thought he was talking about a woman named Brenda Lee. I thought it was the girl that the driver was going to see, and she was coming on strong. But it's not. It's an actual song on the radio. And just like that, you're there. You're in the car, radio on, night all around you. And that one detail pulls the whole scene into focus. And it's not a random song either. Coming on strong is about emotional pull. It's something you cannot ignore, something that keeps building whether you want it to or not, which is exactly what's happening in Radar Love. That same feeling is driving him forward. And then there's one more detail in the song that feels almost accidental: that horn section. But in the studio, they decided to try something a little different. So they brought in horns, and suddenly the whole song opened up. It gives the track a lift, a sense of scale, like the road just got wider. And once it's there, you cannot imagine the song without it. And then there's the part that most people miss, and I did it too. The ending. And then right at the end.

SPEAKER_05 21:19

And the newsman sang, he has seemed song. Oh one more read, I love it, God!

SPEAKER_00 21:28

The driver does not make it. It's so subtle, easy to miss, but once you hear it, you cannot unhear it. Barry Hay later confirmed it. He does not make it.

unknown 21:40

We don't need to matter.

SPEAKER_00 21:42

Because in that moment, the entire song changes, and honestly, most of us missed it. And somehow that connection is still there. It's not just about driving, and it's not just about the road, but about connection and what pulls us forward. And that's why it's not just a great driving song. It is the driving song. Well, to me it is. Before we move on to the cocktail, I have one honorable mention. And that's Radar Rider by Riggs for the 1981 animated film Heavy Metal. I remember seeing that movie when it came out. My dad had to take me because it was rated R, and back then movie theaters were enforcing that rule. But I remember him loving it as much as I did. The movie opens with one of the coolest sequences I had ever seen. An astronaut jumps into a 1963 Corvette Stingray while he's wearing a spacesuit. He drives it through space and blasts down, finally landing on Earth. And blasting over that entire sequence is Radar Rider. But here's what makes it even more interesting: Riggs was not a major band. That album had Cheap Trick, Sammy Hagar, Devo, Blue Estricult, Journey, Grandfunk Railroad, Stevie Nick's, Black Sabbath, and Riggs. They landed two songs in the heavy metal soundtrack. That's an incredible moment of exposure, but they never really broke through. Okay, so that was kind of a long episode. I apologize. I hope you beared with me the entire time. I made it all the way to the cocktail. So before we go, let's talk about the drink for this episode. For this one, I want something that matched the idea of a road test, something that had structure and control, but still enough edge to keep things interesting. There's a classic tiki drink called the test pilot. It's bold, layered, and a little unpredictable. So this is my riff on that idea, and it's called the road test pilot. You want one ounce of aged Jamaican rum, one ounce of dark Demorara rum, half an ounce of fresh lime juice, half an ounce of orange curacao, a quarter ounce of Vhalernum, I like velvet flarinum, a quarter ounce of cinnamon syrup, and one dash of Angostora bitters. You can shake that with ice, strain it into a chilled coop or a Niconora glass, and then express an orange peel over the drink. It's balanced but not too clean. You get the weight of the rum, a little spice underneath, and just enough citrus to keep it moving, kind of like a great driving song. Well, those were my eight driving songs. Yours will be different, and they should be. Before we wrap up, I'm just curious, was my list way off from your list? What driving songs did I miss that you would have added? Post them in the comments and let me know, because lists like this are always very subjective. Everyone has that one song that instantly makes them want to get behind the wheel, and I'd love to hear yours. Until next time, here's the loud riffs, quiet sips, and the stories in between.