Readers' Picks: Best Travel Songs of All Time

CNN ^ | Fri June 20, 2014 | Chuck Thompson

[nickcarraway]

Once in while, the CNN Travel braintrust blows it -- make that all the time if you happen to be @cnnalwaysblowsit47.

Such was the case last year when we published our updated list of the greatest travel songs ever recorded. Sure, we included a few unassailable classics about life on the travel trail.

Even @cnnisamoron231 couldn't rage against our inclusion of Willie Nelson's all-time sing-a-long "On the Road Again."

But we have to admit, once in a while, @iloathecnn and @cnntroll99 have valid points to make.

How exactly did we miss such obvious wanderlust ditties as the Allman Brothers Bands' "Ramblin' Man" and Kris Kristofferson's "Me and Bobby McGee"?

[A_Tradition_Continues]

Here are the words http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xro0lpukfs

[Fiji Hill]

12. "Going Up the Country" (Canned Heat, 1968)

Here's the original version:

Bull Doze Blues--Henry Thomas (1928)

[JouleZ]

Best song for a road trip “Free and Easy Down the Road I go”…..crank it up and sing along. Lyrics at link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erqMKaSbI-U

[Caipirabob]

Great desert drive music.

George Thorogood Who Do You Love

[Fiji Hill]

I've Been Everywhere (Australian version)--Lucky Starr (1962)

[VerySadAmerican]

Before I read the first sentence I was thinking ME AND BOBBY MCGHEE.

[jocon307]

Is CNN just throwing in the towel on news?

OK, not to be spoil sport, find Robert Earl Keen, either “Gringo Honeymoon” (great song) or “Think it over one time (before you put on your walking shoes” (nearly great).

[VerySadAmerican]

Great version! He makes that Telly talk! I wish I could make mine sound like that.

I was listening to a tape of me made 44 years ago and I could play better then than I can now.

[Fiji Hill]

The Song of the Wanderer--Vincent Lopez Orchestra (1927)

A great video goes with it.

[jocon307]

OH....Oh....I got another “I am the passenger” by, who? Iggy Pop?

Gosh I love that song, I didn’t learn to drive until I was in my later 30s.

I am the passenger/And I ride and I ride...

[jocon307]

Great, great song. Just as good every single time you hear it. And it was such a hit for him.

[Fiji Hill]

From the 1940's:

• Let's Get Away From It All--Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra (1941)

• Sepulveda--The King's Jesters (1946)

• Pico & Sepulveda--Felix Figueroa & His Orchestra (1947)

• Cadillac Boogie--Jimmy Liggins & His Drops of Joy (1948)

• Lost Highway--Hank Williams & the Drifting Cowboys (1949)

[VerySadAmerican]

I believe Six Days on the Road was written by Bill Mack the deejay on WBAP.

[Iscool]

On the Road Again

[Fiji Hill]

From the 1950's:

• Hot Rod Race--Ramblin' Jimmy Dolan (1951)

• Hard Top Race--Dave Stogner (1953)

• Hot Rod Shotgun Boogie #2--Tillman Franks & His Timberline Riders (1951)

• Highwayman--Howlin' Wolf (1952)

• Route 90--Clarence "Bon Ton" Garner (1954)

[Clay Moore]

I’ve Been Everywhere-Texas version by Brain Burns

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdzWpPPeN74

[Clay Moore]

Don Walser Hot Rod Mercury

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1yJaqLrWzI

[Fiji Hill]

“Six Days on the Road” was co-written by a couple of Alabamians, the words by Earl Green and the music by Carl Montgomery. This would be Green’s only hit, but it was a biggie—done by several artists, in several languages, and a perennial fixture on “oldies” playlists decades after it dropped off the charts.

[henkster]

The Who; Going Mobile

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToxymSLzJeM

Watch the Po-lice and the taxman miss me; I’m mobile!!!!

[Sasparilla]

X2 “Take it easy.”