Road tunes enhance driving experience

With the wind in your hair and the sun burning a new tan into your left forearm, you definitely don’t want to blow your shot at the perfect first official warm-weather drive of the year by having the wrong music. So, I’ve thought about my own interests and added a few suggestions from friends and readers alike.

“RADAR LOVE” BY GOLDEN EARRING

“Been driving all night/my hands wet on the wheel.” Who doesn’t find themselves pressing the gas pedal a little harder while listening to the George Kooymans and Barry Hay chart topper from the early 1970s. On the morning of July 29, 1997, after battery trouble, the Mars Pathfinder woke up to, you guessed it, the unmistakable drum beat of “Radar Love.”

“TAKE IT EASY” BY THE EAGLES

Honk if you’ve seen a “Take It Easy” license plate. If you live in Winnipeg, Canada, you might have seen one on the car of Shelley Waters, who nominated the Eagles tune for its message.

Of course, with the Eagles on tour again, the song is top of mind for many road-music junkies. Since the band blurs the lines between rock, country and perhaps even folk, the tune’s widespread popularity is hardly surprising.

“DRIVER’S SEAT” BY SNIFF ‘N’ THE TEARS

In a 1978 song that’s mostly about a girl named Jenny and her dancing, there are just two words in the chorus that put a smile on my face every time I hear them: “Driver’s seat … OooOoooOooo, driver’s seat.” Be sure to check out the video on www.youtube.com. This isn’t so much a great road tune because of the lyrics, but rather for its pace, tempo and musical purity from an era before overproduction and ’80s techno. It’s what I would call a hard-driving tune that you can blast without the neighbors yelling at you to turn it down. Hey, they might even bob their heads right along with you. This one is guaranteed to make fast work of rush-hour traffic.

“ON THE ROAD AGAIN” BY WILLIE NELSON

This is an easy one, but a reader Brent wrote in to say, “Everybody dreams of hitting the open road and leaving their cares behind. This song says it all.”

Who knows more about being on the road than country legend, Nelson? In the book “The Facts Of Life and Other Dirty Jokes,” Nelson says he wrote “On the Road Again” on an airplane for the movie “Honeysuckle Rose.” Producer Sydney Pollack asked him to write “something about being on the road” based on his wealth of experience. Nelson came up with the lyrics on the spot and the melody was ready by the time he arrived at the studio.

“409” BY THE BEACH BOYS

The tune was written about the kicked-up Impala with 425 horsepower. Gary Lee Usher, one of the founders of Hot Rod Music, was a weekend drag racer who jokingly penned the song on the way to an auto-parts store with Brian Wilson.

Usher wasn’t the only teenager in the 1960s who coveted the impressive Impala. The tune launched a plethora of auto-inspired tunes by The Beach Boys, including “Fun, Fun, Fun,” “Little Deuce Coupe” and “Custom Machine.”

“MAYBELLINE” BY CHUCK BERRY

Released in 1955, this tune is supposedly about a girlfriend who “can’t be true.” Of course, some would argue that the real stars of the song are the Ford and the Cadillac duking it out. “As I was motivatin’ over the hill, I saw Maybelline in a coup de ville …” For the terminally nostalgic you think there was no decent music written after the 1960s, this is your song.

I’d certainly love to add your favorites for a future column on the top-20 driving tunes of all time, so send in your gems (by logging on to www.wheelbase.ws/mailbag.html ) with a short description of why it rates and we’ll see if it makes the list.

Among her numerous accomplishments, Courtney Hansen is the author of her own book entitled the “Garage Girl’s Guide,” the host of Spike TV’s “PowerBlock,” the former host of TLC’s “Overhaulin'” and a writer with Wheelbase Communications. You can e-mail her by logging on to www.wheelbase.ws/mailbag.html.