The Perfect Playlist for Cruising in Your Corvette

1. Tom Petty: Runnin' Down A Dream

You don't even have to like Tom Petty to like Runnin' Down A Dream. That's how classics work. Writer Jen Chaney recently penned an article entitled Why the Loss of Tom Petty Feels So Deeply Personal, but the title says it all. When Petty intones "me and Del were singing Little Runaway," he's, of course, talking about the Del Shannon song by that name, a song forever linked with car culture since it was included on the soundtrack to the film American Graffiti.

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2. Steve Miller Band: Take the Money And Run

Though we could fluff our America count up by going with Miller's Living in the USA—it starts out with what sounds like a drag race—we like his Take the Money And Run for how fun it is to sing along with, and for the built-in activities (clapping after "Ooh old El Paso"). As great for cruising as this song is, it's hard to find a Steve Miller Band song that isn't good for crossing state lines.

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3. Molly Hatchet: Dreams I'll Never See

A year before their biggest hit, 1979's Flirtin' With Disaster, Molly Hatchet released their first album which included the breakout track Dreams I'll Never See (both albums feature covers by Frank Frazetta). It's another one of those songs you wish went on for another five minutes or so longer. Does anybody make 'extended dance' versions of songs, but for driving instead of dancing? If not they should. From Jacksonville, Florida, the same city that gave us Lynyrd Skynyrd and The Allman Brothers Band (and just 60 miles or so down the road from from Tom Petty's hometown of Gainesville), if you like that particularly North Florida version of bluesy southern boogie then this is the right song, and band, for you.

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4. Styx: Blue Collar Man

The first thing you noticed about Styx's Pieces of Eight when it came out in 1978 was the slightly spooky cover (designed by Hipgnosis, the people who did the art for Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon), which presented mature women wearing Easter Island earrings. This was peak-era Styx, including singer/songwriter Tommy Shaw's seriously underappreciated guitar skills. Our pick is Blue Collar Man, not least for its opening keyboard riff. Rolling Stone writer Lester Bangs, whose opinions have not survived nearly as well as the music he wrote about, said, "What's really interesting is not that such narcissistic slop should get recorded, but what must be going on in the minds of the people who support it in such amazing numbers . . . If these are the champions, gimme the cripples."

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5. Bachman Turner Overdrive: Taking Care of Business

What is it about listening to songs about taking buses or trains that make them so fun to listen to in a car? Whatever it is, Canada's BTO was plugged into the concept when they wrote Taking Care of Business. Not only did they produce another song entitled Roll on Down the Highway, but their logo is a gear—what more do you need from a band?

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6. The Guess Who: American Woman

What do The Guess Who and BTO have in common? If you answered guitarist Randy Bachman you know your early-'70's rock stuff. Bachman was still in the Guess Who when he co-wrote the title track to 1970's American Woman. The song lived on far after Randy left the band and was covered by Butthole Surfers (caution: their version might give you nightmares, or possibly just annoy you), and more popularly by Lenny Kravitz.

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7. Grand Funk Railroad: We're an American Band

After two Canadian Bands, it's time for the very similar sounding but very American band Grand Funk Railroad. Like others on this list, Flint Michigan's Grand Funk was not critical darlings but when they sang We're an American Band, America listened, sometimes from inside cars, often while partying down.

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8. Cheap Trick: Dream Police

Like Grand Funk, Rockford Illinois' Cheap Trick sprang from an industrial city. They defined the phrase 'big in Japan, and you couldn't turn on rock radio in the late '70s without hearing one of their songs on the radio. Dream Police, off the album of the same name, is our pick for high-speed cruising.

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9. The Knack: Good Girls Don't

My Sharona is easily the best-known song by The Knack, but the movie Reality Bites stole it so we're going with the nearly as catchy Good Girls Don't. Also because Good Girls Don't can't be jokingly renamed for a part of the male anatomy like My Sharona can—and often is.

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10. Pat Travers Band: Snortin' Whiskey

After that pop-y goodness, it's time to get back to some pure rock fury with the Pat Travers Band. Snortin' Whiskey (and Drinking Cocaine) contains a guitar riff that should easily make any list of the top 20 riffs of all time. The good news is that, unlike a lot of the other bands on this list, Pat Travers is still around and still kicking out the jams for your enjoyment. Check out their web page (which comes up with the legend "we're here to kick your ass" in the title bar) for details. We should probably mention that Snortin' Whiskey is off of their album Crash and Burn; just all kinds of bad advice in those titles.

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11. You pick: Go Faster or Cool It Man

It's up to you if you wanna keep going at whiskey snortin' speed or if you're ready to take it down a notch. For the speed freaks, we suggest you try out The Meat Puppet's Scum, off their 1995 record No Joke. Perhaps most famous for Kurt Cobain having covered their song Lake of Fire, Scum is a different animal completely. This is the closest anyone has ever come to making a Les Paul scream through the gears.

For those whose license can't take one more ticket, we suggest letting pre-super-stardom Dire Straits talk you down with Skateaway, off their 1980 album Making Movies. Dire Straits had a video for Skateaway at a time when MTV was brand new and needed all the videos it could get, which made the sight of musician Jayzik Azikiwe rollerskating around guitars and cars a daily occurrence on the channel circa 1980/1981.

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