The Ultimate Summer Road Trip Playlist for Families
If you’re hitting the road this summer for a family car trip, you’ll no doubt prepare by packing a lot of snacks, games, activities, video games and maps. And that’s great, but don’t forget the most essential thing to arm yourself within the car—a road trip playlist! We all know that nothing makes the miles go by faster than soul-lifting music, and from my experience, it’s something to plan in advance of pulling out of the driveway. On our recent foure]-day-long road trip, we drove through many areas where there weren’t any good radio stations and/or no cell service, so we couldn’t rely on our recent go-tos of Pandora Radio or I Heart Radio to entertain us.
So here’s the AlphaMom Summer Road Trip Playlist. These are upbeat, retro, songs that the whole family can enjoy (meaning no boy bands, jazz or Anthrax) and they’re all tunes that everybody sorta/kinda knows. And after a couple of hours of singing along to our selections, we guarantee that you’ll be happy, relaxed and full of joy. Or at least a little less upset about that can of Pringles that just exploded in the back seat.
Happy trails!
(find our Summer Road Trip Playlist available on Amazon; Prime members stream for free)
1. Ray Charles and the Blues Brothers – Shake Your Tailfeather
2. Sammy Hagar – I Can’t Drive 55
3. Van Halen – Jump
4. Bee Gees – Jive Talkin’
5. Johnny Cash – Ring of Fire
6. Life is a Highway – Rascal Flatts
7. Ain’t No Mountain High Enough – Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell
8. Wooly Bully – Sam Sham and The Pharaohs
9. Dancing Queen – ABBA
10. Shout – The Isley Brothers
11. Route 66 – John Mayer
12. ABC – The Jacksons
13. Rockin’ Robin – Bobby Day
14. Ice Ice Baby – Vanilla Ice
15. 867-5309/ Jenny – Tommy Tutone
16. I Want Candy – Bow Wow Wow
17. Feeling Hot Hot Hot – Buster Poindexter
18. Copacabana – Barry Manilow
19. Atomic Dog – George Clinton
20. Lovely Day – Bill Withers
21. Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen
22. Born to Hand Jive – Grease
23. Centerfield – John Fogerty
24. Delirious – Prince
25. Don’t Stop Believin’ – Journey
26. Faith – George Michael
27. It’s Raining Men – The Weather Girls
28. Great Balls of Fire – Jerry Lee Lewis
29. I Turn My Camera On- Spoon
30. I Wish – Stevie Wonder
31. Let’s Groove – Earth Wind and Fire
32. And, of course, the ultimate summer vacation road song, Lindsey Buckingham’s “Holiday Road” from National Lampoon’s Vacation:
What could be better than singing “Arf, arf, arf, arf” while the family truckster zooms down the road? Safe travels!
Our Summer Road Trip Playlist is easily available on Amazon; Prime members stream for free
What are your favorite family road trip songs?
Photo source: iStockphoto/Thinkstock
