Best songs for traveling

“The Distance” by Cake

With the band’s signature horns and a self-serious melody that practically requires head-bobbing and Speed Racer–esque intensity (you may even want to invest in racing gloves), this single off of 1996’s Fashion Nugget is irresistible. The album is filled with more on-the-nose driving songs than this one (“Race Car Ya-Yas,” “Stickshifts and Safetybelts”), but this is the money single—and got the album platinum status. Throw it on repeat and hit the open road. Just take an occasional break for track No. 7, the band’s excellent cover of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive.”\

“Shut Up and Drive” by Rihanna

Is this a silly song? Yes. Is it musically a little boring? Mos def. But is it a fun track to crank up when you hit the highway? You bet your ass it is. Rihanna’s made better music than this 2007 bit of fluff (“Umbrella,” “We Found Love”), but her songs are a little like sex and a lot like pizza: Even when they’re bad, they’re still pretty good. And with lyrics tailor-made for the pavement, this one’s a no-brainer. Channel RiRi’s shade-throwing swagger, turn up the dial, and, well, shut up and drive. Then go post a revealing selfie on Instagram. (No, don’t do that.) You’ll feel like you’re driving a Lambo even if you’re actually behind the wheel of a Pinto.

“Let Me Ride” by Dr. Dre

The Chronic arrived on the heels of the 1992 South Central riots. Folks in Compton were looking to escape and could not—and not just because of the traffic on the 110 and 405. This was a cry for cruising with the bucket seats dropped back, slow rolling on a resting-heart-rate rhythm and those G-funk dog-whistle keyboards. “Swing down, sweet chariot, stop, let me ride,” goes the chorus lifted from Parliament’s “Mothership Connection,” itself based on a slave spiritual. But just because the song hides a deeper political meaning the way lowriders hide a subwoofer in the trunk, there’s no reason Dre can’t roll in style. Specifically, in a 1964 Chevy Impala shoed with Dayton rims (a.k.a. “Ds,” as in “Throw some Ds on that bitch”)

“Hit the Road Jack” by Ray Charles

Fiendishly simple with its descending piano chords, “Hit the Road Jack” is sung from the perspective of a philanderer being ejected by his lady. By all rights this 1961 R&B classic should win a prize for being impossible not to sing along to: “What you say?????” screams soul hero Charles to his velvet-voiced Raelettes. Later he complains, “You can’t mean that,” about as convincingly as a cat picking bird feathers from between its teeth. The track's most memorable use in a road trip appears in the 1989 comedy movie The Dream Team.

“King of the Road” by Roger Miller

Did our dads play this 1964 ditty on long car rides when we were little? You betcha. Do we think they contemplated the potential consequences of making penniless vagabonds sound super cool? Doubtful. Regardless, it’s a timeless everyman’s anthem, and darn if it isn’t catchy. We really like listening to it in our van down by the river.