10 Best Classic Rock Songs About Highways

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In the past, we have written about many songs centered around driving, the open road, and numerous other driving song articles. Many of us only really get to listen to our favorite albums and songs in the car, as life at home or at work is often not conducive to listening to music. This one focuses squarely on highways. There have been hundreds, maybe even thousands, of songs that mention highways in the lyrics or even in the song titles. Here are ten of our favorites. What are yours?

# 10 – (It’s a) Long Lonely Highway – Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley’s “(It’s a) Long Lonely Highway,” written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, was recorded on May 27, 1963, at RCA Studio B in Nashville and released in 1964. The session featured an exceptional group of Nashville musicians, including guitarists Grady Martin, Harold Bradley, Jerry Kennedy, and Scotty Moore, bassist Bob Moore, drummers D.J. Fontana and Buddy Harman, pianist Floyd Cramer, and Boots Randolph. Presley’s performance turns the highway into a place of loneliness and heartbreak rather than simple freedom, making this one of the more reflective road songs in his catalog.

# 9 – Two Lane Highway – Pure Prairie League

Continuing with our 10 Best Classic Rock Songs About Highways list, we take a listen to one of our favorite songs ever released by Pure Prairie League. “Two Lane Highway,” written by Larry Goshorn, is the title track from the band’s 1975 album, which was produced by John Boylan and reached number 24 on the Billboard album chart. By this point Craig Fuller had left the group, and the lineup included George Ed Powell, Larry Goshorn, John David Call, Michael Connor, Michael Reilly, and Billy Hinds, while the album also featured guests including Chet Atkins and Emmylou Harris. The title song captures exactly what makes country rock and highway imagery such a natural combination: movement, distance, and the feeling of leaving one place while heading toward another.

Read More: Top 10 Pure Prairie League Songs

# 8 – Kings Highway – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ “Kings Highway,” from the 1991 album Into the Great Wide Open, is one of Petty’s great songs about escape, hope, and getting far enough away to start over. Written by Tom Petty, the track was produced by Jeff Lynne with Petty and Mike Campbell and features Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench, Howie Epstein, Stan Lynch, and Lynne alongside Petty. The bright guitars and forward-moving rhythm give the song an optimistic pull that makes “Kings Highway” feel perfectly at home on a list devoted to the possibilities of the open road.

# 7 – Highway to Hell – AC/DC

AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell,” released in 1979 as the opening title track of the album Highway to Hell, was written by Bon Scott, Angus Young, and Malcolm Young and produced by Robert John “Mutt” Lange. Angus Young’s instantly recognizable riff, Malcolm Young’s rhythm guitar, Cliff Williams’ bass, Phil Rudd’s drums, and Scott’s fearless vocal turn life on the road into one of hard rock’s most enduring anthems. The album was AC/DC’s international breakthrough and the final studio record Bon Scott completed with the band before his death in February 1980.

# 6 – Highway Star – Deep Purple

Deep Purple’s “Highway Star,” from the 1972 album Machine Head, is one of rock’s ultimate driving songs, powered by Ian Gillan’s vocals, Ritchie Blackmore’s guitar, Jon Lord’s organ, Roger Glover’s bass, and Ian Paice’s drums. The band had planned to record at the Montreux Casino, but the building burned down just before the sessions during a Frank Zappa concert, forcing Deep Purple to record Machine Head at the nearby Grand Hotel using the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio. Produced by Deep Purple with Martin Birch engineering and mixing, “Highway Star” combines Blackmore’s furious guitar solo and Lord’s classically influenced organ work with a relentless rhythm that still sounds built for a fast road.

# 5 – Carefree Highway – Gordon Lightfoot

Gordon Lightfoot’s “Carefree Highway,” released in 1974 on Sundown, turns the highway into both an escape route and a memory of a relationship left behind. Lightfoot took the title from a real Carefree Highway sign he saw while traveling in Arizona, then built the song around thoughts of an old girlfriend named Ann. Produced by Lenny Waronker and recorded at Eastern Sound in Toronto, “Carefree Highway” reached number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became one of Lightfoot’s most enduring recordings, balancing the freedom of travel with the melancholy of looking backward.

# 4 – Highway 61 Revisited – Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan’s “Highway 61 Revisited,” the title track of his landmark 1965 album, transforms the highway running from the upper Midwest toward New Orleans into a surreal stage for biblical figures, gamblers, hustlers, and American absurdity. Written by Dylan and recorded on August 2, 1965, at Columbia Studio A in New York, the song was produced by Bob Johnston and features musicians including Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper, and Harvey Brooks. The track’s biting humor, blues-rock attack, and strange cast of characters make Highway 61 feel less like a road on a map than a route straight through Dylan’s vision of America.

# 3 – Highway Song – Blackfoot

Blackfoot’s “Highway Song,” from the band’s 1979 breakthrough album Strikes, was written by Rickey Medlocke and drummer Jackson Spires and produced by Al Nalli and Henry Weck. The song begins as a weary reflection on the distance touring puts between a musician and the people left at home before building into the kind of extended guitar-driven finale that made Blackfoot a Southern rock favorite. “Highway Song” reached number 26 on the Billboard Hot 100, but its real staying power came from FM rock radio and the way its combination of loneliness and explosive musicianship captured life on the road.

Read More: Top 10 Blackfoot Songs

# 2 – Ventura Highway – America

“Ventura Highway,” written by Dewey Bunnell and released in 1972 on America’s second album Homecoming, remains one of the great songs of the early-1970s California sound. Recorded at the Record Plant in Los Angeles and produced by America themselves, the track features Bunnell, Gerry Beckley, and Dan Peek blending acoustic guitars and close harmonies around images of sunshine, travel, and the “free wind” of the West Coast. “Ventura Highway” reached number eight on the Billboard Hot 100, and its breezy sound has made it one of the band’s most enduring recordings.

# 1 – Route 66 – The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones’ cover of Bobby Troup’s “Route 66” closes our list with one of rock and roll’s most famous road songs. Nat King Cole made the song a hit in 1946, and the Stones brought it into their own blues-and-R&B world on their 1964 self-titled UK debut, recording it at Regent Sound Studios in London during the January 1964 sessions overseen by Andrew Loog Oldham and Eric Easton. Mick Jagger, Brian Jones, Keith Richards, Bill Wyman, and Charlie Watts strip away the smoothness of earlier versions and replace it with the rough club energy that defined the young Rolling Stones, turning the legendary Chicago-to-Los Angeles route into a rock-and-roll destination.

Updated September 4, 2026.

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5 Comments

Baybluesman August 27, 2024

All great selections – if the list were to be expanded, the following two come to mind immediatelly:

“Rockin’ Down The Highway” – Doobie Brothers
“Roll On Down The Highway” – Bachman-Turner Overdrive
Howard Alperin August 27, 2024

Also, Cochrane’s ‘Life Is A Highway’ covered by Rascal Flatts is worthy of the #11 position. good list-well written/researched.
Lloyd D Huskey January 9, 2025

As Howard said, I was surprised that Cochrane’s Life Is A Highway was not included. Not a loser on the list though.
- Brian Kachejian January 9, 2025
  
  It was just to obvious
Brother Duckie January 9, 2025

Doobie Brothers deserve to be in this top 10.