Car Song

I cannot hear a Beach Boys car song without being immediately transported back to the summers of 1962 through 1965... I'm no longer a middle-aged guy driving to the laundry to pick up my shirts; I'm seventeen, and it's a summer night with tantalizing possibilities of adventure and romance hanging semipalpably in the humid air, and I'm cruising the roads around Armonk, New York, and even though the vehicle I'm cruising in is my mom's Plymouth Valiant station wagon, which boasts the performance characteristics and sex appeal of a forklift, I am feeling good, and I am stomping on the gas pedal (not that this has any measurable effect on my mom's Valiant) and imagining that I'm at the wheel of a Stingray, singing triumphantly along with the Beach Boys as we roar past the Dodge 413...

—Dave Barry's Book of Bad Songs

Are you a musician? Do you own a Cool Car? Do you wish you had a Cool Car? Why not write a song about this car, its parts and how cool it is? Tell the world about your vehicle's paint job, engine, whatever you want.

Wait, you need more? Okay, why not stick in a story about how the car is cursed, how you like to take your baby around in it or that time you were arrested for speeding?

Common cars are T-birds, Cadillacs, hearses, Cadillac hearses, and generic hotrods.

Not to be confused with songs by The Cars. If it's a romantic song about your car, then Cargo Ship may apply. See also Train Song.

Examples of Car Song include:

Music

"Grey Cortina" by Tom Robinson Band.
"Low Rider" by War.
"Hot Rod Race" by Arkie Shibley and his Mountain Dew Boys.
- "Hot Rod Lincoln" by Charlie Ryan & The Livingston Brothers, an Answer Song.
"Beep Beep" by The Playmates.
"Maybelline" by Chuck Berry.
"I'm In Love With My Car" by Queen.
"Shut Down," "Fun, Fun, Fun," "Little Deuce Coupe" and "409" by The Beach Boys.
"The Little Old Lady From Pasadena", "Drag City", and "Dead Man's Curve" by Jan and Dean.
"Custom Machine" by Bruce and Terry.
"Cadillac Jack" about a pool player's love affair with his white Cadillac. Things go wrong when he attempts to flirt with a human woman, and Jack ends up riding in the back of a. long. black. Cadillac.
Subversion: "Little Red Corvette" by Prince isn't really about a car, it's a Double Entendre for a certain part of the female anatomy.
"The Scavenger" by Dick Dale & the Del-Tones. Also subverted in "Grudge Match", where he sings about taking his cool car to a drag race—and losing completely.
"Highway Star" by Deep Purple.
Inverted with "Teardrops on my Old Car", a parody of "Teardrops on my Guitar" by Taylor Swift.
"Look At That Cadillac" by the Stray Cats.
"Cars" by Gary Numan.
"Pink Cadillac" by Bruce Springsteen. Cars also play important supporting roles in some other of his songs like "Fire", "Racing in the Streets", "Sherry Darling" or "The River".
"Trampled Under Foot" by Led Zeppelin sounds like this, but it's really an Intercourse with You song.
- As is "Shut Up and Drive" by Rihanna.
This trope was parodied by Prefab Sprout with 'Cars & Girls'
Van Halen's "Panama".
"Slick Black Cadillac" by Quiet Riot.
'Red Barchetta' by Rush.
"Chevette" by Audio Adrenaline.
Black Sunshine by White Zombie and Dragula by Rob Zombie.
"My Old Yellow Car" by Dan Seals.
"The Keys To Her Ferrari" by Thomas Dolby parodies this trope by taking it Up to Eleven.