The Ultimate Road Trip Playlist For Your Summer

The Ultimate Road Trip Playlist For Your Summer

We’ve all noticed the longer days, warmer nights, and excited whispers of flights and staycations at the office lunch table – that’s right, summer is finally on the horizon!

And as students wrap up their projects, annual leave is booked in, and car boots are stuffed to the brim with suitcases and camping gear, what’s the one thing we all need to accompany our getaway? A good old road trip playlist to feature as the soundtrack of our summer!

In fact, with over six million likes on Spotify’s Classic Road Trips Playlist, and a search increase of 74% on ‘road trip essentials’ over the last four months, it seems everyone is looking for the best tunes to kickstart the holiday season. And, since we’re all about ensuring you get the most out of your car, we decided to put together our own summer road trip playlist.

To find out which of your favourite songs and artists made our Ultimate Road Trip Playlist, continue reading, below.

The research stage

With Spotify’s catalogue containing over 100 million songs, piecing together the perfect playlist is no mean feat. But, don’t worry, we’ve already done all the hard work!

Starting with Spotify data, we searched for some of the most popular and followed playlists on the streaming service, all with the word ‘road trip’ in the title. Using this data, we managed to narrow it down to 100 playlists - which still included more than 17,000 tracks!

But we wanted to piece together a definitive, essential playlist of summer tunes, one that would match the sunshine vibes. So, we took all those tracks and looked at which songs featured the most across the road trip playlists.

That’s when we discovered most of the songs feature an upbeat, danceable tempo, perfect for getting into the vacation mood and keeping the energy going. But every road trip playlists needs some belting ballads, so it’s no surprise a few slower tracks made the cut too.

And just as important as the danceability, or karaoke-ability of these tunes, is the length of the playlist itself. To make sure our Ultimate Road Trip Playlist had enough content to cover the longer journeys too, we hand selected 50 of the best tracks our research uncovered.

The result? Over four hours of head bobbing, feet stomping, hip shaking tunes. So, let’s get right into the heartbreak ballads, classic rock headbangers, and cheesy love songs that will be keeping you company this summer.

The Ultimate Road Trip Playlist

Now, the moment you’ve been waiting for, the top tracks you’ll be tuning into this summer. So, warm up those vocal cords, and take a deep breath, it’s time to get started.

First up, a bit of classic country rock with the 70s classic ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Peaking at number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1974, the song was introduced to a younger audience over 30 years later, via a sample on Kid Rock’s 2008 track ‘All Summer Long’, leading to a double platinum status here in the UK.

One millennials will know well - ‘Unwritten’ by Natasha Bedingfield. Upon release in 2004, the pop-tastic track reached number 1 across the globe, including Czech Republic and the United States. Recent TikTok trends and its presence in movies of every genre, from animated kid movies to rom coms, has earned it platinum status as far out as Australia where it is 6x platinum!

And for our first gut-wrenching, heart-aching power ballad? We have none other than ‘Iris’ by the Goo Goo Dolls. Written as part of the soundtrack for the 90s movie City of Angels, this song has been in and out of the UK charts ever since, earning an incredible x5 platinum score!

But that’s not all you’ll find! From Miley Cyrus to Harry Styles, Fleetwood Mac to Coldplay, and Bon Jovi to One Direction, we’ve made sure there’s a tune to get everyone in the mood for a long road trip.

So, with the bags packed and the engine filled, check out our full Ultimate Road Trip playlist before you hit the road!

With your essential summer tunes sorted, you might be looking for a new set of wheels to hit the road in this summer. You can explore our range of new and used cars. Alternatively, check out our Newsroom for all things motors!