Trucking Songs Bring Smiles and Positive Attitudes
Music keeps us moving. It gives us wheels – emotionally, psychologically, and physically. A team of scientists conducting research at the University of Missouri confirmed that music can boost your mood. When you use music to help achieve happiness, your social behavior, physical health, income, and relationships all improve.
Think about what this can do for truckers on the road. Keep the tunes playing in the cab and you deliver that load with a smile and a positive attitude. And if you’re listening to trucker songs, all the better. When it comes to music, we all want to relate. We want to hear about our lives and our livelihood in the songs. It’s just human nature.
For decades, truck driver songs have not only been recorded, but many have been hugely popular. The country music genre, naturally, has kept the songs about trucks fever burning hot over the years. There’s something about big trucks, the open road, being your own boss, and enjoying the simple things in life that speak to our ideals of freedom.
Our Top 10 Trucking Songs
Many publications have created countdowns of best trucker songs or best driving songs. We decided to compile our own list of memorable trucking songs. Here is our playlist of Top 10 Trucking Songs.
- “East Bound and Down”
by Jerry Reed (1977) – Huge country hit from the Smokey and the Bandit movie sounds like a truck chugging down the highway. It’s a heaping amount of fun for the ears. Go ahead, try not to tap your boots to this one.
- “On the Road Again”
by Willie Nelson (1980) – Willie’s classic isn’t so much about trucking as it is about life on the road. That’s exactly why it’s been adopted as a trucking anthem for years. For truckers, life is always about being on the road again.
- “Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses”
by Kathy Mattea (1988) – Perhaps the most heartwarming trucking story song about a 20-year driver who finally earns retirement and gets ready to “spend the rest of his life with the one that he loves.”
- “Convoy”
by C.W. McCall (1975) – A novelty song that ignited the trucking pop culture movement of the ‘70s and inspired a film of the same name. It’s unique in that it threads a CB conversation, a narrated story, and a sing-along chorus.
- “Roll On (Eighteen Wheeler)”
by Alabama (1984) – A road anthem, for sure. Alabama paid homage to truckers everywhere with this classic that talks about a daddy on a Midwest run who calls his family every night.
- “Big Wheels in the Moonlight”
by Dan Seals (1988) – Talk about romanticizing the life of a trucker. Dan Seals did just that on this picturesque tune that tells us about a boy who dreams of one day being a truck driver.
- “Mama Knows the Highway”
by Hal Ketchum (1993) – Here’s one for all the women truckers out there. The great Hal Ketchum put a female spin on the experienced trucker, making her smart, kind, and totally connected to the road.
- “Ramblin’ Man”
by The Allman Brothers Band (1973) – Another one that isn’t specifically about trucking, but since it’s all about being free and not tied down to a nine-to-five grind it works for those who seek freedom on the big highway.
- “Truck Yeah”
by Tim McGraw (2012) – One of the more recent trucking tunes, McGraw doesn’t go for big concept here. Instead, he just has a lot of fun going for country-rock swagger. Crank this one up
- “Six Days on the Road”
by Dave Dudley (1963) and Sawyer Brown (1997) – The granddaddy of trucking songs was popularized by Dave Dudley and then by Sawyer Brown. Every trucker can identify with the tune’s tag line, “Six days on the road and now I’m gonna make it home tonight.”