Friday Fun Thread: Cars in Song!

Today's Top Ten list was inspired... I was listening to a CD, and the Ramones' "Rock 'N' Roll High School" came on the rotation. Listening to the lyrics, I heard "...cruising around/in my GTO" and realized what today's list had to be:

The Top Ten Cars Mentioned in Songs!

1. Ford Mustang. From Wilson Pickett to T. Rex to Vanilla Ice, the Ford Mustang has been a perennial crowd pleaser in popular music. From Mustang Sally needing to slow her Mustang down to "Rollin', in my five-point-oh", the blue oval's original pony car has been a favorite. Models of interest would be the original 1964½ and the mid 1980s.

2. (Pink) Cadillac. Ah, yes. Bruce Springsteen's homage to the monster of all monsters, the Cadillac. Cadillacs have been featured in everything from Commander Cody's "Hot Rod Lincoln" to the Nash Rambler to Arethra's Freeway of Love. Everyone loves a Caddy. Models of interest would be the 1959 and/or mid-late 1960s.

3. Pontiac GTO. From the aforementioned "Rock 'N' Roll High School" to the self-titled "Little GTO", the GTO (Bonus question: what does GTO stand for? And no, it doesn't stand for Gas, Tires, and Oil...) has also appeared in a bunch of songs. Models of interest would be the 1964 and 1970.

4. XKE Jaguar. You won't come back from Dead Man's Curve... "And then I saw the Jag slide into the curve". Only in song would an American car defeat an XKE Jaguar... The three series of XKEs were pretty interchangeable, and the model itself was only made from '61 - '75.

5. Ford Thunderbird. What is it about the T-bird that has so captured the music industry? There's songs about having fun until her daddy takes the T-bird away, about Silver Thunderbirds, and. Heck, there's even a group called the Fabulous Thunderbirds. Models of interest would be 1955, early 196os, and possibly late 1970s.

6. Plymouth Barracuda. Yeah, I know Heart had the sea predator in mind when they penned "Barracuda", but just try not to think of a vintage Plum-crazy purple Plymouth Barracuda when you hear that song... Models of interest would be either the early 1960s or the 1970 in Plum-Crazy purple...

7. 1957 Chevy. Ah yes, Rapid Roy that stock car boy... There's also Bob Seger's '60 Chevy, seeing the USA in your Chevrolet, the Chevy taken to the levee... The ubiquitous Chevrolet has ingrained itself into the American psyche as well as her music. Models would be the 1957 Bel Air, 1960s Impala, or a Chevy pickup...

8. (Little Red) Corvette. Only Prince could take an American icon like the Corvette and make it seem, well, dirty... The song came out in 1983, so it was most likely a C3 model (1970s) but could have been a C4 (1984)

9. (Bitchin') Camaro. Driven up from Jamaica, yo. The Dead Milkmen's Bitchin' Camaro makes the list out of nostalgia; I was a big fan of punk in the early 1980s, and I wanted a Camaro in the very worst way... Models would be either a late 1970s or an early 1980s, as the song came out in 1984, two years after the crossover to the third generation body style.

10. Mercury (any, but especially the one everyone's crazy about). Best guess would be a chopped & channeled 1950s vintage a la the car in "Cobra". Given that Mercury's been pretty bland since the 1970s-era Cougar, I'd surmise that it's the older cars that gather the attention.

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So there we have the Top Ten Cars in Song list. This is a little broader than previous lists, and I'm certain that I've missed a whole slew of both cars and songs, so feel free to add what I've missed and maybe we'll have another list!

That is all.