If you like listening to songs about travel, then we bet you’ve definitely heard a lot of songs about truck drivers. Their lyrics usually tell different stories about truck trips on interstate highways and various adventures on the way.
Truck Driving Songs
Most of these songs are in the country genre, but they can also be appreciated by fans of other musical styles.
We decided to learn a little more about the best trucking songs that have been and continue to be a part of the musical culture for generations.
Let’s check them out!
What does it mean: a country style driving song?
This little subgenre of country music emerged in the late 1930s. Most music historians consider the first truck driving song is Truck Driver’s Blues, recorded in 1939 by the band Cliff Bruner & His Boys.
Although truck driving songs appeared for several decades later, it wasn’t until the 1960s that the genre fully blossomed. Dave Dudley, Red Simpson and Cletus Maggard were among the many musicians who sang about the truck driver’s tough life.
The lyrics of such songs mention women, truck stops, loneliness on the road, billboards, the use of stimulants and alcohol, and road conditions. In addition, you’ll hear fascinating stories about long trips, economic hardships, and the kinds of goods truckers carry.
Another hallmark of this genre is the slang that only truck drivers understand well. Terms such as “truck rodeo,” “tank saddle,” “Jake’s brakes” and “Georgia overdrive” are unlikely to be understood by the common man.
More than half a thousand truck driving songs have been written since the 30s. Songs about trucking continued to be produced even into the 2000s. Dale Watson recorded his Truckin Sessions Vol. 1 in 1998 and Vol. 2 in 2009. These two albums are packed with songs with themes close to truck drivers.
We’ve analyzed a list of more than 700 of the top country songs for truckers and selected seven of the greatest of them all. Let’s see what these tracks will tell us about the tough lives of truckers.
Also Read: In-Dash Navigation System
#7 White Line Fever
The white lines that stream across the lyrics symbolize the lanes of the highway. The vocalist in the song conveys feelings of mortality and reflects upon his years spent on the open road. He expresses a sense of weariness with his truck driving life, yet simultaneously conveys his inability to escape it.
#6 Roll On (Eighteen Wheeler)
The white stripes in the lyrics remind him of the long stretches of highway. He reflects on his own mortality, the endless passage of years on the asphalt, and the ever-present drudgery of the truck driver’s life. He seems exhausted with this mode of existence but lacking clear direction on how to take a different one.
Greatest Lyric:
Well, it’s Monday morning
He’s kissin’ Mama goodbye
He’s up and gone with the sun
Daddy drives an eighteen-wheeler
And he’s off on a Midwest run
#5 Teddy Bear
Uplifting song about a young boy whose truck driver father had sadly passed away. He was disabled, suffering from two mangled legs, and in his grief he chose to send a message to his father’s beloved radio in hopes that one of his father’s faithful trucker pals could grant his request. The touching request was for someone to give him the opportunity to take one final ride in the same truck his father usually drove.
His desperate plea must have reached the kind hearts of many truckers, as soon enough, a convoy of trucks lined up in front of his house, each ready to offer the grieving child a chance to ride with them in honor of his late father. It is heartwarming stories like this one that prove the trucker community often has a habit of supporting one another in any difficult situation.
#4 Six Days on the Road
This song tells the story of a trucker, who is hauling freight far and wide across the East Coast, and has been out on the road for some time now. The driver is wondering how he can make it back home within the next six days. What’s interesting is that this very song is said to be the one that kicked off the genre of truck driving songs.
#3 On the Road Again
This memorable song perfectly embodies the lifestyle of a man who gets behind the wheel of a truck to make ends meet. The words may recall Willie Nelson and his legendary band traveling between shows, but it could just as well be an anthem to truckers out on the highways and byways.
#2 Convoy
It’s a fictional tale about a massive, unstoppable uprising of truckers that are on an epic journey across the nation without pause. Ignoring all the restrictions like speed limits and laws, the lyrics depict the communications between truckers via CB radios. Upon its release in 1975, this well-known C.W. McCall song quickly became a #1 hit across the country and pop music charts, and also the main theme of the 1978 film, Convoy.
What a brilliant Lyrics:
By the time we got into Tulsa Town
We had eighty-five trucks in all
But they’s a roadblock up on the cloverleaf
And them bears was wall-to-wall
Yeah, them smokies is thick as bugs on a bumper
They even had a bear in the air!
I says, “Callin’ all trucks, this here’s the Duck “
We about to go a-huntin’ bear”
#1 EastBound and Down
This iconic truck driving track was produced and released specifically for the movie Smokey and the Bandit. Even if you don’t know any of the other songs on this list, this one is quite likely familiar to you. It achieved a remarkable number two on Billboard’s Hot Country chart and stayed there for an impressive 16 weeks. Ask pretty much anyone, and they’ll tell you it’s the unrivaled and quintessential truck driving song ever written.
