Songs About Journeys
Two entirely different searches share this phrase. Some people want music for an actual drive; others want a song about a life as a journey, usually for a speech, a slideshow or a service. Both are here, kept apart, because a road-trip record is wrong at a funeral and a metaphor is wrong on a motorway.
Updated September 202634 songs
Ten that work either way
- Take Me Home, Country RoadsJohn Denver · 1971
Literally about driving home and metaphorically about belonging somewhere. The rare song that satisfies both searches at once.
- The Long and Winding RoadThe Beatles · 1970
The title does all the work. Slow enough for a service and famous enough that nobody needs it explained.
- On the Road AgainWillie Nelson · 1980
Two and a half minutes of pure cheer about leaving. Good at the start of a drive or a retirement party.
- I’ve Been EverywhereJohnny Cash · 1996
Cash’s version of a song originally listing Australian towns. Ninety-odd place names in two minutes.
- Wagon WheelOld Crow Medicine Show · 2004
Built from a Dylan sketch and finished thirty years later. Everyone under forty knows every word.
- Ramblin’ ManThe Allman Brothers Band · 1973
For someone who never settled and did not want to. Works at a wake for that kind of person.
- Life Is a HighwayTom Cochrane · 1991
The most literal possible answer to this search. Rascal Flatts covered it for Cars, which is the version most children know.
- Homeward BoundSimon & Garfunkel · 1966
About being tired of travelling. For the last leg rather than the first.
- AfricaToto · 1982
Nonsense as geography and unbeatable as a car song. Nobody in the vehicle will object.
- Time to Move OnTom Petty · 1994
Quiet, adult and about leaving without drama. Good for a leaving speech at work.
Which journey are you talking about
If you are making a playlist for a car, length and tempo matter more than meaning. You want songs everyone half knows, choruses people can shout, and nothing that runs past five minutes. A great song about the human condition will be talked over by the third verse; “Africa” will not.
If you are looking for a song about a life as a journey — for a retirement, a graduation, a eulogy — the trap is choosing something that is literally about driving. “Life Is a Highway” sounds right in a search result and lands as a car advert in a chapel. The second group below is the one you want.
For a memorial in particular, be careful with songs about leaving on purpose. “On the Road Again” and “Ramblin’ Man” are about someone choosing to go, which is a specific and sometimes painful reading in a room full of people who did not want them to. Read the whole lyric before you commit.
One practical note for road trips: build the playlist longer than the drive. Nothing kills a good hour like the playlist ending outside Bakersfield and somebody having to find their phone.
By which journey you mean
For an actual road trip
Loud, familiar, under five minutes. Meaning is not the point; the chorus is.
- Born to RunBruce Springsteen · 1975
The whole American highway compressed into four and a half minutes. Play it in the first hour.
- Radar LoveGolden Earring · 1973
Written about driving and paced like it. Consistently voted the best driving record ever made.
- Free Fallin’Tom Petty · 1989
Everyone in the car will sing the chorus without being invited to.
- Sweet Home AlabamaLynyrd Skynyrd · 1974
The intro alone changes the mood of a vehicle. Deployable at any hour of any drive.
- Fast CarTracy Chapman · 1988
The one genuinely serious song in this group. Save it for a stretch of empty road at dusk.
- Holiday RoadLindsey Buckingham · 1983
From National Lampoon’s Vacation. Two minutes and it makes any family car journey funnier.
- Route 66Chuck Berry · 1961
The original road-trip standard, written by Bobby Troup in 1946. Short and it swings.
- Little Red CorvettePrince · 1982
Not about a journey at all. Belongs in every car playlist anyway.
For a life as a journey
Retirements, graduations, eulogies, leaving speeches. These are about the road as a figure of speech, and none of them mention a car.
- Both Sides NowJoni Mitchell · 1969
About looking at the same life from two ages. Her 2000 recording is the one for a room of adults.
- The Times They Are a-Changin’Bob Dylan · 1964
For a graduation or a handover. It is about a generation moving, not a person.
- ViennaBilly Joel · 1977
Slow down, you have time. The right thing to say to anyone at the start of something.
- LandslideFleetwood Mac · 1975
About being frightened of change and doing it anyway. Short, which at a service is mercy.
- Forever YoungBob Dylan · 1974
A blessing rather than a farewell. The right last song of almost any occasion like this.
- The Road Goes On ForeverRobert Earl Keen · 1989
A story song that keeps going past where you expect. For a person whose life did the same.
- Long May You RunNeil Young · 1976
Written about a car and heard as a farewell to a person. That double reading is exactly what this page is about.
- Wish You Were HerePink Floyd · 1975
For a journey somebody did not finish. Says it without any of the vocabulary of grief.
For going somewhere new
Emigrating, first jobs, moving out, the year abroad. Hopeful rather than nostalgic.
- Here I Go AgainWhitesnake · 1982
Absurd and completely committed. For anyone starting over for the third time.
- Go Your Own WayFleetwood Mac · 1977
Written in anger and heard as encouragement. Nobody minds the mismatch.
- HomeEdward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros · 2009
About a person being a place. For someone leaving people rather than a country.
- Wide Open SpacesThe Chicks · 1998
A young woman leaving home while her mother watches. Devastatingly specific about one kind of departure.
- I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)The Proclaimers · 1988
For a departure everyone is pretending to be cheerful about. Impossible not to join in.
- Fly AwayLenny Kravitz · 1998
Three minutes of uncomplicated wanting to be elsewhere. Good for a leaving party.
- WandererDion · 1961
For someone who has never stayed anywhere long and is not about to start.
- Here Comes the SunThe Beatles · 1969
For the arrival rather than the departure. Three minutes and it forgives the whole trip.
Three demonstration songs
What a song about their journey sounds like
We wrote these from made-up answers to the same five questions you would fill in. They are not customer work. The reason a written song beats any record on this page is that it can name the actual road, the actual year, and the actual reason for going.
Start their song- Vera in AugustFolk · read out at a memorial, dahlias and all3:07
- Danny On The RiverAcoustic · to a brother, after eleven months of silence3:15
- Marcus at FortyPop · written to be funny, at a friend’s request3:00
How it works
Three steps. The first one is the only hard part.
- 1Tell the storyFive questions. Who it’s for, the occasion, three details only you two know, the feeling you want, and the names that have to be in it.
- 2Pick the soundCountry, pop, acoustic, R&B, gospel or rock. A man’s voice or a woman’s.
- 3Listen, then unlockA 30-second preview in about two minutes. Pay only if you love it. You get the full song, the lyrics, and a page you can send.
Common questions
- What are the best songs about journeys?
- It depends which journey. For a car, “Radar Love” and “Born to Run” were built for it. For a life — a retirement, a eulogy, a graduation — “Both Sides Now” and “Landslide” say the thing without mentioning a road at all.
- What songs are about the journey of life?
- “Both Sides Now”, “Vienna”, “The Road Goes On Forever” and “Long May You Run”. All four are about time passing rather than about travel, which is what people usually mean when they use the phrase in a speech.
- What should I play on a long drive?
- Songs everyone half knows, nothing over five minutes, and a playlist longer than the drive. Nothing ruins an hour like the music running out somewhere with no signal.
- Is “Life Is a Highway” a good funeral song?
- Rarely. It sounds right in a search result and plays like a car advert in a chapel. If you want the journey idea at a service, “Long May You Run” or “The Long and Winding Road” do it without the engine noise.
- Can I get a song written about someone’s journey?
- Yes. Answer five questions — who it is for, the occasion, three specific things about the road they took, the feeling you want and the style — and you will hear a 30-second preview in about two minutes. The full song is $19.