Jet Set Jams: The 13 Best Songs About Travel

by Gary Leff

Here’s the 13 best travel songs. Following my stab at a list of the 13 best movies about travel, I thought I’d work to come up with the very best songs about travel.

That’s a very different exercise than the best songs for travel, this isn’t a ‘play list for the road’ it’s about borrowing someone else’s poetry to describe the travel experience. There’s no question that George Gershwin didn’t write Rhapsody in Blue to be about travel, but it’s equally clear that the 1924 composition has become inextricably linked with United Airlines.

What songs most evoke travel for you and are missing from my list? Which ones here are new to you?

The 13 best travel songs:

  1. Iggy Pop – The Passenger. This 1977 classic resulted from Iggy Pop travelling with David Bowie on tour in North America and Europe. Reportedly he didn’t have a license and the two drove around in Bowie’s car. Although it’s also said to be loosely based on a Jim Morrison poem.

    The song features in the trailer for Up in the Air and in promos for Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown. There’s probably nothing more evocative of travel.

  2. Paul Kelly – Sydney from a 727. I first discovered Australian singer-songwriter Paul Kelly on a visit to my family Down Under over 25 years ago. I was instantly a fan. He’s been a member of the Australian Recording Industry Association Hall of Fame for nearly 20 years, though a virtual unknown in the States though he’s toured here.

    Listening to Sydney from a 727 (which was also recorded as being from a 747), you can almost picture coming in for approach off the ocean (“I can see Bondi through my window way off to the right”) while capturing the spirit to take off in search of something (“And quit your job on the spot / Bought that ticket yeah spent the lot”). While no song quite captures the landing sequence quite like this one:

    And the captain says belt up now we’ll be touching down in ten
    So I press my seat and I straighten up
    I fold my tray and I stash my cup
    As the red roofs are catching the first rays of the morning sun

  3. The Animals – We Gotta Get Out of This Place. It’s an anthem that speaks to almost everyone, because everyone wants change. It was popular with soliders in Vietnam, with high school students who can’t wait to get out on their own, and with travelers who need to travel and feel cooped up when they’re at ‘home’.

  4. The Proclaimers – I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles). As if taking a journey, taking a long arduous journey, to make your way to someone wasn’t enough someone once actually walked 1000 miles to convince his girlfriend to marry him. It turns out the journey wasn’t a real precondition of marriage and she was joking, but he did it anyway.

  5. David Byrne – A Million Miles Away. No, this singer who once led the Talking Heads isn’t talking about what you have to go through to earn lifetime elite status.

    But he is singing about the need to get away — travel far, far away — and become someone else, and be seen as someone else (“A toad is a prince in someone else’s eyes
    And you can’t tell a man by his clothes”).

  6. Simon & Garfunkel – Homeward Bound. Is there any other song that’s truly the business traveler’s anthem? Waking up in the middle of the night, after being on the road for weeks at a time, and wondering what city you’re in you grab your phone because a weather app is on the home screen. And it tells you what city you’re in.

    I’m sitting in the railway station.
    Got a ticket to my destination.
    On a tour of one-night stands my suitcase and guitar in hand.
    …Every day’s an endless stream
    Of cigarettes and magazines.
    And each town looks the same to me, the movies and the factories
    And every stranger’s face I see reminds me that I long to be,
    Homeward bound

  7. Johnny Cash – I’ve Been Everywhere. Originally an Australian country song which named that country’s towns, it’s amazing the song has been made to work for Singapore, Belgium, Canada and any number of other places too.

    With all the US cities Johnny Cash has been to — Waterloo, Kalamazoo, Kansas City, Sioux City, Cedar City, Dodge City, what a pity — I hope he’s saved up his miles and points because he could really use an international vacation.

  8. George Gershwin – Rhapsody in Blue. Gershwin’s classic is more United Airlines now than anything else, at least to a traveler. The original composition from the tunnel connecting United’s B and C concourses at Chicago O’Hare is a riff on Rhapsody in Blue.

  9. Phil Collins – Take Me Home. Maybe the song isn’t actually about going home. And maybe it’s a protest song against involuntary confinement in mental institutions. But for me it’s about longing for home, being on the road so long that you can hardly remember it but home is still your true North. (.. But, seriously.)

    There’s a fire that’s been burning
    Right outside my door
    I can’t see but I feel it
    And it helps to keep me warm

    …So take, take me home
    ‘Cause I don’t remember

  10. Elvis Costello – Peace Love & Understanding. As I walk through this wicked world, searching for light in the darkness of insanity, I ask myself “Is all hope lost?”

    It may not immediately seem like a travel song, but travel is about connecting with and engaging people and culture different from your own and yet building a common bond — of peace, love, and understanding. And it helps that the song was featured in Lost in Translation too.

  11. Frank Sinatra – Come Fly With Me. Come fly with me let’s fly let’s fly away. It spent 5 weeks at number one, and just as I want to claim George Clooney as one of us for Up in the Air we’ve got to lay claim to Sinatra…

  12. Ricky Nelson – Travelin’ Man. This 1961 classic shows its age, there’s no question it objectifies women, the song is about each city in the world in which he has a girl. But he clearly gets around.. to Mexico, Berlin, Hong Kong not to mention Hawaii and Alaska. But since its 1961, there’s no music video so it’s safe for work!

  13. Red Hot Chili Peppers – Around The World (or maybe Aeroplane or Road Trippin’). When I first started thinking about this list it didn’t occur to me that The Red Hot Chili Peppers would be on it, but they have several songs about travel, from the plane to car but Around the World is the most meta and in some sense follows Elvis Costello with lines like “life is beautiful around the world” and indeed it is.

So what am I missing? What belongs on this list?

    best travel songs

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  4. Considering how many delays there are. Stealers Wheel, Stuck in the Middle With You, seems appropriate.

  7. How could a travel blog named “A View From the Wing” leave Jet Airliner by the Steve Miller Band off this song list. I mean is there any more of a metaphor for modern air travel the the line “gotta go through hell before you get to heaven”.

    I mean com’ on man!

  8. Tip of the iceberg it seems. SO… many obvious songs are missed in this blog post it should have never been attempted with the headline used. More like “13 favorite songs I like”. John Denver, Steve Miller have many songs about traveling, not just Jet Airliner and Leaving on a Jetplane.

  10. I usually sing the John Denver penned, Peter, Paul and Mary sung version of ‘Leaving on a Jet Plane’ before long trips.

  12. OMG, how could you leave off Gladys Knight and the Pips singing “Midnight Train to Georgia” or, maybe a little less about travel, Otis Redding singing “(Sittin’ on) the Dock of the Bay.”

  18. You missed the #1 song on this list- back in the USSR! 1) Actually uses jet engines in the song, 2) Features BOAC prominently in the lyrics, and 3) It’s the Beatles.

  20. Graham Nash wrote “Just a Song Before I Go” in an airport leaving Hawaii about flying the “Friendly Skies “

  21. I have two additions: Deep Purple’s “Highway Star”, and Bob Seger’s “Turn the Page”:
    “On a long and lonesome highway
    East of Omaha
    You can listen to the engine
    Moaning out his one-note song
    You can think about the woman
    Or the girl you knew the night before…”

  23. Take your pick of Jimmy Buffett’s songs. Maybe “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes” would be on top. “Reading departure signs in some big airport reminds me of the places I’ve been. Visions of good times that brought so much pleasure, makes me want to go back again.”

  24. Agree with Leaving on a Jet Plane

    Also Changes Latitudes and Longitudes
    Reading departure signs in some big airport reminds me of the places I’ve been
    Visions of good times that brought so much pleasure makes me want to go back again
    If it suddenly ended tomorrow I could somehow adjust to the fall
    Good times and riches and son-of-a-bitches I’ve seen more than I can recall
    These changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes
    Nothing remains quite the same

  27. Albert Hammond – It Never Rains In Southern California (“Get aboard a westbound 747…”)

  29. I’m flying with Arlo Guthrie:

    Comin’ into Los Angeles,
    Bringin’ in a coupla keys.
    Don’t touch my bags if you please, mister customs man

  32. Holidays in the Sun – Sex Pistols
    Safe European Home – The Clash
    Holiday in Cambodia – Dead Kennedys

  33. Time Passages Al Stewart

    First verse “ It was late in December, the sky turned to snow
    All round the day was going down slow
    Night like a river beginning to flow
    I felt the beat of my mind go
    Drifting into time passages
    Years go falling in the fading light
    Time passages
    Buy me a ticket on the last train home tonight”

    Also agree “Rhapsody in Blue.” United killed it with that ad campaign.

  36. Bob Seger’s “Turn the Page” is the quintessential travel related road warrior song. It was coping and commiseration medicine during the endless weeks, months, and years of business travel

  42. For Spanish speakers, ‘Vuela Vuela’ by Magneto (a cover of french singer Desireless ‘Voyage Voyage’).

  43. Agree with “Leavin’ on a Jet Plane”. I also like “Free Bird” and “Roll Me Away”.

    One I’m surprised you missed given your travel patterns: “Have You Ever Seen Dallas from a DC-9 at Night” by Jimmy Dale Gilmore.

  45. Yeah, I’m a jet-age baby, having started flying in the swingin’ 60’s….

    Leaving on a Jet Plane

    All my bags are packed, I’m ready to go
    I’m standing here outside your door
    I hate to wake you up to say goodbye
    But the dawn is breaking, it’s early morn
    The taxi’s waiting, he’s blowin’ his horn
    Already I’m so lonesome I could die

    [Chorus]
    So kiss me and smile for me
    Tell me that you’ll wait for me
    Hold me like you’ll never let me go
    ‘Cause I’m leaving on a jet plane
    Don’t know when I’ll be back again
    Oh babe, I hate to go

    [Verse 2]
    There’s so many times I’ve let you down
    So many times I’ve played around
    I tell you now, they don’t mean a thing
    Every place I go, I’ll think of you
    Every song I sing, I’ll sing for you
    When I come back, I’ll bring your wedding ring

    [Chorus]
    So kiss me and smile for me
    Tell me that you’ll wait for me
    Hold me like you’ll never let me go
    ‘Cause I’m leaving on a jet plane
    Don’t know when I’ll be back again
    Oh babe, I hate to go

    “Jet Airliner”

    Leavin’ home, out on the road
    I’ve been down before
    Ridin’ along in this big ol’ jet plane
    I’ve been thinkin’ about my home
    But my love light seems so far away
    And I feel like it’s all been done
    Somebody’s tryin’ to make me stay
    You know I’ve got to be movin’ on

    Oh, Oh big ol’ jet airliner
    Don’t carry me too far away
    Oh, Oh big ol’ jet airliner
    Cause it’s here that I’ve got to stay

    Goodbye to all my friends at home
    Goodbye to people I’ve trusted
    I’ve got to go out and make my way
    I might get rich you know I might get busted
    But my heart keeps calling me backwards
    As I get on the 707
    Ridin’ high I got tears in my eyes
    You know you got to go through hell
    Before you get to heaven

    Big ol’ jet airliner
    Don’t carry me too far away
    Oh, Oh big ol’ jet airliner
    Cause it’s here that I’ve got to stay

    Touchin’ down in New England town
    Feel the heat comin’ down
    I’ve got to keep on keepin’ on
    You know the big wheel keeps on spinnin’ around
    And I’m goin’ with some hesitation
    You know that I can surely see
    That I don’t want to get caught up in any of that
    Funky shit goin’ down in the city

    Big ol’ jet airliner
    Don’t carry me too far away
    Oh, Oh big ol’ jet airliner
    Cause it’s here that I’ve got to stay

    Oh, Oh big ol’ jet airliner
    Don’t carry me too far away
    Oh, Oh big ol’ jet airliner
    Cause it’s here that I’ve got to stay
    Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah

    Big ol’ jet airliner
    Don’t carry me too far away
    Oh, Oh big ol’ jet airliner
    Cause it’s here that I’ve got to stay

    Oh, Oh big ol’ jet airliner
    Carry me to my home
    Oh, Oh big ol’ jet airliner
    Cause it’s there that I belong

  46. For Amtrak people: (I suppose the quirky and adventuresoe Jet Set is not adverse to train travel, for a fully rounded travel experience. And, yes, I’ve traveled everything from Acela First Class and European Fast Train to African Coach and South Asian Coach. As Peter Sarstedt sang,
    And when the snow falls you’re found in St. Moritz
    With the others of the jet set)

    “Last Train to London” is a single by Electric Light Orchestra

    It was 9:29
    9:29, back street, big city
    The sun was going down
    There was music all around
    It felt so right

    [Verse 2]
    It was one of those nights
    One of those nights when you feel the world stop turning
    You were standing there
    There was music in the air
    I should’ve been away
    But I knew I had to stay

    [Chorus]
    Last train to London, just heading out
    Last train to London, just leaving town
    But I really want tonight to last forever
    I really wanna be with you
    Let the music play on down the line tonight

    [Verse 3]
    It was one of those nights
    One of those nights when you feel a fire is burning
    Everybody was there
    Everybody to share
    It was so right

    Last Train to Clarksville
    The Monkees

    Take the last train to Clarksville
    And I’ll meet you at the station
    You can be here by four thirty
    ‘Cause I’ve made your reservation
    Don’t be slow
    Oh, no, no, no
    Oh, no, no, no

    [Verse 2]
    ‘Cause I’m leaving in the morning
    And I must see you again
    We’ll have one more night together (Train)
    ‘Til the morning brings my train and I must go
    Oh, no, no, no
    Oh, no, no, no
    And I don’t know if I’m ever coming home

    [Verse 3]
    Take the last train to Clarksville (Train)
    I’ll be waiting at the station
    We’ll have time for coffee-flavored kisses (Train)
    And a bit of conversation, oh
    Oh, no, no, no
    Oh, no, no, no

    White Room
    Cream

    In the white room with black curtains near the station
    Black roof country, no gold pavements, tired starlings
    Silver horses ran down moonbeams in your dark eyes
    Dawnlight smiles on you leaving, my contentment

    I’ll wait in this place where the sun never shines
    Wait in this place where the shadows run from themselves

    You said no strings could secure you at the station
    Platform ticket, restless diesels, goodbye windows
    I walked into such a sad time at the station
    As I walked out, felt my own need just beginning

    I’ll wait in the queue when the trains come back
    Lie with you where the shadows run from themselves

    At the party, she was kindness in the hard crowd
    Consolation for the old wound now forgotten
    Yellow tigers crouched in jungles in her dark eyes
    She’s just dressing, goodbye windows, tired starlings

    I’ll sleep in this place with the lonely crowd
    Lie in the dark where the shadows run from themselves

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