A Guide to the Best Travelling Music for your Campervan, Motorhome or Caravan

Sometimes when you’re driving, you need just the right music to capture the mood. Something that reflects the excitement of your journey, something that complements the sense of adventure and exploration. For your total listening please, we’ve put together the perfect leisure vehicle playlist. Once you’ve bought your perfect new or used vehicle from Don Amott and headed out on the road, you can enjoy just the right soundtrack. You won’t be able to stop the smiles as you do the miles!

1. THUNDER ROAD (Bruce Springsteen)

Perhaps it’s strange to begin a travel playlist with a ballad about, in the end, lives that go nowhere in ‘towns full of losers’. But the live version on an album recorded at the songwriter’s first ever UK concert (London’s Hammersmith Odeon in November 1975) is far superior to the studio version. It beautifully mines the tragic nobility of the lyrics against a pared down piano-only backing and results in something extremely moving and borderline profound. A poetic start to your playlist that vividly reminds you of the importance of seizing the moment. It can only be followed by…

2. BORN TO RUN (Bruce Springsteen)

The studio version of the title track from Bruce’s breakthrough album is intrinsically connected to Thunder Road. It talks about the promise of freedom, the pressing desire to escape the weight and pressures of life – which, for the purposes of being added to your playlist, is exactly what leisure vehicle life is all about… The signature line “Tramps like us, baby – we were born to run” conjures a devil-may-care rebel with the wind at their back. Enjoy, as you cruise steadily up the motorways of the UK!

3. BORN TO BE WILD (Steppenwolf)

It’s more closely associated with motorbikes than motorhomes (due to the film Easy Rider), but Steppenwolf’s 1969 classic is perfect road music. It rips a hole in rock, turbo-charging powerful guitars and attitude, and is sometimes cited as the very first ‘heavy metal’ music. The opening line (“Get your motor running, head out on the highway”) is a classic fist-in-the-air moment in an anthem for… well, heading out on the highway!

4. DRIVE (The Wedding Present)

This opening track and overlooked mini-classic from Mini, the Leeds-based band’s 1995 EP, is melodic, fast, exciting and precise. No wonder the great BBC DJ John Peel lauded songwriter David Gedge as writer of “some of the best love songs of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Era. You may dispute this, but I’m right and you’re wrong!”

5. DRIVE MY CAR (The Beatles)

It’s actually against UK law to leave the Fab Four off any playlist. There are so many songs by Liverpool beat combo The Beatles, something for every mood in fact, and almost all of them are exceptional. This strident effort from 1965 album Rubber Soul is a flirty pop classic tipping a hat to Motown and Stax, written by genius team, Lennon & McCartney. Of it, the latter said that “drive my car” was an old blues euphemism for sex.

6. KEEP THE CAR RUNNING (Arcade Fire)

They may have turned out to be relatively ordinary, but on their first couple of albums Canadian indie rockers Arcade Fire caught lightning in a bottle. Their debut album had been successful but 2007’s Neon Bible was an absolute classic – moody and masterful. This single from it has a restless energy, frenetic almost, and is based on childhood nightmares. Musically, there is a slight nod to 1980s indie afro-beatsters The Woodentops. This is a great one for those concentrated driving sessions.

7. BEAUTIFUL DAY (U2)

“You’re on the road, but you’ve got no destination,” sings Bono of Irish legends U2 during this single from their 2000 album All That You Can’t Leave Behind. There’s absolutely no suggestion of ‘no destination’ meaning ‘lost’, of course. The sentiment is much more to do with the freedom of the open road, and the boundless possibilities that brings. Integrating electro seamlessly into their rock sound, this is one of U2’s finest moments, and it will stir you as you’re on the road…

8. IS IT REALLY SO STRANGE? (The Smiths)

From an Irish band to a lyricist with Irish roots and some of the emerald isle’s smart and self-deprecating sense of humour… As ever with Morrissey back in the days of The Smiths, there is also empathy and poignance in the words he chooses for this 1987 single B-side about a life-changing trip to London. “Why is the last mile the hardest mile?” he asks, before rounding out this indie romper with “I realised I could never, never, never go back home again”. You’ll probably feel the same way, that home will never be quite the same, after you’ve spent some special time in your campervan, caravan or motorhome.

9. CARAVAN OF LOVE (The Housemartins)

We’re sticking in the 1980s for the next song on the playlist, just for the sake of it. This standalone single by the knockabout political-pop four-piece from Hull topped the charts for a week but just missed out on being the UK’s Christmas number one in December 1986. It’s not actually, though, a Christmas song. It’s an a capella cover version of Isley Jasper Isley’s 1985 single, and has eclipsed it in terms of spiritual message. Staunchly socialist singer Paul Heaton explained: “It’s inspirational, preaching sisterhood and brotherhood a feeling of goodwill to people. Not to all people though – it’s the feeling that if Christ were alive today, he’d be on the side of the poor and poverty-stricken as opposed to the rich.”

10. CARAVAN HOLIDAY (Stereophonics)

This song from the 2001 album Just Enough Education To Perform by Welsh rockers Stereophonics is about two people spending a week on a caravan holiday. They’re compromised by the weather and end up sending their entire break in the vehicle – though that doesn’t seem to matter. Singer Kelly Jones later revealed the other person in the song is his bandmate Richard and the song about seizing the moment and enjoying it before time passes: “Seasons change in a day, just like each other.”

11. EVERY DAY IS A WINDING ROAD (Sheryl Crow)

Back in 1996 (aka the days when Sheryl had great command of language and used smart words to write some belting free-flowing lyrics), Every Day Is A Winding Road stood out as a classic song from her self-titled second album. Its hypnotic percussion and quirky guitar give a classic campervan vibe and perfectly frame this open road story – the twist, of course, being that the open road is life itself rather than the American highway. The song has a chorus that will compel you to wind down the window and sing! As an interesting side note, Every Day Is A Winding Road is written in the key of C# Mixolydian – which sounds like it should be the name of a brand new model from some funky motorhome brand!

12. ONCE AROUND THE WORLD (It Bites)

Taking their cue from early 1970s Genesis, this mid-to-late 1980s progressive pop-rock band from Cumbria really nailed the lengthy concept song with this, the multi-sectional title track of their highly accomplished classic 1988 album. Against a series of different musical moods the epic 14-minute song tells the story of a single day, including a trip to the races – which involves a lengthy section of time on the road: “Motorway,” sings frontman Francis Dunnery over and over against some seriously ‘driving’ driving music!

13. 2-4-6-8 MOTORWAY (Tom Robinson Band)

You may not know that BBC DJ Tom Robinson is also a singer, songwriter and band frontman of almost fifty years now. He’s scored several chart hits in the course of his career, including this punchy and singalong 1977 Top Ten single. 2-4-6-8 Motorway is about the joys of returning home through a rainy night, inspired by his band’s early touring. The band would approach hometown London just as the “motorway sun” was “coming up with the morning light.”

14. I DROVE ALL NIGHT (Roy Orbison)

Although Orbison’s version of this song was put to tape in 1987, a mere year before his death, it wasn’t until two years after Cyndi Lauper’s 1989 cover version that his original recording was officially released. Finally released as a single in June 1992, an accompanying video featuring the gorgeous Jennifer Connelly helped with promotion and I Drove All Night was a Top Ten hit in the UK. It’s – as the kids say – “a proper banger”, with an insistent beata a great melody and The Big O’s stunning croon. Another one that will have you winding the window down and belting it out!

15. THE PASSENGER (Iggy Pop)

Vividly produced by flatmate David Bowie during a feverishly creative 1976 and ’77 for the pair, The Passenger was released as a single from the classic Lust For Life album. To date it remains one of Iggy Pop’s signature songs. The rattle and clang percussion, lilting rhythm and punky guitars are absolutely compelling, topped off by Pop’s laconic drawl. A perfect travelling song.

16. SPEED OF LIFE (David Bowie)

Seeing as we’ve just focused in on his best mate, here’s one from the duke of cool that was recorded around the same time as The Passenger, and used the same backing band, for your leisure vehicle playlist. This instrumental opener from the classic Low album is spiky and smooth in equal measure, with a driving rock backing punctuated by violent electronica and smooth synthesiser melodies. It’s great respite from our word heavy playlist – but you’ll find yourself humming along to this catchy piece of avant garde.

17. BRIGHT SIDE OF THE ROAD (Van Morrison)

Totally warming the mood after Bowie’s European cool, Van Morrison’s breezy and light on its feet 1979 single opened album Into The Music. It was written as the Belfast musician’s feel-good response to soul single The Dark End Of The Street, first recorded by James Carr in 1967 and later covered by the great Aretha Franklin. Bright Side Of The Road is one of those totally infectious songs that’s perfect for light relief along the way on your travels!

18. THE ONLY ROAD (Richard Hawley)

In his early solo recording Richard Hawley was a great chronicler of working class life and love in Sheffield – the title of the song On Nights should provide you with a massive clue as to his starting point. This effort, from 2003 album Lowedges (named after a district of the South Yorkshire city) is a delicate but insistent road song which, when combined with Hawley’s deep and expressive vocals, becomes spectral and sparkling. Perfect for those late evening drives, drifting into golden hour when the sun is at the very start of going down.

19. DRIVING (Everything But The Girl)

This jazz-influenced husband and wife duo met at Hull Uni in the early 1980s, began making music together and then worked with Paul Weller in addition to scoring hits of their own. The 1990 single Driving is from their middle period, when they went across the pond (the Atlantic, not the river Humber) and worked with hip producers in an attempt to shave off the Englishness to appeal to the American market. Therefore, it’s a really smooth sounding single with contemporary rhythm and blues things going on, but the gift for melody and the distinctive vocals make it a perfect evening driving song.

20. HOMEWARD BOUND (Simon & Garfunkel)

There’s really no other way to finish up a travel playlist than with a return home – or, in the case of this classic 1966 single from Simon & Garfunkel, the longing to get home, if you like. In common with all of the iconic duo’s classic music, the lyrics are poetic, and the performances transcend mere pop. A great way to round off the leisure vehicle playlist.

Pick your perfect vehicle from Don Amott and enjoy these 20 pop classics as you make your way along the open road.