The car crash song emerged as a popular pop and rock music teenage tragedy song during the 1950s and 1960s at a time when the number of people being killed in vehicle collisions was rising fast in many countries. In the UK the number of fatalities on UK roads rose to a peace-time peak of 7,985 in 1966 before then falling to a new low of 2,222 in 2009. The theme also appears in country and other music styles.
Examples include: David Wilcox – Eye of the Hurricane
| Title | Artist | Year | Comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "7-11" | The Ramones | 1981 | From their album Pleasant Dreams. The arrangement of this song suggests a strong 1950s/early 60s teenage pop influence with a doo-wop chorus. | |
| "A Day in the Life" | The Beatles | 1967 | From their album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Contains the line: He blew his mind out in a car. | |
| "Airbag" | Radiohead | 1997 | According to the lyrics, "an airbag saved my life." | |
| "Always Crashing in the Same Car" | David Bowie | 1977 | from the album Low | |
| "Angels in Top Hats" | House of Heroes | 2005 | Talks about a girl lying in the hospital, and the song later reveals that she was in a car and it had been raining when the accident happened. From House of Heroes | |
| "The Approaching Curve" | Rise Against | 2006 | “Up ahead there was a curve approaching.
She made no indications of slowing.” From The Sufferer & the Witness |
|
| "The Artist in the Ambulance" | Thrice | 2003 | “Late night, brakes lock, hear the tires squeel. Red light can't stop so I spin the wheel.”
From The Artist in the Ambulance |
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| "Bat Out of Hell" | Meat Loaf | 1977 | Jim Steinman wanted to write the "most extreme crash song of all time." | |
| "The Beginning of My End" | The Unifics | 1968 | ||
| "The Ballad of Thunder Road" | Robert Mitchum | 1957 | moonshine runner dies when his car speeds off the road | |
| "B.J. the D.J." | Stonewall Jackson | 1964 | Title protagonist — a hard-living, sleep-deprived disc jockey — dies when his car crashes off the road. | |
| "Black Ice" | My Friend the Chocolate Cake | 2011 | From their album Fiasco. Lyrics speak of a fight between a husband and wife, then the wife dies in a car accident. Contains "Black Ice took her away from me", speaks directly of a car crash. | |
| "Buses and Trains" | Bachelor Girl | 1998 | Lyrics compare love to traffic accidents with several vehicles, one of them is the car. | |
| "(Northbound on) Cahuenga" | Scarling. | 2005 | From So Long, Scarecrow, about Jennifer Symes' auto accident | |
| "Car Crash" | The Avengers | 1977 | ||
| "Car Crash" | Dirty Americans | 2004 | Making the comparison that love is like a car crash. "You leave me bloody and take all my money like a car crash". This song was featured on the soundtrack of the popular racing video game Gran Turismo 4. | |
| "Car Crash" | Our Lady Peace | 1997 | About a friend who intentionally killed himself in a car crash. | |
| "Car Crash" | Powerman 5000 | 1995 | ||
| "Car Crash Ballad" | Babylönchen | 2011 | ||
| "The Carroll County Accident" | Porter Wagoner | 1968 | A deadly car crash reveals a secret extramarital affair in the form of a lost wedding ring | |
| "Chapel Bells Ringing" | Gene Summers (written by Mary Tarver) | 1962 | 45rpm issued on Lafayette Records. Based upon a true story about a fatal car/train crash in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas. | |
| "Chemistry of a Car Crash" | Shiny Toy Guns | 2005 | ||
| "Chicken" | The Cheers | 1957 | ||
| "Come Back Jonee" | Devo | 1978 | The lyric "Jonee jumped in his Datsun, drove onto the expressway, went head on into a semi." | |
| "Come to Me Johnny" | Johnny Victor | 1960 | ||
| "Condition Red" | The Goodees | 1968 | Motorcycle accident under circumstances similar to "Leader Of The Pack" | |
| "Crash" | The Primitives | 1988 | Allegory about living too fast: You go way too fast, if you don't slow down, you're going to crash. | |
| "Crawling from the Wreckage" | Graham Parker | also a hit for Dave Edmunds (1977). | ||
| "Crazy Cat Corner" | Gene Summers (written by Deanna Summers-Gene Summers) | 2004 | from Do Right Daddy CD (Enviken) | |
| "Daddy's Speeding" | Suede | 1994 | A eulogy to James Dean and about the relevance of car accidents in modern culture | |
| "Days of Graduation" | Drive-By Truckers | 2001 | A first person narrative about a fatal car crash the night before the victims' high school graduation. | |
| "Dead on the Highway" | Sons of the Never Wrong | 1995 | First person narrative from the person killed in a car accident. | |
| "Dead Man's Curve" | Jan and Dean | 1964 | auto street racing accident | |
| "Dead Joe" | The Birthday Party | 1982 | ||
| "Detroit Rock City" | Kiss | 1976 | Written in tribute to a fan who was killed in a car accident on his way to a KISS concert. | |
| "D.O.A." | Bloodrock | 1970 | This is about a plane crash victim dying on the way to the hospital in the ambulance. | |
| "Don't Pass Me By" | The Beatles | 1968 | The song is addressed to someone who was "in a car crash" and "lost hair; i.e., became anxious or upset. | |
| "Don't Save Us from the Flames" | M83 | 2005 | About a survivor of a car crash hearing ghosts crying for Tina (presumably killed in the crash). | |
| "Drinking and Driving" | Black Flag | 1985 | From In My Head. "Fill your car with your buddies. And wrap it around a tree." | |
| "Ed" | Ice-T | 1991 | "One night he got drunk and started driving real fast\ Ed's dead" | |
| "En händig man" | Per Gessle | 2007 | "Hanna" in the song always crashed in the same car | |
| "The End Of The Tour" | They Might Be Giants | 1994 | car accident | |
| "Everything You Know Is Wrong" | "Weird Al" Yankovic | 1996 | Protagonist crashes into a truck and lies bleeding on the asphalt when his hibachi dealer in the back seat cups his hands over the protagonist's eyes. | |
| "Fireball Rolled a Seven" | Dave Dudley | 1975 | Protagonist ("Fireball") dies in a racing accident | |
| "Glass In The Trees" | Dead Poetic | 2004 | About a friend who died in a car crash. | |
| "Glitter Years" | The Bangles | 1988 | "Denny" in the song crashes his father's car | |
| "Head-On Collision" | Pet Hasty | 1964 | ||
| "Headlights on Dark Roads" | Snow Patrol | 2006 | ||
| "Hello, This is Joannie" | Paul Evans | 1977 | ||
| "I Want My Baby Back" | Perry Botkin, Jr. and Gil Garfield, performed by Jimmy Cross | 1965 | A parody of the car crash tragedy genre in which the driver of the crash reunites with his dead girlfriend - in her coffin (which he digs up!) | |
| "In morte di S.F." | Francesco Guccini | 1967 | from the album Folk beat n. 1 - often covered; best known cover is by Italian seminal pop-rock group Nomadi | |
| "In the Car Crash" | Swayzak | 2002 | from the album Dirty Dancing featuring Headgear | |
| "It's Dangerous Business Walking out Your Front Door" | Underoath | 2004 | “Glass shatters and comes to a halt; I thought we'd be there by now. I thought it would be so much quicker than this. Pain has never been so brilliant; I made sure you were buckled in. Now you can walk hand in hand with him .”
From They're Only Chasing Safety |
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| "Johnny Don't Do It" | 10cc | 1973 | A parody of the teenage "death disc" genre using the familiar trope of a bad boy who is good but misunderstood, "an angel dressed in black," riding a stolen motorcycle when he runs into a truck. | |
| "Johnny's Gone" | Catfish | 1991 | 2 wheels on the highway / 4 wheels flashing blue / 10 wheels coming the other way / Gonna make the morning news | |
| "Just A Car Crash Away" | Marilyn Manson | 2007 | Manson singing about a relationship and lives that are "Just A Car Crash Away | |
| "Jock-O-Rama (Invasion of the Beef Patrol)" | Dead Kennedys | 1985 | Contains the line: Another Trans-Am wrapped itself around a telephone pole "I ain't drunk, officer, I just fell gettin' out of my car" | |
| "Junkyard in the Sky" | London Lee | 1963 | ||
| "Kärleken är" | Jill Johnson | 1998 | Inspired by the aftermath of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in a car accident in France in 1997. | |
| "Killer Cars" | Radiohead | 1995 | From the album The Bends. | |
| "Last Kiss" | Wayne Cochran (1962) and made popular by J. Frank Wilson also covered by Pearl Jam | 1964 | Inspired by an incident in Barnesville, Georgia, in which several teens were killed and two seriously injured when their car struck a flatbed logging truck. | |
| "Leader of the Pack" | The Shangri-Las | 1964 | motorcycle accident. | |
| "Leader of the Pack" | Twisted Sister | 1985 | From the album Come Out and Play Cover of the Shangri-Las, but from a male perspective. | |
| "A Lifetime" | Better Than Ezra | 2001, 2005 | Featured on the albums Closer and Before the Robots the urn of a car crash victim is stolen at her wake for a private farewell. | |
| "Lightning Crashes" | Live | 1995 | Song based on a real-life drunk driving crash and the impact of a subsequent organ donation. | |
| "The Living End" | The Jesus and Mary Chain | 1985 | From the album Psychocandy. | |
| "Love Rhymes with Hideous Car Wreck" | The Blood Brothers | 2004 | A song about a boy who left his girlfriend for a "better looking brand" and when he is horribly hurt in an accident no one visits. | |
| "Low Light" | Pearl Jam | 1998 | A song about a troubled couple losing each other in a car crash and not being able to reconcile. | |
| "MIA" | Emmy The Great | 2006 | About listening to singer MIA in a car when her love dies in a car accident. | |
| "Message from James Dean" | Bill Hayes | 1956 | ||
| "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" | Crash Test Dummies | 1993 | A car accident turned a kid's hair "from black into bright white" because "the cars had smashed so hard." | |
| "Mr. Ambulance Driver" | The Flaming Lips | 2006 | from the album At War With the Mystics. Frontman Wayne Coyne has described the song as a "teenager car crash ballad". | |
| "Motorcrash" | The Sugarcubes | 1988 | from the album Life's Too Good | |
| "Motorist" | Jawbox | 1994 | ||
| My Favourite Game | The Cardigans | 1998 | ||
| "A Nightmare to Remember" | Dream Theater | 2009 | from the album Black Clouds & Silver Linings. Guitarist John Petrucci wrote about a car crash he was in as a child. | |
| "No Reason" | Don Walker | 2006 | "the towies said he was airborne when he hit the tree / with a blood alcohol of 1.7 or more" | |
| "No Return" | The Third Rail | 1966 | ||
| "Objects In The Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are" | Meat Loaf | 1993 | Singer's friend is killed in a plane crash | |
| "The Other Side of the Crash/Over and Out(of Control)" | Thursday | 2006 | The aftermath of a car accident on its survivors is chronicled. A sequel to "Understanding in a Car crash" (see below) | |
| "Papa Loved Mama" | Garth Brooks | 1992 | A jealous truck driver crashes his rig into a motel room where his wife is having an extramarital affair, killing her and sending himself to prison. | |
| "Phantom 309" | Red Sovine | 1964 | The song's protagonist, a hitchhiker, meets the ghost of a truck driver who was killed when he swerved his semi-trailer truck into a ditch to avert a potentially deadly collision with a bus full of teen-agers. | |
| "Pile-up on the Highway" | Lisa Bade | 1978 | ||
| "Prom Night Car Crash" | The Kingmakers | 2011 | A tongue-in-cheek, self-referential tribute to the genre | |
| "Renaissance" | Mat Kearney | 2006 | ||
| "Riding With Private Malone" | David Ball | 2001 | The singer is pulled from a fiery car crash by the ghost of the car's former owner, a soldier who died in the Vietnam War. | |
| "Rocky's Girl" | David Geddes | 1978 | ||
| "Seven Times 7" | Brand New | 2005 | Sample lyrics: "Have another drink and drive yourself home |
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| "Shredded Humans" | Cannibal Corpse | 1990 | From the album Eaten Back To Life. The lyrics of the song describe a what happens to a family inside a car that crashes, and the reaction of the other driver. | |
| "So Damn Lucky" | Dave Matthews | 2003 | The 2nd track on Matthews's solo album Some Devil. The subject is pleased that their love is not involved in the auto accident described in the lyrics. | |
| "So Small" | Carrie Underwood | 2007 | A runaway teen steps in front of an oncoming car, causing the woman driving to swerve into a man coming in the opposite direction - and then time freezes, giving all three a moment to contemplate what brought them there. | |
| "Spellbound" | AC/DC | 1981 | From the album For Those About to Rock We Salute You. The first verse describes a car accident and the second verse describes the reckless driving that lead to the crash. | |
| "Stan" | Eminem featuring Dido | 2000 | The lead character in the song commits suicide by crashing his car, with his pregnant girlfriend in the trunk. Eminem samples Dido's selection "Thank You" in the selection, and she has joined him on stage to perform it. | |
| "Star Witness" | Neko Case | 2006 | "My true love drowned in a dirty old pan of oil that did run from the block of a Falcon sedan 1969. The paper said '75. There were no survivors, none found alive." | |
| "Sunday Driving" | Jerry Lewis | 1951 | Jerry crashes his car at the end of the song and says next time he'll take the bus, instead. | |
| "Suzy & Jeffrey" | Blondie | 1980 | The titular duo crash into a wall, serving as a metaphor for cold feet. | |
| "Teddy Bear" | Red Sovine | 1976 | The protagonist's father had died in an accident involving his semi-trailer truck during a snowstorm. | |
| "Teen Angel" | Mark Dinning and Alex Murray | 1959 | auto accident | |
| "Tell Laura I Love Her" | Ray Peterson | 1960 | auto racing accident | |
| "Terry" | Twinkle | 1964 | Motorcycle accident | |
| "That's How People Grow Up" | Morrissey | 2009 | "I was driving my car / I crashed and broke my spine" | |
| "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" | The Smiths | 1986 | from the album The Queen Is Dead | |
| "Three Wooden Crosses" | Randy Travis | 2002 | Christian story song about a bus wreck in Mexico where three people died and maybe why a fourth person, perhaps the least deserving of the group, lived. | |
| "Through the Wire" | Kanye West | 2003 | Rapper West's first single, inspired by a 2002 accident which he survived, and performed while his jaw was wired shut as a result of his injuries. | |
| "Thunderbird" | Steve Azar | 1996 | from the album Heartbreak Town | |
| "Tonight is the Night I Fell Asleep at the Wheel" | Barenaked Ladies | 2000 | From Maroon. Accompanied by a drum march and calliope, the song is recited by the narrator who has just died in a car accident. | |
| "Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young to Die!" | Jethro Tull | 1976 | Motorcycle accident | |
| "Transfusion" | Nervous Norvus | 1956 | A crazy driver keeps getting into accidents and receiving blood transfusions - always promising to never speed again. | |
| "Trashed" | Black Sabbath | 1983 | From Born Again, about surviving a drunk driving. | |
| "Two Hour Honeymoon" | Paul Hampton | 1960 | A newlywed couple have a car accident that kills her and leaves him lying in the wreck questioning why did it happen. | |
| "Understanding in a Car Crash" | Thursday | 2002 | ||
| "Untitled (How Could This Happen to Me?)" | Simple Plan | 2005 | drunk driving accident | |
| "Warm Leatherette" | The Normal | 1979 | also recorded by Grace Jones (1980). First person narrative of a car crash victim burning to death in the crash. | |
| "Wreck on the Highway" | Roy Acuff | 1942 | also recorded by artists including The Louvin Brothers, George Jones and Gene Pitney (1965), The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (in Will the Circle Be Unbroken, 1972) | |
| "Wreck on the Highway" | Bruce Springsteen | 1980 | hit-and-run victim on lonely highway, inspired by but different from the Acuff song | |
| "The Year Summer Ended In June" | Misery Signals | 2004 | “Roll down the window let in night air. I always thought we'd be together. You said we've never gone this way before. I must not let you die. Your memory survives.”
From Of Malice And The Magnum Heart |
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| "A Young Man is Gone" | The Beach Boys | 1964 | A eulogy to James Dean | |
| "Oerend Hard" | Normaal | 1977 | motorcycle accident | |
| "Hospital Flowers" | Owl City | 2011 | Reflecting on a victim's life after a car crash |
Famous quotes containing the words list of, list, car, crash and/or songs:
“Love’s boat has been shattered against the life of everyday. You and I are quits, and it’s useless to draw up a list of mutual hurts, sorrows, and pains.”
—Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893–1930)
“I made a list of things I have
to remember and a list
of things I want to forget,
but I see they are the same list.”
—Linda Pastan (b. 1932)
“The reason American cars don’t sell anymore is that they have forgotten how to design the American Dream. What does it matter if you buy a car today or six months from now, because cars are not beautiful. That’s why the American auto industry is in trouble: no design, no desire.”
—Karl Lagerfeld (b. 1938)
“Crash on crash of the sea,
straining to wreck men, sea-boards, continents,
raging against the world, furious.”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)
“Let me make the superstitions of a nation and I care not who makes its laws or its songs either.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)