Rolling Stone Names 'Roadrunner' by The Modern Lovers the Greatest Road Trip Song

When you are packing up the car for a long haul across the open asphalt, the music queue is just as important as checking the tire pressure. Everyone has their personal driving favorites, but Rolling Stone recently settled the debate by officially ranking the 50 Greatest Road-Trip Songs of All Time.

The exhaustive list is packed with inescapable classics, spanning everything from the roaring classic rock of Jimi Hendrix's "Crosstown Traffic" at No. 2 to the hypnotic synth-pop of Gary Numan's "Cars".

But when it came to crowning the single greatest driving track to ever grace an auxiliary cord, the publication bypassed the predictable radio giants and handed the No. 1 spot to a raw, deeply nostalgic 1976 masterpiece: "Roadrunner" by The Modern Lovers.

The Anthem of Modern Moonlight

If you aren't deeply entrenched in early punk and proto-punk history, "Roadrunner" might feel like an unexpected champion. But for music purists, the song is pure, uncut driving perfection.

Fronted by a young Jonathan Richman, the track completely subverted what rock music was supposed to look like at the time. Instead of singing about world-ending rebellions or fantasy landscapes, Richman pinned a vibrant, high-energy love letter to the mundane reality of the suburban night shift.

Rolling Stone lauded the track's lyrical brilliance, highlighting how Richman captures the exact, intoxicating feeling of "loving convenience stores and 'modern moonlight' and driving on Massachusetts highways late at night with rock music blasting in your car".

The song's core philosophy is neatly summarized in a single, brilliant line: "The highway is your girlfriend as you go by quick."

Two Chords and a Throbbing Engine

Musically, "Roadrunner" mirrors the relentless, steady momentum of a car cruising down an empty interstate. The arrangement doesn't waste time on flashy, overindulgent solos or complex time signatures. Instead, the band locks into a pulsing groove driven almost entirely by two throbbing chords that build an hypnotic, driving rhythm.

It is the sonic equivalent of hitting cruise control at midnight. The sheer simplicity of the track forces you to lock eyes with the white lines on the asphalt. As Rolling Stone puts it, even if you live nowhere near the band's beloved Massachusetts Route 128, the song carries an infectious energy.

This story was originally published by Men's Journal on Jun 7, 2026, where it first appeared in the Entertainment section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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This story was originally published June 7, 2026 at 4:00 AM.