NPR Music - What's the perfect road trip playlist?

Episode Date: August 12, 2025

Before summer disappears, we share our favorite songs for your long and winding drives, plus a list of ground rules (does the driver always have final say?), and a breakdown of what works best when. Featured artists and songs:1. Eric Burdon and War: “Spill the Wine,” from Eric Burdon Declares “War”2. Stromae: “Santé,” from Multitude3. Broadway Cast: “Alexander Hamilton,” from Hamilton4. Joe Iconis / Broadway Cast: “Michael in the Bathroom,” from Be More Chill 5. Abiotic: “Vermosapien,” from Symbiosis 6. Wipers: “Mystery,” from Is This Real? 7. Steely Dan: “My Old School,” from Countdown to Ecstasy 8. Tunde Olaniran: “Namesake,” from Transgressor 9. Shania Twain: “Man, I Feel Like a Woman!” from Come On Over 10. Pat Travers: “Amgwanna Kick Booty,” from Black Pearl 11. Anthrax & Public Enemy: “Bring The Noise,” from Attack of the Killer B’s 12. Unwed Sailor: “Monster Collecting,” from Cruel Entertainment 13. The Allman Brothers Band: “Midnight Rider,” from Idlewild South and “Southbound,” from Brothers And Sisters 14. Lakestreet Dive: “You Go Down Smooth,” from Bad Self Portraits 15. Black Sabbath: “Turn Up The Night,” from Mob Rules 16. Simple Minds: “Don’t You (Forget About Me),” from The Breakfast Club All Songs Considered 25th anniversary segment: Our No. 1 songs from 2024Weekly reset: Summer roadtrip while listening to the radioHear the songs in our Roadtrip Mix on Spotify and Apple.Enjoy the show? Share it with a friend and leave us a review on Apple or wherever you listen to podcasts. Questions, comments, suggestions or feedback of any kind always welcome: [e-mail] pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Mikes are on. How are we doing this here? Well, it's road trip season. And nothing goes better with road trips and listening to music. I'm Robin Hilton. All songs are considered. Stephen Thompson is here. Stephen, I know you're a road trip warrior. You know, I have been.

Oh, come on. Your trips to Wisconsin are legendary. This is true. Yeah. They're the stuff of a younger, more foolish man. And Lars Gottrich, you're here as well. Have you been known to get behind the wheel? I like to get behind the wheel. We do a lot of road trips down to Asheville, North Carolina.

That's where my folks live. But don't you, Stephen, don't you, like, get in the car at night, like in the evening or something and just drive all night? Or, like, you do it in one shot or something. You know, I did that for a really long time. You know, I would go back. And I still, you know, to this day, have some of the most dearly loved people in my life live in Wisconsin. I love to go back. driving for 14 to 18 hours.

Okay. Does not do for my back what it used to? I used to be an absolute machine behind the wheel. Like I remember one time I was in Kansas and I had a friend in D.C. And he's like, I want you come out? We'll just, we'll hang out. I was like, okay. And I got in the car and drove 21 hours by myself.

And I didn't think anything of it. And now I don't even like going to Fairfax. That's like 30 minutes away. Yeah, it's only like 40 minutes. That's the beltway. Who's doing that? Maybe we shouldn't be doing this show. What I'm saying is, are none of us qualified?

Well, okay, well, still the whole premise of this show is we were thinking before summer gets completely away from us, you know, we thought we'd share and talk about some of the songs that we play and listen to when we're on the road because this is road trip season. And we've got some categories. I think we're going to, and some themes for some of the songs that we're going to play. Might not get through everything, but let's just see where it goes. Who wants to start? So, should I start with kid stuff? Well, that is one of the categories. What do you play when you've got kids in the car?

Okay. So I used to take solo road trips all the time. But, you know, now I got a kid. She's like five? She's six and a half, which is important. Yes. And especially if we're going to do that eight-hour drive, I need to have something right at the front of that trip that's going to, like, get her motivated to get through it until she has iPad time. Did you say iPad time?

Yeah, iPad time. So just to clarify, the entire road trip is not iPad time. It's not iPad time. You are a more disciplined parent than I. I try. I really do. But anyway, she has fallen in love with Stroh Mae. Yes.

Yes. She loves Tremé, and in particular, the song Sante, and I'm going to tell you why she loves the song after we hear a little bit of it. To see her, Rosa, Rosa, when we do the border of her, and you know, Albert, when we trink, you ramass the ver. Seline, batter. You, you take some vest to vest, vestia.

Arlette, Arrette, To at a fete, You have not had to thought, Oh, Kine celebrate it now For one I'd like

Toeuvre To who we don't have To who This is interesting because I I would not have thought, Oh, kid-friendly music, but hearing it now, obviously, yeah. It's bright, it's very catchy,

It's very fun. If I'm starting out a trip with my kid in the backseat, I tend to go, for this kind of mood. But my suggestion, for those parents out there, your kid is going to fall in love with this song, and they're going to want to hear it eight times in a row. So what I would suggest,

immediately follow this song with their second or third favorite song. So you don't just get into a pattern of it. Yeah. So, like, you know, for my kid, that'll be any number of Amy Grant songs from the 80s. Or, like, Carly Ray Jepson. She is your child. She's very much my kid.

Is she into? Is she into black metal? No. She doesn't go from that to Sabbath? No, she hasn't really got into the heavy stuff yet. Well, I wasn't going to do one strictly for kids, but I do have one that I play when the kids are in the car because they love it so much. And this is going to maybe seem like maybe not immediately kid-friendly, but I can explain. Oh, yeah.

How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a... Very kid-friendly. In the middle of a forgotten spotting the Caribbean by Providence and Parvourist and squalor. Grow up to be a hero and a scholar. Okay, so maybe it's obviously Alexander Hamilton from Hamilton. Maybe for slightly older kids, mine are 10 and 13. They love this song so much because it is the perfect sing-along. Like I put this on and they immediately sing both of them together and my wife, along with every lyric.

I think having a group sing-along is so important when you're in the car with other people. I was going to talk about sing-alongs because I think that's a really, really important part of the family road trip. And part of teaching your children to be goobers. Yeah. And I mean, I'm serious. They hammed up in this, like, when this song takes off, like, around the part where, oh, yeah, it's here with Leslie Odom Jr. Yeah. Yeah, the word got around me.

Said this kid is insane, man. Took up a book collection just to send him to the main land. Get your education. Don't forget from when you came. And the world's going to know your name. What's your name, man? Alexander Hamilton. They sing everywhere, and they're in character.

They love it. I never in a million years would have thought, oh, this is the one song I can get the whole family behind. Oh, yeah. I'm not surprised at all. And I think the Hamilton cast album is a great example of something that works really, really well on road trips, which is music that has. has a theatrical quality to it that tells a story.

Definitely. And that that helps pass the time. Big part of what you're trying to do on a road trip. You're trying to turn 12 hours into nine and a half hours. And so you put on the Hamilton cast album. And you're trying to get everyone as animated as possible, right? Because that also makes the time pass a lot faster. Yeah.

If you've got younger kids, there's some moments in this song where you've got some questions you need to answer, particularly in that opening. opening wire, so fro, what's a bastard? And some stuff a little bit later on, but yeah. Another one for our family was Bemore Chill. Bemore Chill was a Broadway production that had a cult following on streaming and that really caught the imagination of a lot of Gen Z kids. Often, like, if I'm desperate, if I'm tired, you know,

and I'm in the car with the kids or my partner or, you know, whatever, you put that on and immediately to two and a half, hours are gone. Is there something from Be More Chill you wanted to play or did you have something else you wanted to do for kids in the car? So Be More Chill for those who don't know, it's a Broadway production about a pill that this kind of nerdy kid could take in order to be cool. And his best friend, Michael sort of gets left behind in the process of that. And so one of the iconic songs from that cast album is called Michael in the bathroom. at the biggest party of the fall.

I could stay right here or disappear, and nobody'd even notice at all. I'm a creeper in a bathroom, cause my buddy kind of left me alone, but I'd rather fake peeve than stand awkwardly or pretend to check a text on my phone. Everything felt fine, fine when I was half of a pair

through no fault of mine there's no other half that pill that you were talking about that makes you cool is that a real thing tell me more about that is that available fictional item I mean recommendation for those who are suddenly like oh be more chill I remember that there is a be more chill tiny desk

that is really moving and sweet and that brings a bunch of the original kind of Well, Stephen, I don't know if you remember this, but back when you used to do a regular column called The Good Listener, this was actually a question that you considered one time. I think it was a question that a listener sent in. And the question was, with kids in the car, who controls the stereo? Do you remember writing about that? I do. I think I had to cop to the fact in that column that I don't control the stereo when I'm driving.

But you said, and I'm going to quote you here, you said, and when listening to music purely for, pleasure on say a family road trip it's most fun to stick to songs we'll all enjoy with an emphasis on fermo sapien by aviotic i actually don't know that oh robin i'm sorry would you like to hear oh sure let we'll do that and then i i once uh burned this song to a cd uh and it just says uh kids mix and it's just the one song so the one song so the song So if we listen to the entire nearly five minutes of Vermosapian, you know, when it would end, the CD would kind of go and then it would start over. We're like, oh, let's, or like, oh, you know, we should skip to the next track.

And I would skip to the, I mean, full dad mode. Yeah, no, that's classic. You know, I used to do that when I would drive them to school all the time. But the most important line you have here, and you say this at the very end, you say, but the tie, the tie always, always, always goes to the driver. So I want to raise, if there are ground rules for how you pick music in the car, can we all agree on the most important rule is that the driver chooses? Do we agree on that? Yes, the driver chooses, I think, is generally a good rule, but there are sub-rules in my car.

I am not allowed to fiddle. I'm not allowed to like be touching screens. So I always, you have to be eating. Yes. So I always, I literally do boxes of CDs. But I always have a little stack. I refresh it every couple of months. And yeah, it's just I had to be able to grab one of those and stick it in and not be

fiddling around with my phone trying to find a song that I want to play. Yeah. Do you have something that you get to play because? you're the driver that you otherwise might not get to play? Yeah. This song is normally meant for solo time, but occasionally I can sneak it in if there are others in the car,

and it is the song Mystery by the Wipers. Does it sound like Jonathan Richmond to you? Yeah, you hear that. Yeah, totally. So this came out in 1980, I think, from the album, Is This Real? Yeah. This is a great example of how maybe music

was actually pretty great in the 80s, and I just wasn't hearing any of it because, like, this was not on the radio. where I was growing up. Yeah. I've been on a real wipers kick this year. It's basically all I have in the car. Like, if I'm in the car by myself, this is what I am blasting.

Because it's full of energy, it's existential as hell, it's asking big life questions in every single song. So when you're in a car and you're on the highway and you're in your head, you want to scream along to somebody who's also feeling of a frustration and mystery of this world. world. And so the wipers, especially the album, Is This Real, is like, perfect for that. I think one of the categories could also be music to get you there faster. Yes. This song could fall under that. I think for my pick for The Driver gets to decide that rule. I think I'll go with this. Come on, guys. Steely Dan. You know this, right? My old school. I've never. I've tried.

I'm aware of their work I know I have ever and out again it's like coffee I don't drink coffee but every few years I'll try it just to see how I feel about it and see if anything's changed

and much like coffee Steely Dan has not changed it's still coffee still the exact same thing well I would this is my old school from their album countdown to ecstasy oh Robin I I hate to agree with Lars.

Neither of you, neither of you know what you're talking about. You don't know what you're talking about. This has been a blind spot for me my whole life. I think my impression of Steely Dan was cast in Amber from like reeling in the years. And I hate that song. Okay. This is not. Can I, can I share what Steve Albini used to say about?

Steve Albini. Okay. What? He used to call them a wedding band that really needs to try. Oh my God. All right. First of all, they're not a cheesy band. I think that word gets thrown around.

They are so weird. They are a very weird band. Their lyrics are incredible, often complete, like, nonsense. And the musicianship across their records, you know, they worked with so many incredible studio musicians. Next level. I mean, listen to the horns. Listen to the horns on this song. The horns on this are sick.

And also the lines. I'm sorry, California tumbled into the sea. That'll be the day I go back to Ann and Dale. All-time great song. But clearly, you feel much the same way the rest of my family does. Lars and I are the kids in the back of the car begging you to change it? Because I never get to, I mean, they all just have to sit there and fume when I put Steely Dan on. You know, it wakes me up.

It takes me back. It lifts me up. You know, their 2000 album, Two Against Nature, maybe one of the ones. the only times the Grammys finally got it right. Beat out Radiohead's Kid A for album of the year. Beck's Midnight Fulchers, M&M's the Marshall Mathers LP. Paul Simon's, you're the one. They beat that one out for album of the year, too.

But whatever. Steely Dan. Love Steely Dan. You know who else on the team loves Steely Dan? Felix Contreras. I can drop any random line from a Steely Dan song to him. And he'll immediately pick it up. I knew you're not my only friend who loves Steely Dan.

I knew there were also people whose tastes I respect. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, Stephen. All right. Coming up, Stephen Thompson, you and I will talk about our number one songs from 2024. It's the final segment that you and I've been doing all the spring.

Yeah. And this has been quite a march. We've been making this year as we look back at some of the memorable music from the past 25 years. This is for all songs considered it's 25th anniversary. We will wrap it all up later on the show. That plus your weekly reset.

That's all coming up. But what's next here for our road trip mix? Well, for many years, my kids just had to get used to the fact that, you know, when I was the driver and they were little kids, I had complete control. And when my partner, Katie, Katie Presley used to be on this show. Yes. When Katie moved in and started joining us on road trips, Some changes had to be made as dictated by Katie Presley.

So we started a mix, first on iTunes, then on Spotify, called Katie is in the car. If you Google Katie is in the car, Spotify is a public playlist. It's got like 2,000 saves. So other people do use this. It's bangers. I will say not small kid friendly. But, you know, one song that everyone in the family can agree on, that is an anchor. of Katie using the car is this one.

Is this, bangers, bangers, he slagin' Show, I'm point he slaying He wasn't always a spadey. Is this Justin Bieber's, what do you mean? Or... You're scanning, you're scanning, uh, Kitty's in the car? I'm looking at the kitty is in the car playlist.

So that is Tunday O'Anoran from an album from 2015 called Transgressor. And I think it's actually kind of in the spirit, Lars, of the Strohme song that you were playing. Oh, sure. Where there's just like, there's just sounds whizzing from every corner of the speaker. Yeah, yeah. It's got a jumpy quality to it, and it eventually just blasts into this huge anthemic chorus.

You know, sometimes it comes to music late, but my personal opinion has always been music comes to you when it should. Right. So I was in a thrift store one day, saw Shania, Twain's come on over, and I was like, hey, I know, like, a couple of her songs. I like those songs. Let me pick this up. Ended up having a revelation about Chennai Twain.

I mean, you're the godfather of Rose Wave, man. I mean, this is true, but I just never spent time with this particular album. And it's just full of A and A plus songs. Let's go with the song that everybody knows. Let's go, girls. Tonight, I'm being all right. Go on let it all hang out. I don't know this

I don't know this. We'll raise my voice. Yeah, I want to scream in shouts. Make no conditions. Get a lot. I don't know this song. What? How?

This is like, how do you? I just don't know this song. You said, the one song, everybody knows. I was like, no, I don't know. I don't know this song. I don't know this song. I don't, I can't, I haven't listened to a lot of Shania Twain. I don't listen to the radio very much.

I certainly wasn't in the 90s when I think this came out. Yeah, this is a total 90s. This was just not remotely what I was listening to in the 90s. I just assumed this song was on the wind. I mean, I was a college radio music director. I wasn't like necessarily listening to a ton of the radio. You were playing this on college radio? No, I'm just saying this song was on the wind in a way that was impossible to avoid.

Well, if you didn't have a TV and you didn't listen to the radio and you got all your news from a printed paper like me at the time. I just, yeah, I just totally miss this. I don't dislike it. Yeah, how's it then you know? It's joyful. I hate it. I think this is like my hot take, but I think this album in particular, come on over, is the blueprint for Taylor Swift's entire career. Interesting. Especially the era when she went from country to pop. Yeah, certainly the straddling of the two genres feels like it was a blueprint. That's interesting. Well, let me play something that I am certain, everybody actually knows, unlike maybe that song. The very obscure song that is like certified diamond by the R-I-A.

None. For those, don't get to enjoy those. You need to paint a picture with words. Robin is currently air trumming but also air guitaring. Dancing, standing. Wait for it, wait for it. Doing a solo. Oh, I'm breathless.

Pat Travers, I'm going to kick booty, right? Come on. I No This is the song for everybody in the car No no This is the category Songs that'll get you there faster

Or wake you up This is an absolute Heart attack of a song From the guitarist Pat Travers Guys guys guys Gotta check this out I know I've always known about you Robin That there is like this part of you

There's County Fair Rock Robin Yeah well there's also like Billy Joel dad Robin Yeah that's fair There is maybe more guitar wankery per second in this one song than anything that has ever been written. Did you not grow up listening to Joe Satriani the way I did? The song is ridiculous.

And I can't help it. I absolutely love it. Many memories of listening to this song, both on the road and in the parking lots that we'd all hang out in, in our cars, wherever we had. This is in Abilene? In Abilene, Kansas, yeah. Ooh. Tasty. Pat Travers. I'm going to kick booty. Robin, if you didn't already have kids, two kids would be assigned to you.

Oh, my children hate this so much. This is also under the category of I get to play whatever I want if I'm driving. Oh, anyway, Stephen, where do you? I guess you get to play something else here. All right. Well, you know, one trick to a little. pulling off a family road trip is to meet the other people in the car partway. My daughter... Shia, twang. My daughter loves 90s, hard rock, and heavy metal.

And a few years back, she did the greatest thing any child can do for a parent. She said, Dad, can you make me a mix? Yeah. I really thought you were going to tell the story of when she came to you and said, Dad, have you ever seen the human centipede? I tell that story frequently. She was about 11. Have you ever seen The Human Sinope?

I was literally tucking her in at night, had turned out the light, kissed her forehead, and this sweet voice cuts through the darkness. Dad, have you ever seen a movie called The Human Sons? Oh, God. So Grace has always loved the darkness. Yeah, clearly. And including the band The Darkness.

And so I made her a mix of heavy music of the 90s called Grace Against the Machine. Oh, that's awesome. And it kicks off with this. The incredible rhyme animal The uncannable D. Public enemy number one

Five full said Freeze And I got dumb Can I tell him That I really never had a gun But it's the wax With the terminated It's fun

Got it got me in a cell Because my records They sell Because I'm gonna listen to When it can say to you What you're gonna do It's a public enemy Public enemy with anthrax

Right right So the song Later in the song Chuck D shouts out Wax is for anthrax Still it can rock bells And it's like a shout out to Anthrax in this song that is also praising like Eric B and Rakeem.

And Anthrax took this for the greatest honor imaginable that it was and did kind of a version of the song for one of their albums that pairs up. Chuck D. wraps the first two verses and then Anthrax kind of comes in and does the second two. And it is, I think, just a wonderful marriage of the two sensibilities. So this is a completely different vibe. But one thing that I've been thinking about lately is how do I soundtrack nighttime when I'm still on the road? Maybe other people have knotted off in the car. And I still need music that is driving music.

But maybe I don't need somebody singing or yelling at me. But you can't, nothing that's going to make you fall asleep. Nothing is going to make you fall asleep. So it still has to be engaging enough. And so I immediately went to the band Unweds Sailor. Oh, yeah. From the wonderful bassist and songwriter Jonathan Ford. Yeah, this is good.

It's like, it's probably not going to wake anybody else up. Right. It's not going to put you to sleep, but it's got enough drive to sort of lift you up and kind of energize you. Yeah, it's a good pick. There's a lilt to it. Yeah, yeah. And this is from a record called Cruel Entertainment.

Came out this year. The song's called Monster Collecting. Perfect for that moment in the night where you got a lot of thoughts running through your heading. You need to collect them a little bit, but you don't need somebody else telling you what to think. So it's like it's good meditative but driving music. Well, if we're going to do nighttime music, I brought something that I think is sort of the ultimate driving song. It's perfect for night, but actually you could probably do it just about any time. But I often think about it when I think about nighttime music.

I'm literally never having you on the show again. Robin, you just grew, you just grew a Hawaiian shirt. Almond Brothers, this is Midnight Rider from their album, Idle Wild South. I just like the Robin's demeanor, the character you were playing, this entire episode, is Homer Simpson yelling out the car to his kids, for more about grand funk, consult your local library. Is that Homer, the Homer Palooza? I actually watched that recently with my kids, and I thought everything that Homer played for them was amazing. The competent drumwork of Don Brewer?

The Allman Brothers actually have a lot of great driving music. I would say if you're not going to do Midnight Rider, a great runner-up is the song Southbound. I'm assuming you guys know the song Southbound. It all just sounds like Steely Dan playing Reelan in the years. Oh, God. There's this great piano part to Southbound, and I remember listening to this song one time. I was on the highway. I was in my VW bug, driving home from college. It was a long drive. And I had this song blasting, and it got to the piano solo.

And I was air playing the keyboard, along with this. And I'm just jamming this song, yes. And I see out of the corner of my eye this other car slowly comes up alongside. me on the highway and I look over and the guy in the passenger seat of the car is staring right at me he's kind of sitting sideways and he is air playing the piano mocking me making he had seen me playing the keyboard on my invisible keyboard over the steering wheel and it made last time I ever played the invisible keyboard in the car he totally ruined it for me now Yeah, unless I'm, sometimes I'll just go out and sit in my car and in the driveway and just play the song and listen to the song and playing air keyboard while crying.

Playing the air keyboard over it. Anyway, Alman Brothers Midnight Rider, great song. Everyone should listen to it. Okay, as I mentioned, Stephen, you and I are going to hang out here and talk about our number one songs from 2024. That is coming up along with your weekly reset. But I think we all have maybe one more thing that we're going to play here. hear. Well, what I thought I would go with is the go-to sing-along in the car for my partner, Katie, this song by the band, Lake Street Dive. And when this song comes on, everybody stops.

Katie goes, mimics the spraying her throat. Sure. Oh, yes, of course. And proceeds to belt this out at the top of her lungs. Would it be true to say that I. Or is it you that ordered me But I can't stop at two or three Can Katie sing this? Can she sing? You know, she can hold her own.

She's certainly like, the notes are in the correct order. I mean, Rachel Price, the singer for Lake Street Dive, she's a tough act to match. But what is fun about that song as a sing-along Is it's just a completely committed vocal. And I think that's the most fun part of like, late night sing-along is you just lean your whole self into the song. And you're with your family who love you unconditionally.

That is a fun, pick me up, wake up late-night communal. Everybody's just kind of wired and weird and just committed to the bit for the moment. That is a really fun place in the late-night road trip experience. So a lot of what I've been hearing that we have not named as a category is, can, and you air instrument to this song. So we, I feel like... And if you can, then it's in? Yeah.

So, like, Robin, you had your Travers thing. Yeah. Well, and the Allman Brothers. And the Almond brothers. And the Almond brothers. And Stephen, during the Public Enemy song, you were, like, I saw you rapping. So I will enter my song into this category. With all due respect to the late Ozzy Osmore,

I have a very special deal-shaped place. place in my heart for Ronnie James Dio-era Black Sabbath. And so, turn up the night. Let's do it, Robin. Okay, fine. The Al-Lia Lars is totally erratory. Oh, God, that face,

Lars. You mentioned stank face on the other, a recent show we did. And now I've seen it with my own two eyes. It's a thing. This whole album Mob Rules is awesome. I would have gone with the title track myself is my favorite one. Can't go wrong.

And Dio's post-Sabbat stuff is excellent. Oh, Dio, solo, solo, Dio, Holy Diver. Oh my gosh. Forget about it. It's the sound of Iola, Wisconsin in 1986 or whatever it was. You also, Lars, you did a whole playlist of metal for driving years ago. Many years ago,

the NPR music team did a whole series of songs for road trips. Mine was just simply called. heavy metal road trip. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Stephen mentioned the importance of sing-alongs.

I think another thing that is really important is something that taps into the nostalgia well. Sure. Something from your youth, particularly your teen years, I think,

anything that takes you back because it'll spark memories, which sparks conversations, and anything from that, you know, from that time in your life always leads to more song picks because it makes the other person in the car think of you, you know.

So, you know, Stephen, you've mentioned all these great playlists you have. I have one on my computer, and it is called No One Needs to Know This. And in the No One Needs to Know This playlist, you will hear this one. Don't you forget about me? So the lead singer Jim Kerr, he intended to write more lyrics for the song. And those, although, hey, hey, all that was like supposed to be a placeholder. And then he goes into the studio and it does, and they're like, you know what? That sounds pretty good.

print i didn't know that yeah let's just let's just go with that but you know this whole song so they did not write it simple minds did not write it a music producer who was working on the film wrote the song simple minds initially turned it down then they went to like billy idle turned it down corey hart turned it down i could hear cori heart or billy idle yeah these are all great brian ferry turned it down all of them could have pulled this song up they eventually go back to simple Minds, they're like, come on, man, you guys got to do this. So Simple Minds very... Come on, Corey Hart turned this down.

So they were like, okay, fine, we'll do it. And it ends up being this massive hit. It's an anthem of a generation and instantly takes people back to that time. And this song and this whole soundtrack is now 40 years old. It's celebrating its 40th anniversary

of this year, came out in 85. Anyway, so, yes, I'm admitting that I have a playlist called No One Needs to Know, and it is full of all of the 80s pop songs that I actually really, really love. And this is one of them. I could have gone with Crowded House. Maybe Don't Dream It's Over.

Oh, my God. Anything by Crowded House. Squeeze, tempted. Anyway, lots of great stuff. We'll put all these songs and anything else that we can think of into a road trip playlist that people can find on Spotify and Apple. A very confusing road trip playlist. What is happening?

include Pat Travers, Chuck D. Stromay. Stromay. Public enemy. Yes. But these are guidelines. Yes. This is a way to inspire you to make your own mix for your road trip. Yes.

All right. We'll go out on this, but Stephen, hang tight. After the song, we're going to talk about our number one tracks from 2024 and wrap up our whole look back at the past 25 years of all songs considered. And then we'll have your weekly reset. But Lars, I guess for you, it's hit the road. Wow. See what I did there?

Wow. Propin. Buckle up. Buckle up for hitting the road. Okay, Stephen, we have made it our final year in this look back at the songs that have shaped all songs considered in its 25 years gracing the virtual airwaves. And we are up to 2024. The jury is still out on 2025.

And I've got a couple things that I immediately think of for 2024, but why don't you go first? And this is sort of your last chance to play Stump the Chump with a song that I can't even remember or never heard even though it was just a year ago. You know, I'm going to go. Oh, man, there's so many directions I could go because there were so many great, like, big monoculture pop hits. And also just songs that wrecked me in various ways, which I'm sure we're going to get to. but I think I'm just going to go with this banger, and I bet you don't know this song. Well, you're correct. Well, this does sound really familiar.

Take a look around the town you expectantly waiting. Your mother complaining your father is quiet. Stay saying you're past. Don't know it. This is a song called Highlands by the band Middle Kids. Oh, yeah, I know Middle Kids. And Australian band, and Middle Kids is one of these bands. They've been floating around for years.

years, and every single time they put out a song or an album, I hear it, and I'm like, this is phenomenal. Who is this? All right, a band I already love. A band I already love. And this particular song, to me, the fact that this song has not been, like, widely embraced by the entire world as one of the greatest most inspirational songs in the history of the universe is beyond me.

I thought for sure you might go with Maddie Deas' Godperson. Oh, my God. Is that your favorite song, would you say, of 2024? Talk about songs that just wreck me, songs that make me cry every time. You and I have bonded over our shared love of this song, to the point where I was almost a little hesitant to bring it just because you and I have, I think, on a podcast,

openly wept listening to that song. Yeah. Godperson, Maddie Diaz, I could very easily pick that, but I'm going to go with this one that I'm pretty sure you're going to know. Modesto. Oh. He says the name right there. That does help narrow it down.

From Pedro the Lion. The ghost I worked a vacuum clean her salesman job. Then I later recognized in Glen Gary Glenbott. I only sold won't afford it. She rode out the check and burst out the sobbing. This song kind of like. the one you played for me I it just keeps building and by the end I think life is beautiful and I want more and it's really it's just a simple story that he tells

about how he came to art and music and to appreciate things like that and follow that as a career and life path for him but really the song is about chasing dreams youthful idealism and how you hold on to those dreams as you get older you know it's like for most people all those dreams don't always come true and, you know, I guess this song is kind of a reminder that sometimes they do in small ways that you're not even aware of. And I don't know. This song kind of crushes me in the best way. I mean, David Bazzan has been crushing me in the best way since the early days of Pedro the Lion in the 90s. And he's continued to be such a vital songwriter. And he's had this string of albums,

each of which is kind of named for a different place in his life, where he's reflected on his childhood and his behavior. And a truly, truly gifted storyteller, too. But we'll go out on this. And normally I would say until next time, Stephen, but we're out of years. There will be no years. There will be no more years. No more years.

No more music. So we've been putting these at the end of every episode of All Songs Considered doing a different year in each episode, closing out the show with these. But I think what we're going to do now is we're going to break all of these out and we're going to drop them as individual episodes in the All Songs Considered feed. So people can start looking for those. I think what we'll do is we'll start with the very first batch of five that we did. And then each week we'll drop a new one of these segments. But thanks so much, Stephen. As always. Thank you, Robin. And for NPR music, I'm Robin Hilton. It's all songs considered.

And I think she likes me too And I'm going to stand in my room