What are some good songs to listen to while driving to Las Vegas?
December 10, 2009 by Lisa McLaughlin
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My friends and I are road tripping it to Las Vegas next month for my 21st birthday. I wanted to put together a fun playlist, preferably some songs about Vegas.
Any suggestions?
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OKAY – realizing that this totally depends on your taste in music – but here goes
Vegas Related:
"Viva Las Vegas" – Elvis (Springsteen does a good cover of this)
"40 Miles to Vegas" – Southern Culture on the Skids (rockabilly) (love this song!)
"Las Vegas Dealer" – Gomez (alternative Brit rock)
"Vegas" – Sara Bareilles
"Waking up in Vegas" – Katy Perry
"Pretty Vegas" – INXS
"Leaving Las Vegas" – Sheryl Crow
"Don’t Make Me Come To Vegas" – Tori Amos (slower song, but I love her, so she makes my list)
"Sin City" – AC/DC
Not Vegas Related, but Vegas feel (my opinion of course) and good for driving thru the desert:
"Little Less Conversation" by Elvis (you can find a ton of remixes of this)
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"Luck Be a Lady" Frank Sinatra
"History Repeating" – (Propellerheads &) Shirley Bassey
"Soul City" – also Southern Culture on the Skids
"Baby Did a Bad, Bad Thing" – Chris Isaak
"The Rockerfella Skank" – Fatboy Slim
"Feeling Good" – Nina Simone (has that martini feel to it – Muse does a current cover of it and Adam Lambert too, if that’s your flavor)
"Having An Average Weekend – Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet (and the name of the song alone is pretty damn ironic)
"Misirlou" – Dick Dale (I like the Single Version) (for some reason I associate surf music and rockabilly with Las Vegas …will have to explore the WHY of that further) (OR, you could opt for the Black Eyed Peas "Pump It" since they sample Misirlou)
"Battle Without Honor of Humanity" – Tomoyasu Hotei (since I’ve hit on "Songs Quinton Tarrantino helped make popular) (this is always a fun song to start a mix)
"Ecstacy of Gold" – Ennio Morricone (strange choice, I know, but probably cause it epitomized "western" to me and seems perfect for driving through the desert AND cause I watched the Bellagio fountains "perform" to this song" – you could opt for the Metallica version instead
waking up in Vegas by Katy Perry!
Well, I drove from the Grand Canyon to Las Vegas in a rental car that had satellite radio. We found a station called "Rat Pack Radio". Listening to the likes of Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. and Dean Martin while traveling to Las Vegas was pretty awesome.
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you need to get yourself a satellite radio, such as sirius, it picks up great even in the middle of the dessert when you cant get any other stations
If you are 21 you probably like crap music, so I cant help you here.
This City is contagious – the cab
its all bout the city
25. Sheryl Crow – ‘Leaving Las Vegas’ – This song should be higher, but when she went on late night TV and said the song was autobiographical (she didn’t write it), it kind of just loses some appeal.
24. Stereophonics – ‘Vegas Two Times’ – If you like sloppy Welsh spelling bees, this is your jam.
23. Jimmy Ray – ‘Goin’ to Vegas’ – Part genius, part fool, Jimmy Ray of ‘Are You Jimmy Ray?’ fame infuses a lot of excitement in this anticipatory song about a Vegas vacation.
22. Chumbawamba – ‘Jesus in Vegas’ – Yes the ‘Tubthumping’ kids wrote more than just that one song. This one isn’t as catchy and seems angry more along the lines of their punk beginnings. According to the song, "Andrew Lloyd Weber is doing the lights."
21. Charlie Clouser – ‘Let It Ride’ – This is the theme song to NBC’s ‘Las Vegas’ as shown in the UK. It has a Vegas sounding name and since Elvis already has two other songs on the list., this beat out "Little Less Conversation’ — the theme for the US broadcasts of ‘Las Vegas.’ Had there been a song called, ‘Nikki Cox Rocks,’ that probably would have made the list over these two.
20. Buck Owens – ‘Big in Vegas’ – Country legend sings about his aspirations to have his name in lights when he "turns ‘em on in Vegas."
19. Hootie & the Blowfish – ‘Las Vegas Nights’ – It’s only fitting that H&TBF has a song about Vegas since the band has the Shady Grove Lounge in Vegas at the Silverton.
18. Who Da Funk – ‘Shiny Disco Balls’ – This is a great dance song and had it been more about Vegas (or at least had more than three lines), it would have easily been at the top.
17. Geggy Tah – ”’Las Vegas With the Lights Out’ – This ditty is from the same album that had their big radio/TV commercial song ‘Whoever You Are.’
16. Southern Culture on the Skids – ’40 Miles to Vegas’ – Another of the anticipatory songs about the actual journey to Vegas.
15. Gram Parsons – ‘Ooh Las Vegas’ – Also covered by the Cowboy Junkies and Emmylou Harris, this is a pretty song about the consequences of Sin City.
14. Nico – ‘Vegas’ – You either love Nico’s voice or hate it and with this instrumentation, the same can be said about this song. I love it.
13. Barenaked Ladies – ‘Conventioneers’ – Alcohol and off-site work functions? Inhibitions don’t stand a chance. This song proves what happens in Vegas, does not necessarily stay in Vegas.
12. The Thrills – ‘Your Love Is Like Las Vegas’ – I’ve been saying Vegas is getting too expensive. When an Irish rocker equates lost love to a "city that burnt me good," because he can only afford one weekend, I think I may be on to something. Either that, or he was dating an arsonist or a call girl.
11. Frankie Yankovic – ‘Vegas Polka’ – If accordions don’t turn you’re on, maybe you’re just dead on the inside.
10. Clubstrophobia – ‘Vegas’ – Dance song with a fun Vegas video – worth the look.
9. Gomez – ‘Las Vegas Dealer’ – Nice English rock band making a nice English rock song about lost love that’s not entirely clear if Lauren Lee’s departure is due to her running off to deal blackjack or if there was a nasty incident with a Las Vegas drug dealer.
8. The B-52s – ‘Queen of Las Vegas’ – The schtick never grows old. This "Momma, rockin’ on the roulette wheel" song is from 1983 and can hold it’s own with any beehive-inspired new wave songs of today.
7. Size 14 – ‘People Get Really Drunk in Las Vegas’ – Their big hit was ‘Claire Dane’s Poster’ but this song has a truthness to it that deserves a Top 10 induction on this list. Nothing like alcohol and no cutoff time to drown the sorrows of a busted romance.
6. Tori Amos – ‘Don’t Make Me Come to Vegas’ – Kind of a different take on the Vegas songs. The beautiful read-headed piano chick is threatening to come to Vegas and yank someone out of bed. Nice.
5. Elvis Presley – ‘Viva Las Vegas’ – I put this in the top five because I had to otherwise my inbox would fill up with hate mail. Since I didn’t put it number one, I think there are some anti-Fletch e-mails in my future, but the heart wants what the heart wants. I have to admit, before living in Vegas, this song was the first song I played to get pumped up for a trip to "bright light city" and I shouldn’t rag on it too much because people like the Dead Kennedys and Johnny Ramone have covered it, but I guess it’s a case of saturation for me and the fact that there’s another song on the "Viva Las Vegas" music soundtrack that is better than this one. Yes, I said it.
4. Tom Waits – ‘Straight to the Top (Vegas)’ – This is a nice pseudo-swinging affair from "gravel throat."
3. Cocteau Twins – ‘Heaven or Las Vegas’ – Man, most of the time I don’t know what she’s singing or even what language she is singing it in, but this song (the whole album really) is transcendent.
2. Elvis Presley – ‘Night Life’ – Taken from the same soundtrack as "Viva Las Vegas," this song wins because of a universal truth that the album’s namesake song doesn’t have. Bo
I suggest "Lucky Town," by Bruce Springsteen.
I don’t know if it’s about Vegas per se, but it sounds like it is. And it also was used prominently in the Vegas/poker movie "Lucky You."
"I’m going down to Lucky Town, down to Lucky Town/
I’m gonna lose these blues I’ve found, down in Lucky Town…
Well here’s to your good looks, baby, now here’s to my health/
Here’s to the loaded places that we take ourselves/
When it comes to luck you make your own/
Tonight I got dirt on my hands, but I’m building me a new home"
These aren’t necessarily Las Vegas-related, but could still fit:
"Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man"- Bob Seger And The Silver Bullet Band
"Highway To Hell"- AC/DC
"The Kid Is Hot Tonight"- Loverboy