Route 66 stopped being a federal highway in 1985, but it never stopped being a song. Bobby Troup wrote "(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66" in 1946, and ever since, every major American songwriter who's needed a road has reached for this one.

The data shows the road's gravity. The cities along Route 66 — from Chicago to Santa Monica — account for roughly 600 high-correlation song-references in our database. That's more than the entire combined output of New England.

This is the canon, town by town, west to east.

The Founding Text

Bobby Troup's "Route 66" is the road song that named the road song. It's been recorded by Nat King Cole (1946), Chuck Berry, the Rolling Stones, Depeche Mode, John Mayer, and dozens more. Every cover added another layer of mythology.

The song's structure is itself a map: "Get hip to this kindly tip / and take that California trip" — then the famous list, "Flagstaff, Arizona / Don't forget Winona / Kingman, Barstow, San Bernardino." Geography as lyric, lyric as geography.

  • "(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66" — Nat King Cole (1946).
  • "Route 66" — Chuck Berry (1961).
  • "Route 66" — The Rolling Stones (1964).
  • "Route 66" — Depeche Mode (1987).

Chicago: The Eastern Anchor

Chicago has 221 high-correlation references — third place in the country among cities. The Route 66 connection runs through every era. Full Chicago post here.

St. Louis: The Gateway

Route 66 originally crossed the Mississippi at St. Louis. St. Louis has 60 high-correlation references in our database, with deep blues and modern hip-hop traditions both feeding the road's canon.

  • "St. Louis Blues" — Bessie Smith / Louis Armstrong (1925).
  • "Country Grammar" — Nelly (2000).
  • "Meet Me in St. Louis" — Judy Garland.

Springfield, MO and Joplin, MO

The "Springfield" of the Route 66 song. Smaller canons but real — Springfield, Missouri has the Ozarks tradition; Joplin has its own blues legacy.

  • "Mystic Lady" — Missouri. Springfield.
  • "Joplin" — various. The town that names a genre era.

Tulsa and Oklahoma City

Tulsa has 98 high-correlation song-references — outsized for a city its size. Aaron Watson, Eric Clapton, and dozens more have written Tulsa songs.

  • "Tulsa Time" — Don Williams / Eric Clapton (1978).
  • "Tulsa" — Aaron Watson.
  • "Tulsa" — 49 Winchester.
  • "Heading South" — Zach Bryan. Oklahoma-coded.
  • "If I Ever Get Back to Oklahoma" — Jason Boland & The Stragglers.

Amarillo and the Texas Panhandle

Route 66 cuts straight across the Texas Panhandle — the only stretch of Texas on the route. Amarillo has 78 high-correlation references, extraordinary for a city of 200,000. Full Texas canon here.

  • "Amarillo by Morning" — George Strait. Driving I-40 (the modern Route 66).
  • "Am I Amarillo" — Aaron Watson.
  • "Amarillo Highway" — Terry Allen. The literary peak.

Albuquerque and New Mexico

Albuquerque has 32 high-correlation references — a small but distinct canon. New Mexico's section of the route runs through Tucumcari, Santa Rosa, Albuquerque, and Gallup.

  • "Albuquerque" — Byland.
  • "Albuquerque" — Neil Young.
  • "Albuquerque" — Weird Al Yankovic. (The civic anthem, technically.)
  • "Tucumcari Tonight" — various.

Flagstaff, Winslow, and the Arizona Stretch

The Arizona section of Route 66 includes the most-name-checked town in the entire route's canon: Winslow, Arizona, courtesy of one Eagles song.

  • "Take It Easy" — Eagles (1972). "Standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona." There's now a literal corner monument in Winslow because of this lyric.
  • "Flagstaff" — Big & Rich.
  • "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" — Glen Campbell. (Phoenix, not on Route 66, but the geography rhymes.)

Barstow, San Bernardino, Santa Monica

The California stretch. The road ends — depending on which version of Route 66 you're following — at the Santa Monica Pier.

  • "Barstow" — Remy Sher.
  • "Coyote" — Better Than Ezra. Cross-country with Barstow named.
  • "Santa Monica" — Bedouin Soundclash.
  • "California Dreaming" — Cassadee Pope. The Santa Monica horizon.

The Modern Route 66 Canon

The interstate system replaced Route 66 in the 1960s and '70s. But the road never stopped being a song. The modern canon treats Route 66 less as a literal road and more as a metaphor — a stand-in for the American open-road mythology.

  • "Long Way to Hollywood" — Aaron Watson.
  • "Highway 40 Blues" — Ricky Skaggs. Different highway, same archetype.
  • "Roads" — Lawrence.

Why Route 66 Won the Road-Song Wars

Three reasons:

1. It's the road that connects the music industries. Chicago to LA — east coast country meets west coast everything. Songwriters who toured the route absorbed the mythology and wrote it back.

2. The Bobby Troup song made the geography legible. Once a song's chorus is a list of city names, those cities become lyrical real estate forever. Every subsequent Route 66 song could just reference Troup's geography.

3. The road is dead. Route 66 was decommissioned in 1985. Its disappearance turned it into nostalgia — and nostalgia is one of the strongest songwriting prompts in the language.

The Reading List

  1. "(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66" — Nat King Cole (1946).
  2. "Tulsa Time" — Don Williams (1978).
  3. "Take It Easy" — Eagles (1972).
  4. "Amarillo by Morning" — George Strait (1982).
  5. "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" — Glen Campbell (1967).
  6. "Albuquerque" — Neil Young (1973).
  7. "Country Grammar" — Nelly (2000).
  8. "Heading South" — Zach Bryan.
  9. "Amarillo Highway" — Terry Allen.
  10. "Coyote" — Better Than Ezra.

Open the explore map at any town along the old Route 66 and the database will surface every song the lyrics tie to that exact spot. Or browse Texas, California, and Chicago for the canons that bookend the road.