Songs About Trains

Ten songs that run on time, which is more than the trains do.

Entries
10
Category
Music
Updated
  1. A washboard, a tea-chest bass and an acoustic guitar leaning against a railway crossing sign in the English rain.

    10. Rock Island Line

    Lonnie Donegan · 1955

    First collected from Arkansas prisoners in 1934, recorded by Lead Belly, then sped up by Donegan with Chris Barber's band. It launched the British skiffle craze and went top 10 in America. Every English teenager with a washboard owes it something.

  2. A runaway locomotive with sparks flying from its wheels careening through a dark tunnel toward a blinding light.

    09. Crazy Train

    Ozzy Osbourne · 1980

    Randy Rhoads's riff, Bob Daisley's lyrics about Cold War dread. It barely charted in 1980 and became a stadium staple anyway. After Osbourne's death in 2025 it finally made the Hot 100, 45 years after release. Trains run late. This one ran very late.

  3. A long train of brightly painted carriages winding across a globe-shaped hill, every window lit.

    08. Love Train

    The O'Jays · 1972

    Gamble and Huff wrote and produced it at Sigma Sound in Philadelphia with MFSB backing. The O'Jays' only pop No. 1, an invitation for the whole planet to get aboard. It entered the top 40 the same day the Paris Peace Accords were signed. Good timing.

  4. A gleaming gold record propped against a toy steam locomotive on a polished 1940s bandstand.

    07. Chattanooga Choo Choo

    Glenn Miller and His Orchestra · 1941

    From Sun Valley Serenade, nine weeks at No. 1, and the first song to receive a gold record, from RCA Victor in 1942. The record business invented a trophy and handed the first one to a song about a train. That tracks.

  5. A harmonica resting on a railroad tie between two shining rails stretching to the horizon at sunset.

    06. Long Train Runnin'

    The Doobie Brothers · 1973

    Started as an onstage jam with the working title Rosie Pig Moseley. Tom Johnston thought it was a bar song without much merit until producer Ted Templeman made him add words. No. 8 in the US. The harmonica plays the train and the guitars do the rest.

  6. An army duffel bag on a small-town station bench beside a paper cup of coffee, a train pulling in through morning fog.

    05. Last Train to Clarksville

    The Monkees · 1966

    The Monkees' debut single and first No. 1. Boyce and Hart slipped in a soldier who doesn't know if he's coming home, and Hart says the town was named after Clarkdale, Arizona, because it sounded good. Accidental subtext is still subtext.

  7. A long black freight train disappearing around a bend in the Tennessee night, a single red lantern on its last car.

    04. Mystery Train

    Elvis Presley · 1955

    Junior Parker wrote and cut it at Sun in 1953. Elvis's version, with Scotty Moore and Bill Black, was the B-side of his final Sun single before RCA bought his contract. The train takes his baby away. Then RCA did the same to Sam Phillips.

  8. A single suitcase on an empty railway platform at midnight under a lamp, a ticket to Georgia tucked under its handle.

    03. Midnight Train to Georgia

    Gladys Knight & the Pips · 1973

    Jim Weatherly wrote it as Midnight Plane to Houston after a phone call with Farrah Fawcett. Somewhere along the line the plane became a train, and Gladys Knight got her first pop No. 1 and a Grammy. Correct call. Trains are better for leaving.

  9. A distant steam train crossing a desert valley beyond a tall stone prison wall and coils of barbed wire.

    02. Folsom Prison Blues

    Johnny Cash · 1955

    A train song and a prison song at once. Cash said the Reno line came from imagining the worst possible reason to kill someone. The melody came from Gordon Jenkins's Crescent City Blues, which cost Cash about $75,000 in the 1970s. The whistle still blows.

  10. A silver passenger train crossing flat green farmland at dawn, seen from a dining car window with a half-empty beer glass on the table.

    01. City of New Orleans

    Arlo Guthrie · 1972

    Steve Goodman pitched it to Arlo in a Chicago bar: buy him a beer and he'd listen for as long as it took to drink it. Good song, slow beer. Arlo's version went top 20, and Willie Nelson's later won Goodman a Grammy, awarded after his death.

Honorable mentions

  • An empty railway platform at night with a vinyl record leaning against a bench, the train tracks bare in both directions.

    Train in Vain

    The Clash · 1979

    The words train in vain never appear. Mick Jones said the track just had a train rhythm. It was a hidden track because it was added after the London Calling sleeve was printed, then became their first US top 40 hit. Best train song with no train in it.

Dishonorable mentions

  • A ukulele sitting alone on an empty railway platform bench, no train in sight.

    Hey, Soul Sister

    Train · 2009

    Not about trains. By Train. Pat Monahan imagined it at Burning Man, which he had never attended, and the guitarist learned ukulele for it. It went 13 times platinum and won a Grammy. It is here on a technicality, and the technicality is the band's name.

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