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Rolling Stones songs: (Get Your Kicks On) Route 66
Well, goes from St. Louis down to Missouri/ Oklahoma city looks oh so pretty…
Route 66 has always been more than a song — it’s a promise of motion, escape, and possibility. Long before rock ’n’ roll claimed it, the highway symbolized starting over, measuring freedom in miles and momentum. When Bobby Troup wrote Route 66, he turned geography into rhythm, inviting listeners to believe that movement itself could change everything.
As the song traveled through jazz, pop, and rhythm and blues, it became a shared standard, adaptable but never diluted. Each version carried a different shade of energy, yet the core idea remained intact: the road isn’t just a destination, it’s the point.
When the Rolling Stones took the wheel, they hit the accelerator. Their urgent, gritty version transformed the journey into raw propulsion, aligning perfectly with a band built on forward motion. With Route 66, the Stones didn’t look back — they drove straight into their future.
More about The Rolling Stones’ take on (Get Your Kicks On) Route 66
*By Marcelo Sonaglioni
Route 66 as a promise of motion
Long before it became a rock standard Route 66 was already carrying an idea that felt bigger than a song. At its core is motion with purpose: a road stretching west, a car packed with intention, and the belief that travel itself can reset a life. Bobby Troup didn’t write it as nostalgia or fantasy; it grew out of a real decision to leave one coast behind and chase something new on the other. The lyric turns geography into rhythm, naming towns like stepping stones rather than destinations. Freedom here isn’t abstract—it’s measured in miles, engine noise, and the thrill of forward movement. That simple refrain, inviting listeners to “get your kicks” condenses the whole philosophy into one line. Before counterculture writers made highways symbolic, this song quietly suggested that escape, reinvention, and optimism could all fit inside a single drive.
From personal journey to shared standard
The song’s origin story is inseparable from its appeal. Troup’s cross-country drive with his wife wasn’t just relocation; it was a test of belief that opportunity waited at the end of the road. Writing the song along the way and finishing it with a map spread out in Los Angeles gave the lyrics a lived-in accuracy that listeners immediately felt. When Nat King Cole recorded it in 1946, the tune slipped easily into the public consciousness, sounding both relaxed and inviting. Its success turned Route 66 into a musical postcard that anyone could claim as their own. Over time, it stopped belonging to a single voice or genre. Jazz, pop, rhythm and blues, and later rock artists all found room inside its structure, each emphasizing a different shade of movement—cool confidence, playful swing, or restless energy—without changing its essential meaning.
The Rolling Stones take the wheel
By the time the Rolling Stones approached Route 66 it had already traveled far, but they treated it like a song meant for acceleration. Having worked it hard onstage in London clubs, they entered the studio ready to play it at full throttle. Their version pushes the tempo forward relentlessly, transforming the drive into something urgent and electric. Instead of smooth glide, there’s bite and sweat, the feeling of a band locking in together and refusing to ease up. The guitars pulse with a sharp, Chuck Berry-inspired attack, while the rhythm section keeps everything tight but lively. Mick Jagger’s vocal sounds more assured than on earlier recordings, pulling the listener straight into the ride. Small imperfections only add to the sense of immediacy.
This isn’t a carefully polished journey; it’s a live wire of sound, racing west with no intention of slowing down. Besides the Stones’ debut album (The Rolling Stones, or England’s Newest Hit Makers, depending on which side of the ocean you were in) a live take of the song turned up in 1965 on the U.K. EP Got Live If You Want It!, also making its way onto the Stones’ fifth U.S. album, December’s Children (And Everybody’s). The band mainly picked it up from Chuck Berry’s 1961 recording on New Juke Box Hits, though it’s also been noted that Perry Como’s smoother 1959 version on Como Swings helped shape the lyrics they were working from.
A road that never really ends
What makes Route 66 endure is its flexibility. The song can absorb new attitudes without losing its core identity. For the Stones, it became both a tribute to American music and a declaration of where they wanted to go as a band. It fit naturally into their early concerts, especially when they first toured the United States and found themselves playing cities named in the lyrics. That overlap between song and reality gave performances an extra charge, as if the music had leapt off the record and onto the street. Over decades, countless versions have kept the tune alive, each one reshaping the road slightly while preserving its direction. Route 66 doesn’t age because it isn’t about a specific moment. It’s about the act of going, of choosing motion over stasis—a feeling that stays fresh as long as there’s somewhere else to drive.
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