What better way to reflect on the history of the interstate highway system than to listen to a band called the Cars? Hop in your car and let the good times roll with an '80s band that epitomized "new wave."

"Car culture" can mean many things, but for Southern California's original Chicano car clubs, the phrase originally referred to the restoration and modification of classic '50s automobiles: "lowriders." This album by one of California's most renowned funk bands, includes "Low Rider," a famous dedication to these lowered vehicles and the culture of cool that still surrounds them today.

Here you'll find many of Joplin's greatest hits, including "Mercedes Benz," a wry, sarcastic hymn about one's futile desire for an expensive symbol of social status. Though it was initially recorded as an attack on material excess, it has—with permission from the Joplin family—since been re-appropriated by Mercedes Benz for the company's advertising campaigns.

One of Wilson Pickett's most famous songs is a grinding soul anthem entitled "Mustang Sally," in which Pickett and his sultry back-up singers croon about a woman who cruises around the town in a Ford Mustang, driving the men crazy. (Pun intended.)

This album, one of The Beach Boys' first and most memorable, includes half a dozen classic musical odes to car culture: "Custom Machine," "Our Car Club," "409," "Cherry, Cherry Coupe," "Ballad of Ole' Betsy," and the title track, "Little Deuce Coupe."