The Most Popular Summer Driving Playlists, According To Spotify

Road trips are synonymous with sing-alongs with friends, and are something that many of us look forward to, with passengers frequently bickering over who has control of the aux lead. The role of road trip DJ isn’t one to be taken on lightly though – the soundtrack needs to be the perfect mix of feel-good vibes, as well as songs that the whole car can sing along to. 

With many people carefully crafting their road trip playlists this summer,  we’ve conducted some research to find out which songs and artists we love to take on our road trips the most. To find this out, we’ve analysed over 133,500 tracks on Spotify which have been added to nearly 1,000 playlists titled “summer driving”.

Whether you’re taking a quick trip to the shops or a longer road trip for a summer holiday, these songs will no doubt bring a summer feeling to any drive. Just remember, it’s against the law to touch your phone while driving, even if just to skip onto the next song! So make sure you’re happy with your track selection before you head off, or assign the role of DJ to a trusted passenger to stay safe on the roads and avoid your vehicle needing to end up on the scrap heap.

The 50 Most Popular Songs For Summer Driving

It was Harry Styles who topped our summer driving charts, with the song ‘As It Was’ – the lead single from his third studio (smash hit) album, Harry’s House – featuring 177 times in summer driving playlists. It’s clear that those heading out on a summer drive are reaching for the critically acclaimed album, with two other tracks from the record also ranking in the top ten most featured songs, with ‘Late Night Talking’ featuring in 5th position with 112 features and ‘Music For a Sushi Restaurant’ in 10th spot with 82 features. In fact, over a quarter – 13 out of the top 50 – of the top summer driving songs are sung by Harry Styles, with the ex-One Direction star from Manchester dominating our summer playlists. 

Following ‘As It Was’ was Grouplove’s ‘Tongue Tied’ which featured 129 times, closely followed by ‘Brazil’ by Declan McKenna with 125 features, to make up the top three most popular summer driving songs.

Older classics including Electric Light Orchestra’s ‘Mr Blue Sky’, Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Dreams’ and Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’ all also feature in the top 50 most popular songs to play while driving in the sun. Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’ places in 8th spot, despite being originally released in 1985, thanks to a recent 9,000% spike in streams on Spotify after the track was featured in a recent episode of Netflix’s Stranger Things. 

#	Title	Artist	No. of features
1	As It Was	Harry Styles	177
2	Tongue Tied	Grouplove	129
3	Brazil	Declan McKenna	125
4	Heat Waves	Glass Animals	124
5	Late Night Talking	Harry Styles	112
6	Electric Love	BØRNS	106
7	Everybody Talks	Neon Trees	88
8	Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)	Kate Bush	87
9	Cruel Summer	Taylor Swift	83
10	Music For a Sushi Restaurant	Harry Styles	82
11	The Spins	Mac Miller	82
12	Summer	Calvin Harris	79
13	8TEEN	Khalid	78
14	The Less I Know The Better	Tame Impala	78
15	Keep Driving	Harry Styles	77
16	About Damn Time	Lizzo	75
17	Mr. Brightside	The Killers	75
18	Magic In The Hamptons (feat. Lil Yachty)	Social House	73
19	Golden	Harry Styles	72
20	Feel So Close – Radio Edit	Calvin Harris	61
21	Time of Our Lives	Pitbull	59
22	Lost	Frank Ocean	58
23	Daylight	Harry Styles	58
24	Cigarette Daydreams	Cage The Elephant	57
25	Out of My League	Fitz and The Tantrums	56
26	Dreams – 2004 Remaster	Fleetwood Mac	56
27	Kilby Girl	The Backseat Lovers	56
28	I Ain’t Worried	OneRepublic	55
29	Can I Call You Tonight?	Dayglow	54
30	Satellite	Harry Styles	54
31	Watermelon Sugar	Harry Styles	52
32	Mr. Blue Sky	Electric Light Orchestra	51
33	Young Dumb & Broke	Khalid	51
34	Talk Too Much	COIN	50
35	Shotgun	George Ezra	50
36	Grapejuice	Harry Styles	50
37	Cinema	Harry Styles	48
38	Everybody Wants To Rule The World	Tears For Fears	48
39	Classic	MKTO	47
40	Bad Habit	Steve Lacy	47
41	good 4 u	Olivia Rodrigo	46
42	Are You Bored Yet? (feat. Clairo)	Wallows	46
43	Adore You	Harry Styles	45
44	Afraid To Feel	LF SYSTEM	45
45	Kids	MGMT	44
46	See You Again (feat. Kali Uchis)	Tyler, The Creator	44
47	The Nights	Avicii	43
48	Sunflower, Vol. 6	Harry Styles	43
49	Daydreaming	Harry Styles	42
50	Sunroof	Nicky Youre	42

The 10 Most Popular Artists For Summer Driving

As well as looking at the songs we’re playing on repeat in our cars this summer, we also wanted to find out which artists were topping our summer driving charts. A whopping 16 of Harry Styles’ songs featured in our 100 most popular summer driving songs, leading him to be our most popular artist for a sunny drive. 

Following Styles was country pop icon Taylor Swift, and global rapper and producer Childish Gambino, with each artist having three songs featuring in our 100 most popular rankings. Musicians including Calvin Harris, Khalid and Olivia Rodrigo ranked to complete the top ten most featured artists, with two featuring songs each. 

#	Artist	No. of features
1	Harry Styles	16
2	Taylor Swift	3
3	Childish Gambino	3
4	Calvin Harris	2
5	COIN	2
6	Dayglow	2
7	Khalid	2
8	MGMT	2
9	Olivia Rodrigo	2
10	Steve Lacy	2

If our research has inspired you to take a summer road trip, ensure you’ve read through our top tips for driving in hot weather before setting off to help you to stay safe on the roads. 

Methodology

Researchers from Scrap Car Comparison used ‘The Playlist Miner’ to analyse the songs included in any ‘summer driving’ playlists created by users of Spotify, and ranked the artists and songs that appear most regularly. Data correct as of July 2022.