Songs About New Mexico: (Get Your Kicks on) Route 66
written by Bobby Troup (1946)
“Route 66” (originally recorded as “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66“) is a popular rhythm and blues standard, composed in 1946 by American songwriter Bobby Troup. The song uses a twelve-bar blues arrangement and the lyrics follow the path of U.S. Route 66 (US 66), which traversed the western two-thirds of the U.S. from Chicago, Illinois, to Los Angeles, California.
Nat King Cole, as the King Cole Trio, first recorded the song the same year and it became a hit, appearing on Billboard magazine’s R&B and pop charts. The song was subsequently recorded by many artists including Bing Crosby, Chuck Berry, the Rolling Stones, Them, Asleep at the Wheel, and Depeche Mode.
Lyrics
Travel my way, take the highway that’s best.
Get your kicks on Route sixty-six.It winds from Chicago to LA,
More than two thousand miles all the way.
Get your kicks on Route sixty-six.Now you go through Saint Louis
Joplin, Missouri,
And Oklahoma City is mighty pretty.
You’ll see Amarillo,
Gallup, New Mexico,
Flagstaff, Arizona.
Don’t forget Winona,
Kingman, Barstow, San Bernandino.Won’t you get hip to this timely tip:
When you make that California trip
Get your kicks on Route sixty-six.Won’t you get hip to this timely tip:
When you make that California trip
Get your kicks on Route sixty-six.
Get your kicks on Route sixty-six.
Get your kicks on Route sixty-six.
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