Ya sang along with it and ya KNOW ya did!!!: Ventura Highway by America

Ventura Highway

1972

America

Some songs are just meant to be driving songs, and Dewey Bunnell's musical tribute to both his childhood in Nebraska and an early Sixties Coastal Cali road-trip is one of the classic driving songs of all time. If you're a Seventies Kid, you know exactly what song's starting up when you hear that classic guitar intro start up...and you very likely start finger-tapping the wheel as your head bobs to the beat and then join in on 'Chewin on a piece of grass...' right on cue. (And I heard it and did exactly this just yesterday, on the way to work!). Ventura Highway just about begs you to put the top...or at least the windows...down and let the wind blow through your hair as you head for the beach. (I go right under I-295 on the way to work...All I would've had to have done was hit I-295 N to I-64 East ;) )

Ventura Highway was the third song in America's first hat trick of back to back hits and is also one of the three or so songs that everyone thinks of instantly when they think of 'Songs By America'. And even though it's become pretty well entrenched as a summer-type tune, it wasn't released during the summer.

'Ventura Highway' hit the record stores in early or mid October, '72 and that airy, energetic, carefree beat and melody struck a chord with us Seventies kids right off the bat. It hit the Hot 100 at # 53 on October 21^st, '72, entered the Top 10 on the second of December, just in time for Christmas shopping season, peaked at #8 a week later and hung on to that spot spot for two weeks.

That piece of grass that's being chewed on in the first line harks back to Dewey Bunnell's childhood in Nebraska, where as a kid he did indeed find himself 'Chewin' on a piece of grass...walkin' down the ro-o-oad'' and the song was about the optimism of a young man wanting to expand his horizons, get out of his small Midwestern town, and head west. There's a vibrant optimism in those classic chords and lyrics that just can't be denied or ignored, so Dewey definitely nailed what he was looking for.

Probably the best known and loved part of the song is that high-energy chorus, and it was inspired by...a flat tire. Yep, you read right. Dewey was with his family on a road trip back in 1963 and the family cruiser had a flat...so Dad-Bunnell pulled the ride to the shoulder, the rest of the family got out of the car, dad started tire-changin', and told the kids to stay out of the way and out of traffic until they were back on the road.

Dewey and his bro did what any kid of 10 or so would do...they leaned back on a bank, and watched passing traffic and clouds (Wanna make a guess what a couple of those clouds bore a resemblance to? ;) ) While they were at it, they spotted a near by road sign giving the mileage to...Ventura.

The images would stick in his mind for nearly a decade to inspire one of the signature songs of the early 70's.

There's only one way to put it...We Seventies Kids loved this song! I don't know if the hopeful, optimistic vibe registered, but the sound sure as hell did! Who doesn't love Dewey Bunnell and Dan Peek's harmonic guitar intro (They came up with that sitting in a hotel room, BTW) and that carefree, airy melody and lyrics. It was requested on the radio, covered by garage bands, danced to, sung along with, and made into a classic.

And happily this is another one that just will not go away. It's still all over Oldies stations, and it'll be tempting people to put the top down and let the wind blow through their hair as they head down the road long after we're gone !

So Enjoy! Ventura Highway, by America.