Musical Accompaniment to Fly Airplanes

AggieMike88

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
Jan 13, 2010
Messages
20,805
Location
Denton, TX
Display Name

Display name:
The original "I don't know it all" of aviation.
I need/want a new playlist for when I fly and have "new to general aviation" folks with me. And said playlist needs to have an aviation and flying theme. Something with aviation or flight in the lyrics, title, or artist name, or associated with flying (like Ride of the Valkyries and Danger Zone).

Please list your song suggestions here. Be sure to list both song title and artist.

Once this results a good list, I'll post somewhere where you can review and download it (like Spotify and iTunes).

To get us started....​

Come Fly with Me -- Frank Sinatra
Ride of the Valkyries -- Richard Wagner
Top Gun Soundtrack (well, certain selections from it)
Leaving on a Jet Plane -- Peter, Paul, & Mary, or John Denver
War Hymn -- Fighting Texas Aggie Band (you didn't think I was gonna leave this out of the mix, did ya?)
Learning to Fly -- Tom Petty
Pretty Fly (For a White Guy) -- The Offspring
The Best of Jefferson Airplane
The Best of Buddy Holly or the Big Bopper
Learning to Fly –- Pink Floyd
I Believe I Can Fly -– R. Kelly
Fly By Night -– Rush
Time For Me to Fly -- REO Speedwagon
Space Oddity -- David Bowie (this is the "ground control to Major Tom" song)
Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron -- Royal Guardsmen
Surfin Bird – The Bird is the Word -- The Trashmen
Aeroplane -- Red Hot Chili Peppers
Paper Planes –- M.I.A
Learn To Fly -– Foo Fighters
 
Aw, c'mon. You're losing it.

The soundtrack to Airplane!. There is nothing else.

I just want to tell you ... good luck. We're all counting on you.
 
Fly--Loudmouth. Fly--Sugar Ray.

Another song that I correlate with flying is Caribbean Blue by Enya. Don't know why though because the lyrics having nothing to do with flying.
 
Last edited:
Anyone who includes the Top Gun soundtrack but excludes "Treetop Flyer" is not a real pilot.
 
There are several other airplane songs on the Royal Guardsmen Snoopy album: The Airplane Song, It's Sleigh Sopwith Camel Time, Down Between The Lines. Anything from Dwayne O'Brien's Song Pilot album. Fly Away from Lenny Kravitz. John Denver's The Eagle and the Hawk and Flying For Me.
 
What do you do if a drummer is bleeding and running around in your yard?







Stop laughing and reload.
 
Anything by Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass. Especially "The Lonely Bull" right as the engine cranks over.

Need 80s instead? "Major Tom" by Peter Schilling. Seems like a Stearman/OTW flight every time I hear it.
 
No Free Bird? Ya gotta have Lynyrd Skynyrd.
 
One Six Right soundtrack. (entire CD, available at Amazon.com)

The Right Stuff (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) by Bill Conti, on iTunes

The Aviators by Helen Jane Long, on iTunes (heard in this magnificent British Airways TV advert)

Some heroic western themes sound good in the air, too -- How The West Was Won, The Magnificent Seven, The Big Country come to mind.
 
You need the theme from "The High and the Mighty" :rockon:
Also: "Don't Fear The Reaper" by Blue Oyster Cult. :devil:
 
Any music with Buddy Holly, Big Bopper, and Richie Valens is a must. Maybe Lynrd Skynrd and John Denver.
 
Somewhat obscure, but I liked this when I ran across it several years ago. The flying shots (with the side window rolled slightly down) for some reason make me want to go earn a seaplane rating.


Edit: Theme from the television series Twelve O'Clock High.
 
Last edited:
Got to throw in some of Oscar Brand's stuff too. Maybe a little Buffett too.
 
I always take off to the main theme from the Christopher Reeve "Superman"

I'm really looking forward to the final list.
 
Not airplane specific, but I have a nice older Telarc disk of the Cincinnati Pops doing western themes. It just seems to fit when you're up there in big sky country. A few of their other discs with Si Fi themes are fantastic as well.
 
The relevant sequence starts about 1 minute in:
 
One Six Right soundtrack. (entire CD, available at Amazon.com)

The Right Stuff (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) by Bill Conti, on iTunes

The Aviators by Helen Jane Long, on iTunes (heard in this magnificent British Airways TV advert)

Some heroic western themes sound good in the air, too -- How The West Was Won, The Magnificent Seven, The Big Country come to mind.

Ooooo ... One a Six Right is a good one. The Fourth Horseman from James Horner would be good, too. But some of the power of it might be lost if they don't know who Horner is.
 
Not airplane specific, but I have a nice older Telarc disk of the Cincinnati Pops doing western themes. It just seems to fit when you're up there in big sky country. A few of their other discs with Si Fi themes are fantastic as well.
I have those too -- the western themes I mentioned above ("Round Up" album); and The Right Stuff is on the "Star Tracks 2" album.
 
Any music with Buddy Holly, Big Bopper, and Richie Valens is a must. Maybe Lynrd Skynrd and John Denver.
But those guys all died in . . . .

Hey, wait a minute!
 
I have those too -- the western themes I mentioned above ("Round Up" album); and The Right Stuff is on the "Star Tracks 2" album.

I don't have Star Tracks, but do have the Telarc Time Warp. Do heed the warning on the label, back in the day I had to have the woofer re-coned in one of my JBL 4312 monitors.
 
Beth Hart:
- Mechanical Heart
- Summer is Gone
 
Joni Mitchell:
- This Flight Tonight
- Clouds
 
Back
Top