"Holiday Road" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Single by Lindsey Buckingham | ||||
from the album National Lampoon's Vacation Original Motion Picture Sound Track | ||||
B-side | "The Trip (Theme from Vacation)" | |||
Released | June 24, 1983 | |||
Recorded | 1982 | |||
Genre | Rock and roll, boogie-woogie, pop rock | |||
Length | 2:11 | |||
Label | Warner Bros. | |||
Songwriter(s) | Lindsey Buckingham | |||
Producer(s) | Lindsey Buckingham, Richard Dashut | |||
Lindsey Buckingham singles chronology | ||||
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Music video | ||||
"Holiday Road" on YouTube | ||||
Audio sample | ||||
"Holiday Road" |
"Holiday Road" is a 1983 single composed and recorded by American guitarist/singer Lindsey Buckingham. Written for the 1983 film National Lampoon's Vacation ,it was also used in the film's sequels National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985), Vegas Vacation (1997) and Vacation (2015). Despite only peaking at number 82 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart during its original release,it has since become one of Buckingham's best known songs. [1]
Buckingham released a live version of the song on his 2008 album Live at the Bass Performance Hall.
In July 2015,a remastered edition of "Holiday Road" was re-released,both on the Vacation soundtrack album and as a digital download along with "Dancin' Across the USA" from the original National Lampoon's Vacation soundtrack.
Following the release of Fleetwood Mac's 1982 album Mirage ,Buckingham was approached by Harold Ramis to create two songs for Ramis's film National Lampoon's Vacation. Buckingham was initially reluctant and believed that soundtrack work "wasn't part of his discipline",but he ultimately decided to honor Ramis's request. Buckingham recorded "Holiday Road" without seeing the entire film,although he inferred that the movie "had to be somewhat uplifting and a little bit funny". As such,he added dog barks near the end of the song to account for this sense of humor,but was unaware that the movie featured a scene where a dog is accidentally dragged to death from the bumper of a car. [2]
Upon hearing "Holiday Road",Ramis and producer Matty Simmons were surprised with how accurately the song addressed the movie's subject matter. During the same recording sessions as "Holiday Road",Buckingham also wrote "Dancin' Across the USA",a Mills Brothers pastiche intended for the movie's ending credits. [2]
"Holiday Road" debuted at number 92 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the week dated August 6,1983. [3] During its fourth week on the Hot 100,"Holiday Road" reached its peak of number 82 and then slipped to number 99 on its fifth and final week on the chart. [4]
When asked in a 2017 interview about his thoughts on "Holiday Road",Buckingham replied that "It was one of those things that happened to work very well for the movie". [5] Buckingham elaborated in a later interview that he enjoyed recording "Holiday Road" and remembered that Ramis was "thrilled" when he first heard the song in the studio. [6]
Chart (1983) | Peak position |
---|---|
US Billboard Hot 100 [7] | 82 |
Chart (2024–2025) | Peak position |
---|---|
Australia (ARIA) [8] | 54 |
Canada (Canadian Hot 100) [9] | 61 |
Global 200 ( Billboard ) [10] | 130 |
Ireland (IRMA) [11] | 24 |
Lithuania (AGATA) [12] | 60 |
New Zealand Hot 40 Singles (RMNZ) [13] | 2 |
UK Singles (OCC) [14] | 38 |
UK Indie (OCC) [15] | 6 |
US Billboard Hot 100 [16] | 88 |
US Holiday 100 (Billboard) [17] | 98 |
US Hot Dance/Electronic Songs ( Billboard ) [18] | 2 |
The song has been covered by pop punk bands Limp,the Aquabats,Whippersnapper,Matt Pond PA,and Dirt Bike Annie. The song was also covered by gothic country band Murder by Death in their holiday album Lonesome Holiday. The indie rock band the Walkmen performed a version of the song in November 2010 for The A.V. Club 's Holiday Undercover series. [19] In 2015,the country group Zac Brown Band covered the song for the soundtrack of the film Vacation . [20] In 2024,indie music supergroup Fantastic Cat and American pop singer Kesha both released covers of the song. [21] [22] Kesha's electro-rock version reached number 88 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart,number 38 on the UK Singles Chart and number 61 on the Canadian Hot 100. [23] [24]
Country music singer Chris Janson performed "Holiday Road" on the Grand Ole Opry's "Opry Country Christmas" broadcast on December 11,2022. [25] He later recorded and released it as a single in 2023. [26] [27]
In 2013,"Holiday Road" was adopted as the unofficial playoff victory song of the 2013 Chicago Blackhawks, [28] who went on to win the Stanley Cup on June 24,the 30th anniversary of the song's release.
In 2014,the song was used as the music on television advertising for Teletext Holidays,a British travel agency. [29] The song appears under the closing credits of National Lampoon:Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead ,a 2015 American documentary film directed by Douglas Tirola about the magazine and its related franchises and influence. A version of the song with rewritten lyrics was used in Honda television commercials in 2017. [30] In 2023,the song appeared in the fourth episode of the second season of the FX television series The Bear . [31]
In late 2024,the song is the backdrop for a Coca-Cola TV advertisement featuring people travelling home for the holiday season. [32]
Lindsey Adams Buckingham is an American musician,record producer,and the lead guitarist and co-lead vocalist of the rock band Fleetwood Mac from 1975 to 1987 and 1997 to 2018. In addition to his tenure with Fleetwood Mac,Buckingham has released seven solo studio albums and three live albums. As a member of Fleetwood Mac,he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. Buckingham was ranked 100th in Rolling Stone's 2011 list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". Buckingham is known for his fingerpicking guitar style.
Fleetwood Mac is the tenth studio album by the British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac,released on 11 July 1975 in the United States and on 1 August 1975 in the United Kingdom by Reprise Records. It is the band's second eponymous album,the first being their 1968 debut album,and is sometimes referred to by fans as the White Album. It is the first Fleetwood Mac album with Lindsey Buckingham as guitarist and Stevie Nicks as a vocalist,after Bob Welch departed the band in late 1974. It is also the band's last album to be released on the Reprise label until 1997's The Dance;the band's subsequent albums until then were released through Warner Bros. Records,Reprise's parent company.
National Lampoon's Vacation,sometimes referred to as simply Vacation,is a 1983 American black comedy road film directed by Harold Ramis and starring Chevy Chase,Beverly D'Angelo,Imogene Coca,Randy Quaid,John Candy,and Christie Brinkley in her acting debut with special appearances by Eddie Bracken,Brian Doyle-Murray,Miriam Flynn,James Keach,Eugene Levy,and Frank McRae. It tells the fictitious story of the Griswold family on a cross-country trip to an amusement park and various locations as accidents occur along the way. The screenplay was written by John Hughes on the basis of his short story "Vacation '58",which appeared in National Lampoon.
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"Little Lies" is a song by British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac from their 14th studio album,Tango in the Night (1987). It was written by band member Christine McVie and her then-husband,Eddy Quintela,with lead vocals performed primarily by McVie;the chorus features backing vocals by Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. The song was released in August 1987 by Warner Bros. Records,as the third single from Tango in the Night. McVie recalled that she wrote the song at her pool with a pad and paper;while Quintela was listed as one of the songwriters,McVie stated in an interview with MOJO that his role in the creation of "Little Lies" was minimal.
"Everywhere" is a song by British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac from their 14th studio album,Tango in the Night (1987). The song was written by Christine McVie,who also performed lead vocals,and produced by Lindsey Buckingham and Richard Dashut. In the United States,"Everywhere" was released in November 1987 as the album's fourth single,while in the United Kingdom,it was issued on 21 March 1988 as the album's fifth single.
"Say You Love Me" is a song written by English singer-songwriter Christine McVie for Fleetwood Mac's 1975 self-titled album. The song peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks,and remains one of the band's most recognizable songs. Its success helped the group's eponymous 1975 album sell over eight million copies worldwide.
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