Are “Wagon Wheel” and “American Pie” the Best Campfire Songs Ever?

There’s nothing like sitting under the stars near the warmth and crackle of a campfire and belting out a good song with friends and family. Whether you are with friends enjoying adult beverages, or with kids smooshing together smores, a good campfire song is one that everyone can sing along to. It’s one with an easy melody and recitable lyrics.

But which campfire songs are the best?

The editors of Outdoors.com compiled a list to determine the best camping songs of all time. The list reveals the 20 best songs, pegging “Wagon Wheel” and “American Pie” as the No. 1 and No. 2 greatest songs to sing around the campfire.

According to the site, ‘Wagon Wheel,’ written by Bob Dylan and Old Crow Medicine Show’s Ketch Secor, and made fully mainstream by Darius Rucker, has the “infectious chorus” and “rolling verses” needed to make for the perfect camping jam session.

The song’s lyrics tell the tale of a hitchhiker’s journey south, hoping to find his love at the end of his travels. Indeed there is a longing in the song, but also a happy-go-lucky-ness that perfectly compliments the mood felt deep into the night after a day in the sticks far away from the real world.   

As for “American Pie,” the site says that when the most memorable lyric of Don Mclean’s masterpiece hits, you can be “sure that you won’t be singing alone.” The meaning of Mclean’s autobiographical, yet allegorical tune has been much studied over. We tend to believe it’s about a loss of innocence, both Mclean’s personally, and America’s.

Despite any deep lyrical melancholy, “American Pie” is so firmly embedded into American culture that most anyone should be able to recite the chorus with ease, making it a fine choice as one of the best campfire songs ever.

See the full list HERE.  Do you agree with the picks? Let us know by commenting below.

Photo by Keith Griner/ Courtesy EB Media