Hot Rod Lincoln

"Hot Rod Lincoln" was recorded in 1955 as an answer song to "Hot Rod Race", a 1951 hit for Arkie Shibley and his Mountain Dew Boys. Hot Rod Race tells the story of a late-model Ford and Mercury who end up racing along the highway, neither driver gaining an advantage, and staying "neck and neck" until they are both overtaken (to their amazement) by a kid in "a hopped-up Model A".

Hot Rod Lincoln was written by Charlie Ryan, who had also recorded a version of Hot Rod Race, and W. S. Stevenson. It begins with a direct reference to Shibley's earlier ballad, stating "You heard the story of the hot rod race that fatal day, when the Ford and the Mercury went out to play. Well, this is the inside story and I'm here to say, I'm the kid that was a-drivin' that Model A."

Ryan owned a real hot rod that was built from a 1948 12-cylinder Lincoln chassis shortened two feet and with a 1930 Ford Model A body fitted to it. Thus the song explains how in "Hot Rod Race" a kid in a Model A could have outrun late-model Ford and Mercury sedans. Ryan actually raced his hot rod against a Cadillac sedan driven by a friend in Lewiston, Idaho, driving up the Spiral Highway (former U.S. 95) to the top of Lewiston Hill. His song, however, keeps the same location as "Hot Rod Race", namely the Grapevine Hill, which is an old-time local southern California nickname for the long, nearly straight grade up Grapevine Canyon to Tejon Pass, near the town of Gorman, California, just south of Bakersfield.

The first, 1955, release of Hot Rod Lincoln was recorded by co-writer Ryan, recording as Charlie Ryan and The Livingston Brothers. Ryan's 1959 version, on 4 Star, as Charlie Ryan and The Timberline Riders, is probably better known.

The 1960 version by Johnny Bond was a hit for Republic Records. Bond's Lincoln has eight cylinders ("and uses them all"), rather than the 12 cylinders pulling Ryan's Model A.

The 1972 release by Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen went to #9 on the Billboard charts and #7 in Canada. Cody's version opens with the spoken lines, "My Pappy said: Son, you're going to drive me to drinkin' if you don't stop drivin' that hot rod Lincoln." Cody's version also uses a slightly different guitar riff at the beginning, and adopts parts of Johnny Bond's version, including the reference to eight cylinders.

Hot Rod Lincoln and Hot Rod Race are defining anthems of the hot rod community.

Arkie Shibley, who recorded a series of Hot Rod Race songs, died in 1975. Charlie Ryan died in Spokane, Washington, on February 16, 2008, at age 92. He was a member of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.