If you grew up listening to classic rock radio, you can probably sing every word of Steppenwolf’s 1968 breakthrough hit from memory.
From its rebellious spirit to its unforgettable lyrics, the track stands as a timeless moment to an era when rock and roll was shifting into high gear. But even some die-hard music lovers are often surprised to learn that they’ve been calling the song by the wrong name for over fifty years.
For casual music listeners, the song has commonly been called “Get Your Motor Running,” taken straight from the song’s first line. Fans have also titled the song “Heavy Metal Thunder,” another famous lyric from the 1968 smash.
The website Am I Right also cited one famously misheard line from the Steppenwolf song. Many believe the song begins, “Get your motor runnin’, hit ’em off the highway” instead of “Get your motor runnin’, head out on the highway.”
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“Born to Be Wild” is also misrepresented as heavy metal due to the phrase used in the song. However, Steppenwolf frontman John Kay doesn’t believe the band included in that genre at all.
“For me, heavy metal music had its beginnings in Led Zeppelin and beyond,” Kay said in a Songfacts interview. “We always considered Steppenwolf to be a hard rock, blues-based band, with some exceptions in terms of the material.”
Behind the iconic track was songwriter Mars Bonfire, born Dennis Edmonton. His brother Jerry was the group’s drummer.
Bonfire told Songfacts, “I was walking down Hollywood Boulevard one day and saw a poster in a window saying ‘Born to Ride’ with a picture of a motorcycle erupting out of the earth like a volcano, with all this fire around it. Around this time I had just purchased my first car, a little secondhand Ford Falcon. So all this came together lyrically: the idea of the motorcycle coming out, along with the freedom and joy I felt in having my first car and being able to drive myself around whenever I wanted.”
The track’s iconic status was cemented in 1969 when it took center stage on the soundtrack for Easy Rider, the landmark film starring Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper, according to U Discover Music. Since then, the song it has appeared in dozens of movies, cementing its place in pop culture history.
Decades after taking the world by storm, Steppenwolf’s defining anthem remains an absolute pillar of rock history. Whether you call it by its proper name or accidentally sing out the iconic chorus line, one thing is certain: that 1968 classic still has all the power to get your motor runnin’.
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