"Now she ain't too good on gasoline, she burns a little oilSteve Earle's "Sweet Little '66" is a musical celebration of a 1966 Chevy, a song that has a new, poignant resonance as General Motors and Chrysler struggle to survive and the era of the great American car appears to be fading away. But regardless of what happens to the car companies and how the vehicles we drive change, the car won't be leaving popular culture anytime soon.

"But she was built by union labor on American soil."

There are hundreds of songs, dozens of movies and a good smattering of TV shows with cars at their center. More come out each month, and old favorites continue to be recycled on iPods, DVD and television. After all, since the end of World War II, if not before, we Americans have loved our cars and everything they symbolize.

Of course, most car songs, movies and TV shows are not about cars alone. Most of them, coming largely from male writers, directors and performers, are also about women - a point explicitly made by The Dictators in their 1975 proto-punk anthem "(I Live for) Cars and Girls."

"Those are two truly American iconic things," said Nashville songwriter Trent Summar. "It is such a natural thing to combine pretty girls and fast cars. Everyone's done 'em, from Chuck Berry to the Beach Boys to (Bruce) Springsteen."

In fact, cars have been inspiring songs since "In My Merry Oldsmobile" became a popular and sheet-music hit in 1905. But music and cars really came together in the 1950s when rock 'n' roll exploded, Detroit cranked out giants of the highway and newly empowered teenagers brought them together.

Recorded in 1951, "Rocket 88," written by Ike Turner, recorded by his Kings of Rhythm and credited to singer Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats, is often cited as the first rock 'n' roll song. It's a takeoff on the Oldsmobile "Rocket 88" V-8 engine. It's also a takeoff point for a flood of car songs.

Chuck Berry turned "driving around in my automobile" into hit after hit in the late '50s. The Beach Boys and Jan & Dean sang about "Little Deuce Coupe" and avoiding "Dead Man's Curve." The Beatles, English interlopers in largely an American story, sang "baby, you can drive my car." Janis Joplin lusted after import luxury in "Mercedes Benz," while "The Wicked Mr. (Wilson) Pickett" rode with "Mustang Sally."

Car songs span all musical styles, from Dr. Dre's hip-hop of "Let Me Ride" and Prince's catchy R&B on "Little Red Corvette" to the country of Earle and Summar.

Summar's car song is "Paint Your Name in Purple," an ode to stock car racing.

"I'm a fan of the old stock cars - call me nostalgic," he said. "I like stock cars from when it started, with the moonshiners trying to build fast cars to try to outrun the revenuers. That's what I relate to."

After singing about being outback in daddy's garage checking points and plugs, tires and lugs and painting the car candy apple red, Summar launches into a pitch-perfect chorus:

"Drive fast, turn left, head for home

"I'll tell you what I'm gonna do

"I'm gonna paint your name in purple

"On the side of the door

"And drive around and 'round for you."

The detail in songs like "Paint Your Name in Purple," "Sweet Little '66" and Springsteen's "Cadillac Ranch" and "Racing in the Street" is near cinematic. That is fitting, since cars have been a key component of movies since the days of the Keystone Kops.

"Movies and cars have been around about the same amount of time," said Danny Lee Ladely, director of the Ross Media Arts Center. "You had the Keystone Kops, Harold Lloyd and Speedy. Charlie Chaplin didn't drive around much, but there are lots of cars in the old silent movies and it goes right up into the future."

As with songs, the heyday of cars on screen began in the 1950s with films like "Rebel Without a Cause" and its "playing chicken" drag race and "Thunder Road," a moonshine classic starring Robert Mitchum. There were plenty of car movies in the '60s, including a spate of racing films, and road movies of the '70s - both serious and edgy and comedic.

Car movies continue to be popular, from the "Fast and the Furious" series and Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino" of last year to "Little Miss Sunshine," which features, as almost a character, a broken-down Volkwagen microbus.

Ladely called "Bullitt," which stars Steve McQueen as a hard-driving San Francisco cop, "a movie I'll never forget. People say that's the greatest chase ever. I think they're right."

"American Graffiti" is one of the great car films ever, Ladely said, and George Lucas's other movies reflect that culture as well.

He pointed out that cars also play a significant role in science fiction, using Lucas's films as an illustration. "Even when he was making the 'Star Wars' movies, he returned to cars," Ladely said. "They just happened to fly. Cars play a big role in sci-fi. Look at 'Transformers' right now."

The big question looming for cars in film and popular culture generally is the ongoing transformation of the automobile itself, Ladely said.

"It'll be interesting to see what kind of cars of the future we have," he said. "If we get into electric cars and what have you, will they still have a role in the movies and in popular culture? Or is it just those old motorized vehicles that are so romanticized?"

"No One Writes Songs About Volvos" proclaimed an old billboard in Warren, Mich., home of Chevrolet.

In fact, no one is writing old-style car songs much anymore. Rappers celebrate Cadillacs, Mercedes and other high-end vehicles. But those citations come as bona fides of the rappers' richness. Minivans and SUVs are far from romantic, and so are the fuel-efficent little numbers.

But the lack of romance in modern vehicles hasn't stopped car song believers from hoping for a comeback.

"We have to hope for a resurgence, so that the next generation has their own 'Little Deuce Coupe' and 'Rocket 88' and will still know what you're supposed to sing about when you go 'Racing in the Street,'" Paul Gruskin writes on his blog. Gruskin is the author of the 2006 book "Rockin' Down the Highway: The Cars and People That Made Rock Roll."

In the meantime, songs like "Sweet Little 66" continue to reverberate - and make the Michigan billboard's point of the romance of the American automobile:

"So when your Subaru is over and your Honda's history

"I'll be blastin' down some back road with my baby next to me

"In my sweet little 66."

Reach L. Kent Wolgamott at 473-7244 or kwolgamott@journalstar.com.