A few years ago, my family discovered Truck Tunes Videos. They have been a godsend. I remember the day we discovered them clearly, it was early in the year and the weather was snowy. It was a Sunday morning and one of us, I don’t remember if it was a parent or a child, stumbled up these videos on the Tubi app on our television. It was instant magic. Mr. Katie and I looked at each other and asked What is this?
The videos were a revelation because we had been kind of stuck in a rut in terms of children’s entertainment. I believe Nugget had been watching a lot of Cocomelon nursery rhyme videos during that time and we parents were kind of getting tired of hearing the songs.
To our eyes, it looked like video footage from the early 90’s of on-the-job trucks set to catchy, songs describing the trucks features and capabilities. I thought it was a relic from the 90’s when I first saw it.
[One thing that I have noticed is that the earlier videos seem to have vintage truck footage but as the series have continued the more recent volumes have fresher truck footage.]
Now that I know more about Truck Tunes, I know that this project is the brainchild of Jim Gardener, whose children liked counting trucks that they saw when they were driving, hence the name of the project and the website: 20trucks.com
Jim had a background in creating computer training videos. When he and his children could not find interesting and engaging truck videos to watch at home, he decided to make his own. He had familial contacts in truck related industries and had connections to people who could give him access to truck footage and live trucks. Once he had the footage for his videos, he asked his brother Rob, a composer to write songs for Twenty Trucks. And thus Trucks Tunes by Hammershark Media were born.
After the success of the initial Truck Tunes, Jim received a slew of letters requesting more Tunes and now there are six volumes of Truck Tunes, merch (including the t-shirt that Nugget is wearing and a book with lyrics from some of the most popular songs), and Truck Tunes the Animated Series.
One of the most interesting parts of Truck Tunes is that the songs are really good. They run the gamut of music genres. “Pickup Truck” sounds like a country music song and “Beach Cleaner” sounds like The Beach Boys. “Bus” sounds like it could be a public services announcement by the Ad Council for the bus industry.
What started as an interest belonging only to Nugget, became a family obsession.
We all have our own favorites in the Truck Tunes Musical catalog.
We own the book in fact and use it to help us with the lyrics while we sing along to Truck Tunes videos from YouTube on our karaoke machine.
We also sometimes stream Truck Tunes videos while driving in our vehicles in lieu of listening to the radio. They also make for great showering music on a portable speaker because the boys like to listen to music every night while bathing.
We are pretty interested in Truck Tunes. I have, in fact googled Truck Tunes in concert no less than five times because I think that my family would be interested in seeing a live Truck Tunes show. I know that I would.
I kid you not, those songs are ear worms. Some of my family’s favorite Truck Tunes songs are: “Skidsteer“, “Bus“, “Food Truck“, “Truck Crane“, “Concrete Boom Pump“, “Sidewalk Tractor“, “Pickup Truck“, and unfortunately “Cybertruck“.
I was recently doing a google search about my interest in Truck Tunes and I stumbled into a Reddit discussion about the Truck Tunes songs. I repeat, multiple grownups who are on Reddit are discussing which Truck Tunes songs sound like well-known pop songs. Here is the link. Apparently, parents think that “Skidsteer” sounds like “Love in the Club” by Usher. After re-watching the 2024 Superbowl Halftime show, I think that I agree with that assessment.
It just makes me laugh that Mr. Katie and I are not the only adults with multiple thoughts Truck Tunes music. I am so glad that it exists.
Truck Tunes is way more entertaining than Cocomelon!
Katie
Anyway you could send a recording of your men singing the songs. I would love to hear them. Hope all is well.
Uncle Skip
Hi Uncle Skip, I will send you a recording!
Is your address still Gaffronfoods@gmail.com?
That sounds so fun! Something you adults and the kiddos enjoy. I love the New Year’s Eve karaoke.
I love Truck Tunes!