This Is The Essential NYC Subway Playlist

NEW YORK — Turns out straphangers have an eclectic taste in music. Patch readers submitted songs ranging from a big-band classic to hip-hop standbys in our quest to create the essential New York City subway playlist.

We got more than three dozen submissions responding to our call for songs that perfectly capture the experience of commuting on the beloved but beleaguered underground train system. Fourteen of them made it onto a playlist that's sure to improve even the worst journeys.

Some songs spoke to the frustrations that come with riding the rails. Victoria Cristiná picked Missy Elliott's "Get Ur Freak On" because "many times while stuck on the subway, i am blasting this to avoid the freaks i'm stuck next to."

Another reader, Juni, couldn’t think of “another song that better describes my co-dependent relationship with my beloved NYC transit system" than LaTasha Lee and the BlackTies' "Get Away."

Some classic tracks evoked the Big Apple itself, such as Nas' "N.Y. State of Mind," Duke Ellington's "Take the 'A' Train" and Beastie Boys' "No Sleep Till Brooklyn."

Other readers submitted songs from New York-based artists, including "Burn" by R&B duo Oshun and "Take the L Train" by Moon Hooch, a saxophone-driven band known for sparking platform dance parties. (According to the band's manager, Pete Smolin, that song became "Number 7," which appears on the band's self-titled album.)

But the trains have apparently frustrated one reader so much that he doesn't even bother with them. Greg Keller chose Shonen Knife's "Cycling Is Fun" because "I ride my bike to work, never take the s----y MTA." (The song isn't on the playlist because we couldn’t find it on Spotify, but you can listen to it here.)

Listen to the essential New York City subway playlist below, or on Spotify. Did we miss a great track? Tell us in the comments.

(Lead image: A man plays a guitar at a subway station in July 2001. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)