May 20 is National Be a Millionaire Day, yet another excuse for a theme ride with plentiful songs to choose from. Need another excuse? Here are some other financial-related “national days,” or just, you know, have fun with a money theme any day of the year! Our bucket playlist for the MONEY/RICH/POOR theme has ~405 songs…that tells you lots of artists like to sing about wanting a lot of money, not having enough money, or not caring about it!
Your money-themed playlist can be general, including all aspects of money, or you can create a sub-theme such as one of the following (or pick a few songs from each of the categories and tell a story):
- Songs about having or wanting a lot of money or finding someone who is rich. “Zillionaire” by Flo Rida. “Billionaire” by Floyd Wonder. “Material Girl” by Madonna.
- Songs about what you would buy with money if you had it. “I Will Buy You a New Life” by Everclear. “Beer Money” by Kip Moore. “Money Money” by Purple Disco Machine. “7 Rings” by Ariana Grande.
- Songs about having no money and struggling to pay bills. “Paycheck” by Family Force Five. “No Money” by Galantis. “Low Budget” by The Kinks. “I Need a Dollar” by Aloe Blacc.
- Songs about making money. “She Works Hard for the Money” by Donna Summer. “Just Got Paid” by Mastodon. “Money” by Oh The Larceny.
- Songs about the evils of money. “Broke” by Jason Derulo. “Mo Money, Mo Problems” by Notorious B.I.G. “Paper Planes” by M.I.A.
- Songs about the lure of money. “What Would You Do for the Money” by Grizfolk. “For the Love of Money” by The O’Jays.
- Songs about the power of money. “Money, Power, Glory” by Lana Del Rey. “Money for Nothing” by Dire Straits.
- Songs about money not being important. “Price Tag” by Jessie B. “Free” by Zac Brown Band. “Money Don’t Matter 2 Night” by Prince.
- Songs about what money can’t buy. “Can’t Buy Me Love” by The Beatles. “Ain’t No Money” by Katrina and the Waves. “Summer On You” by PRETTYMUCH.
- Songs about currency. “Million Dollar Bills” by Lorde. “5 Dollars” by Christine and the Queens. “Dollar Bill” by Phoebe Ryan.
- Songs about doing good things with money (all money theme rides should include this, IMO!). “Give it Away” by Red Hot Chili Peppers. “Billionaire” by Travie McCoy and Bruno Mars.
I used a few of those songs plus a whole bunch of other fantastic tracks and created one of the most fun rides I’ve done in a while (if I do say so myself!). It’s a HIIT profile called “Riding for Riches.” It begins with two sets of ramps from moderate to hard or very hard. The middle segment consists of high-intensity intervals of varying lengths and cadences. In the bucket playlist below, I found some songs that work so incredibly well for these short intervals—you’re going to think the artist had these in mind when they wrote these songs! We finish the ride with a longer ramp to a classic song that everyone will expect to be included in this theme. It may look like a lot of blue (blue indicates easy recovery) but believe me, you’ll want to respect the recovery as if it’s a “savings account” so you can spend big on the expensive intervals!
To make this ride extra entertaining, you can use all sorts of clichés about money in your cueing and even create some games. Find fake million-dollar bills or gold coins to hand out to your riders after the intervals. Describe the intervals as a “dash for cash”: the first one there gets to keep the money. Who wins? Walk around the room as you teach and hand out cash—you decide who wins!
As I noted above, I describe the intervals as being very “expensive,” where riders have to “spend” a lot of energy on them. Throw in some additional cues on spending, expenses, budgeting, being greedy, paying taxes or fines, leaving tips, climbing the ladder of financial success, and so on.
At the end of my ride, I told my class, “This just might be the best day to go play the lotto!”
One thing is for sure, your class will love you for this fun, engaging, and entertaining ride with a fantastic playlist.
As usual, if you have a great song or two that we might be missing in our bucket playlist, let us know in the comments!