Anyway, to celebrate here are ten songs about hot summers. Enjoy them while they last.
10. Sly & The Family Stone - Hot Fun In The Summertime
Very cool. AKA hot.
9. Glenn Frey - The Heat Is On
A good show-ow-ow-woah from Glenn... but he has to take second place to a fellow Eagle in the hot summer records.
8. The Hold Steady - Constructive Summer
Probably the least well-known song on this list, but it just fits. Perfectly.
(Plus, it rhymes "summer" with "Joe Strummer"...which guarantees it a place.)
Let this be our annual reminder that we could all be something bigger...7. The Isley Brothers - Summer Breeze
Blowing through the jasmine in my mind...Bloody hell, that's a great lyric.
6. Bryan Adams - Summer of '69
Leave Bryan Adams alone - his mum's from Huddersfield!
Oh, but when I look back now5. Billy Idol - Hot In The City
Those summers seemed to last forever...
Any excuse to get your shirt off, eh, Billy?
I'm a chain 'round an A-bombWatch this video and try to tell me Billy Idol isn't a comedy genius. Just try.
4. Eddie Cochran - Summertime Blues
Well I'm a-gonna raise a fuss, I'm a gonna raise a holler...After an opening line like that, how can any pop song fail?
3. The Lovin' Spoonful - Summer In The City
For many, many years, I thought John Sebastian was singing "'Til I'm weezin' like a bus stop" which I considered a beautiful line, even though the imagery was rather skewed. Imagine my disappointment to discover it's actually "'Til I'm weezin' at the bus stop". Never mind, it spoils this perfect pop record not one jot.
Love the Eels cover too.
2. Meat Loaf - You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night)
Please be upstanding for the utter insanity that is the full, minute-long spoken word intro performed by Jim Steinman and Ellen Foley... after that, you wonder how Meat's song can ever live up to it. Amazingly, it does. If I could marry this record, I would.
I bet you say that to all the boys...1. Don Henley - The Boys of Summer
Nothing says the summers of my teenage years like this song. Not that my own teenage years resembled those described by Don Henley one bit... but I could dream.
I can see youI was always quite fond of The Ataris' cover version too.
Your brown skin shining in the sun
You got that top pulled down and that radio on baby
And I can tell you my love for you will still be strong
after the boys of summer have gone
Hot damn, there are just too many great hot summer songs... ten barely scratches the surface. If the weather sticks, I'll come back with Volume 2 soon... your suggestions welcome, as always (though no guarantees I'll include them).
That's a pretty high calibre list, can't really question too many on that, even if I might tinker with the order.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of others:
Roll on Summer -Paul Kelly, or Summer Rain -Paul Kelly
One Summer - Daryl Braithwaite
Summer Love - Frank Sinatra
Summertime - Janis Joplin
Summer, Highland Falls - Billy Joel
Summer - Dragon
and then there are a host of classy songs with sun, sunny or sunshine in the title...not sure if you want me to open up that can though!!!
And I also feel like a summer list should have the Beach Boys or some sort of surfing song represented as well. Again, another can that could be opened.
Rest assured, there will be some Beach Boys if I get to volume 2... maybe some of your others, too.
DeleteSummer - an incautiously and uncharacteristically broad topic Rol!
ReplyDeleteThe Kinks - Sunny Afternoon
Mungo Jerry - In The Summertime
The Style Council - Long Hot Summer
...and, of course...
Gene - Long Sleeves For The Summer
Yeah, but I couldn't really narrow it down much more and still include the songs I wanted to. Sunny Afternoon has appeared here twice recently, so I gave it a rest.
DeleteAs for the others...
Buuuuut oh, those sum-um-er ni-iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-ghts
ReplyDeleteKaraoke special ;) yet again, I bring up those dregs. It's a skill you know.
Hardly. Nothing wrong with a spoonful of Grease.
DeleteFun Boy Three - Summertime.
ReplyDeleteXTC - Summer's Cauldron: "Drowning here in Summer's Cauldron / Under mats of flower lava / Please don't pull me out this is how I would want to go."
One of those was in serious contention for this very list. Maybe Volume 2?
DeleteOn this one occasion, there may have been enough to have made this a truly awesome Top Twenty
ReplyDeleteIndeed...that's why it's To Be Continued...
Delete