That Summer Feeling '23
A playlist of feel good summery jams
Happy J4, party people. Yeah, I’m running late with summery playlist thing. But here you go.
Great summer songs don’t need to be released in the summer, but it helps. Especially if they bring you melodic, upbeat music pleasures that leave you rocking or dancing or both. Some cases in point:
“Cruel Summer” by Bananarama, was released on June 27th, 1983
A day before the first day of summer on June 20, 1980, The Rolling Stones released Emotional Rescue, their classic lp, with not one, but two summer bangers, including “Dance (pt.1).”
The Isley Brothers’ cover of Seals & Crofts “Summer Breeze,” came out in August, 1973.
Don Henley’s “Boys Of Summer,” (co-writtern with Mike Campbell of Tom Petty “Boys of Summer,”) was released in October, 1984.
While Kool & The Gang’s “Summer Madness,” was released in September of 1974, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince who fantastically sampled it on “Summertime,” had the forethought to release it in May, 1991.
While time of release, and radio “chart” placement factor in for some of these songs, other common threads of a “great summer” song (IMO) are a song’s evocative, emotional pull to a roll down your window and turn up the radio feeling moment.
I like how NPR Music characterized a song of the summer:
We're talking about a song (or two, or three) that explodes and quickly permeates pop culture. It runs rampant up and down your radio dial, around your parties and deep in your brain. Perhaps this is why such pop music is described in terms usually reserved for the plague.
The songs that win the summer season spread so fast and far because they work. They're fun to sing. The hooks are catchy. They speak to something larger than our tastes, fulfilling a collective need for music that's as danceable as it is escapist as it is a shared experience.
For your consideration, here’s a “summer feeling” playlist. While some of these songs don’t exactly meet some of the above mentioned criteria, all of these songs do evoke a “summer feeling” or memory of some kind that suits the season. Just remember, on any other summer day there could have been any number of different “summer feeling” songs on this playlist. Press play. Turn it up.