# Best Summer Songs **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 3, 2001, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-summer-songs/71068 "2001-07-03T09:32:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![blur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dbc845/32.png) [@blur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blur)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-summer-songs/71068/1 "2001-07-03T09:32:10Z")
If you got to make your own greatest hits album of your favorite summer tunes, what would it include? Mine would definately include: Van Halen - Summer Nights Rush - Tom Sawyer Pantera - Walk I just love the guitar lines to those songs. ---
**Author:** ![Weird\_AL\_Einstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c67d28/32.png) [@Weird\_AL\_Einstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weird_AL_Einstein)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-summer-songs/71068/2 "2001-07-03T11:16:41Z")
_U Can’t Touch This_ by MC Hammer It’s not really a “summer song” I guess, but I’ve always associated it with summer because that’s when I heard it the most, summer of 1990. ---
**Author:** ![Skip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@Skip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skip)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-summer-songs/71068/3 "2001-07-03T11:20:45Z")
Summertime by The Sundays - It’s a dreamy song that’s just relaxing to listen to, perfect for those summer days by the beach/pool. ---
**Author:** ![pldennison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-summer-songs/71068/4 "2001-07-03T12:08:15Z")
Good choice, **Skip**! The Sundays are a very summery band. Along with that tune, I would pick “Hideous Towns.” I always associate certain sets of chord changes with “summery”-feeling songs – major keys, lots of major and maj7 chords, really wide-open melodies. The kind of thing where you can just turn it on, get in the car and drive around for a long time. Some songs that would fit my list: _My Ever Changing Moods_, Style Council _Streets of Your Town_, the Go-Betweens _Show Me_, the Pretenders _Any Other Way_, the Posies _Bye Bye Love_, the Cars Probably a lot more . . . but you get the general idea. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-summer-songs/71068/5 "2001-07-03T12:39:36Z")
Old fart checking in, with two summer-specific things from the mid-sixties. The Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Summer in the City” has always seemed to me the greastest summer song of all time. It is so fucking DARK…capturing the sweatiness and desperation of the Big Town when it’s 97 degrees and muck-humid. And I’ve always read the “At night it’s a different world/Go out and find a girl” line as a rather chilling reference to sexual predation and stalking. On the other side of the continent, The Grateful Dead’s “The Golden Road (to Unlimited Devotion)” for its call to drug-laced hedonism and pagan sexuality. ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-summer-songs/71068/6 "2001-07-03T12:54:34Z")
Jackson Browne’s (original) version of “Take It Easy.” Perfect top-down, summer time driving song. I don’t know if its worth a trip to Winslow, Arizona. Summertime, from Porgy and Bess. Talk about lazy, hazy, sleepy stuff. This song makes me want to crawl into a hammock and watch the clouds go by. ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-summer-songs/71068/7 "2001-07-03T13:05:31Z")
“Hot Fun in the Summertime” - Sly and the Family Stone “Summer Rain” - Johnny Rivers “Summertime Blues” - Ediie Cochran (and Blue Cheer and the Who, etc., etc.) A Summer Song" - Chad and Jeremy ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-summer-songs/71068/8 "2001-07-03T13:21:42Z")
The first and only time I ordered one of those “Only $19.95 plus Shipping & Handling!” CD’s off the TV. _Sun Splashin!_ includes some of my favorites… _Hot Hot Hot_, by **Buster Poindexter** _Montego Bay_ by **Amazulu** _Walkin’ on Sunshin_ by **Katrina & The Waves** _Summer Breeze_ by **Seals & Crofts** And let me hasten to add a few others… _Beach Baby_, the remake by **Baha Men** and _Center Field_ by **John Fogerty**. ---
**Author:** ![gex\_gex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/94ad74/32.png) [@gex\_gex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gex_gex)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-summer-songs/71068/9 "2001-07-03T13:33:15Z")
‘eye know’ by de la soul… it’s not _exactly_ summer, but it sure sounds like it. ---
**Author:** ![sk8rixtx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/858c86/32.png) [@sk8rixtx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sk8rixtx)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-summer-songs/71068/10 "2001-07-03T14:56:05Z")
“Summer Wind Was Always Our Song” - The Ataris ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-summer-songs/71068/11 "2001-07-03T15:47:26Z")
“At The River” - Groove Armada ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-summer-songs/71068/12 "2001-07-03T18:48:24Z")
Easy. Jonathan Richman. “That Summer Feeling” If you don’t know the song…ahhh, you know it. In your heart. “…that summer feeling’s gonna haunt you the rest of your life…” ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-summer-songs/71068/13 "2001-07-03T21:57:06Z")
“Magic” by Pilot “Beach Baby” by First Class ---
**Author:** ![Jeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-summer-songs/71068/14 "2001-07-03T22:12:11Z")
I know its a little cliche, but **Lowrider** is a good one. I also seem to get a lot of mileage from **Ocean Pearl** by **54-40**. ---
**Author:** ![Nocturne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9fc348/32.png) [@Nocturne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nocturne)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-summer-songs/71068/15 "2001-07-03T23:43:38Z")
“In the Summer Time”–Mungo Jerry I always associate “Don’t Dream It’s Over” by Crowded House with summer, too, because I used to hear it all the time when I went to the pool. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2001, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-summer-songs/71068/16 "2001-07-04T02:57:36Z")
Great question! Best Summer songs? Anything by the **Beach Boys**! ---
**Author:** ![Sultan\_Kinkari](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7bcc69/32.png) [@Sultan\_Kinkari](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sultan_Kinkari)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2001, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-summer-songs/71068/17 "2001-07-04T03:40:32Z")
96° in the Shade - Third World In the Summertime - Deee Lite Freddy Jones Band - In a Daydream Lucky Dube - House of Exile Alpha Blondy - Buy the Best of album Bob Marley - of course ---
**Author:** ![mblackwell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5fc32e/32.png) [@mblackwell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mblackwell)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2001, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-summer-songs/71068/18 "2001-07-04T04:49:07Z")
Perfect summer mix: 1/4 Beach Boys, 1/4 Jimmy Buffett 1/4 Harry Belefonte, 1/4 other summer oldies.