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Inky
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Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Oakland-ish
Posts: 6046

songs of summer

this isn't my list, (it came from the local paper) but it's a starting point...what are your favorite songs of summer?

10 best songs of summer
The season brings out nostalgia for our favourite tunes

Everybody has their own list of summer songs, as individual as the memories they invoke and as numerous as the memories. Here are 10 that have stood the test of (summer)time.

1 "Summertime Blues" 1959. Eddie Cochran wrote it, Blue Cheer made it a heavy metal monster and The Who claimed it, but in all its variations the song still addresses what it's like to be a teenager on vacation. Free but not free. There ain't no cure.

2 "Summer in the City" 1966. The sound of street repairs serve as the solo interlude to a song recorded by The Lovin' Spoonful. You can feel the heat, the humidity and the grime of the especially vivid verses and the cooling effect of the night.

3 "Heatwave" 1963. Actually, the comparison is "(Love Is Like a) Heatwave" but the Martha and the Vandellas hit was perfectly timed to be a summer song. A long intro before Martha Reeves comes in singing allows the Motown Sound to be heard in all its glory.

4 "California Girls" 1965. The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson wrote so many songs associated with summer it's hard to know where to start. "California Girls," with its majestic, telegraphed beginning and celebratory air is as good a place as any.

5 "Walkin' on Sunshine" 1983. Katrina and the Waves never recorded for Motown but this invigorating single indicates that they should have. The success of the record both made the group and trapped it. Guitarist Kimberley Rew wrote great songs and Katrina Leskanich sang them beautifully but "Walkin' on Sunshine" has proven so massive that no one is interested in what else they've got.

6 "Steal My Sunshine" 1999. What happened to Katrina and the Waves could happen to LEN. The industry interest in this Toronto group was ravenous two years ago when "Steal My Sunshine" was a hit and, so far, LEN hasn't responded with anything as buoyant or as breezy.

7 "Smells Like Teen Spirit" 1991. Kurt Cobain's ode to a deodorant was more than a record; it was the forebear of things to come, a sign that the times were changing. By the end of the summer, everybody knew Nirvana and Seattle was the place to be.

8 "Hot Fun in the Summertime" 1970. One of the last hits for Sly and the Family Stone before Sly cocained himself out of commission. The record explains itself and is suitably upbeat and liberating.

9 "Sunny Afternoon" 1966. Pity Ray Davies. His girlfriend's run off with his car, gone back to her ma and pa, telling tales of drunkenness and cruelty. With all his belongings repossessed, all he can do is sip his beer and enjoy a sunny afternoon. Hilarious, vivid and you can sing along with the chorus, too.

10 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band 1967. All right, not a song but a whole album. Nothing recorded since this appeared by the Beatles in 1967 has created such a commotion. There might be better records but they all were different somehow after Pepper's and people listened through the summer as if this record were a single.