Summer songs
Warm weather jams inspire nostalgia, good times
“Summer/It turns me upside down”
— The Cars, “Magic”
Summertime!
Bring on the heat, the bugs, lazy days on the couch streaming something you’ve seen before, lawnmowers, the pool, cold drinks and muggy nights driving around aimlessly and listening to your favorite songs.
Oh, those songs. The ones that have played on the soundtrack to your summers for years, and the brand new jams that will become part of the playlist, to be queued up in some future June or July or August to remind you of this one.
Twenty years from now, when they’re being transported in automated cars made by Amazon and planning a vacation on the moon, teenagers of today will be sent into spasms of nostalgic reverie when they hear Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road,” Taylor Swift’s “You Need to Calm Down,” Lizzo’s “Juice,” “Just Us” by DJ Khaled featuring SZA, Vampire Weekend’s “Harmony Hall” and “God’s Country” by Blake Shelton.
Not long ago I asked my social media friends, who number in the dozens, to name their favorite summer song and why.
The responses ranged from The Beatles (“I’m Only Sleeping”), to Ice Cube (“It Was a Good Day); from Bertie Higgins (“Key Largo” — which may have been given ironically) to Mungo Jerry (“In the Summertime,” natch); from Frank Sinatra (“Summer Wind”) to the Grateful Dead (“U.S. Blues”); from the Zak Brown Band (“Toes in the Water”) to the Grease soundtrack; and two songs called “Boys,” one by Dwight Twilley from 1984 and one by Charli XCV from 2017.
“Summer in the City” showed up, as did “Magic” by The Cars.
“Summertime Blues,” got a few mentions, and not just the Eddie Cochran or The Who versions, but the Flying Lizards’ funny, minimalist, art-damaged cover which everyone should hear at least once.
A newsroom buddy suggested the effervescent “Steal My Sunshine” by ’90s one-hit wonders Len, and a former co-worker messaged that “Summer Girls” by pop-rap boy band LFO was not only the worst summer song, but the worst song ever.
Of course, the Beach Boys got props, most eloquently from Bill Jones of Little Rock, who has a fondness for the revved up “I Get Around,” released in 1964.
“Although I was swept up in the British Invasion of 1964 and was more interested in The Beatles and The Rolling Stones that year, ‘I Get Around’ grabbed me viscerally,” he posted. “The Beach Boys had been creating their own California myth of cars and surfing on A and B sides of Capitol sunburst singles, and everything came together in ‘I Get Around.’ As a 14-year-old Arkansan, two years away from a driver’s license, I could cruise my own private Santa Monica Boulevard.”
When Little Rock jazz trumpeter Rodney Block thinks of summer, LL Cool J’s “Around the Way Girl” is playing.
“This was my hype song the summer of ’91 when I marched drum corps, a national summer music activity/competition,” he writes in an email. “It got me excited and ready before each performance. It stuck, and I always have it in my summer playlist. I
love the fact that it’s like an anthem or salute of sorts to the everyday woman, the girl next door, or ‘around the way girl.’”
“Summer summer summertime/
Time to sit back and unwind”
— DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince, “Summertime” Little Rock singer Bijoux has her own summer jam, the sultry and fun “Go With It,” included on the recently released Bike Rack Records
(Summer Mixtape) that also features Dazz & Brie, Sean-Fresh, BAANG and Lawrence Jamal.
“I wanted to make a song for people at a kick-back, maybe at somebody’s house on the weekend, drinking red wine and having good, responsible fun,” she says.
Talking about her favorite summer jams, she remembers listening to a lot of Drake in 2016 and Little Rock rapper Big Piph’s “Garret Morgan” in 2017. This summer, Bijoux has had the bawdy and bouncy “Big Ol’ Freak” by Megan Thee Stallion on repeat.
But, child of the ’90s that she is, a certain Fresh Prince brings back summers of her youth.
“When I think of summer, I think of ‘Summertime’ by [DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince],” she says. “It’s a classic, top-down summer jam.”
Bijoux first heard the track, rapped by Will Smith in his Fresh Prince of Bel-Air days, in junior high school.
“There was this little dance we did in the ’90s where you waved your hands in the air like a conductor,” she says, chuckling at the memory and singing the song’s chorus.
“Summertime,” released May 20, 1991, was among the list of notable summer jams from John Miller, music coordinator of the Arkansas Sounds series, which is a project of the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies.
Miller, who also fronts the Big John Miller Band and knows about these things, adds that “Summertime” includes a sample from Kool & the Gang’s instrumental “Summer Madness.”
And there is an Arkansas connection to the Seals & Croft 1972 yacht-rock classic “Summer Breeze,” Miller says.
“They were discovered by [Little Rock native] Louis Shelton. Amazing guitar player — he’s the guy laying down those tasty guitar licks on the Lionel Richie solo records. He plucked them from obscurity and produced several of their records.”
And if you haven’t heard it, check out the Isley Brothers’ soulful version from their 1973 album, 3+3.
“1989! The number/ another summer/ sound of the funky drummer”
Public Enemy — “Fight the Power” It was 30 years ago last month that rap group Public Enemy released the incendiary “Fight the Power,” a righteous call to arms that was the theme song to Spike Lee’s film Do the Right Thing and the antithesis to light-hearted summer fare. The track was like a Molotov cocktail being chucked at the pool party, a sonic release of pent-up frustration.
“It has the feel of the movie and a lot of stuff that was going on at the time,” Miller says.
Another recent summer anniversary for ’80s music fans is Prince and the Revolution’s album Purple Rain, which was released on June 25, 1984, and was soon heard blasting from cars and bedroom stereos far and wide.
On a more string-based note, Leanna Renfro, principal oboist for the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, says that the music of Nickel Creek reminds her of summer in Kingsport, Tenn., where she grew up.
“I think of bluegrass. My dad played banjo and my brother plays banjo and I love the band Nickel Creek. Anything by Nickel Creek makes me think of summer and being home visiting my family.”
Her current warm weather music, though, is a bit more playful.
“My song this summer is ‘If You’re Happy and You Know It Clap Your Hands.’ That’s my 3-year-old son’s favorite song right now and we sing that all the time.”
Brad Caviness is the music programmer of Shoog Radio, the Arkansas-centric show hosted by Scott Diffee and Phil Harris that airs Tuesdays from noon-2 p.m. on community service station KABF-88.3 FM.
“Summer songs, to me, are more about a mood,” the 49-year-old Caviness says. “As I get older it’s a late-night, laid-back kind of thing. Maybe it’s kind of dreamy and makes you want to dance a little bit.”
One song he always tries to play around the summer solstice is “Children of the Sun” from the 2013 EP CA by Fayetteville band Teenagers.
“It’s got a great, revvedup, surf-rock kind of vibe. It makes you want to dance when the days are warm but not too hot and everyone is in a good mood.” “Wanderlust” from the
Mango EP by BLACK PARTY, formerly of Little Rock and now based in Los Angeles, is another summer notable, Caviness says.
“It’s got a chilled-out vibe, great songcraft and production. It’s one of those blissedout kind of songs.”
“Party at the Big House” by Little Rock’s Booyah! Dad is a groovy summer rocker and can be found on the Ride the Whale EP at booyahdad.bandcamp.com.
It gets full support from Caviness.
“I love, love, love that song,” he says.
Caviness also has a summer recommendation from Little Rock duo Dazz & Brie.
“I have to go with the track ‘Let’s Dance’ from [2017’s Can’t Chase Girls and Your Money Too],” he says. “The first time I heard it was when I saw them play it live, and I was thinking about how their confidence as a band had grown … it’s a pretty high-energy, almost disco number. It never fails to get you moving.”
“You and me we’re just dancin’ in the dark”
Bruce Springsteen — “Dancin’ in the Dark” In the summer of 1984, singer-songwriter Aaron Sarlo of the groups Dangerous Idiots and Kid City had just moved from Illinois to Little Rock and listened constantly to Bruce Springsteen’s just-released Born in the USA.
“I was listening to that whole album on repeat,” he says. “‘Dancin’ in the Dark,’ ‘My Hometown.’ I’d just moved from Gilman, Ill., which was like, population 1,300, to Little Rock the summer before.”
Genesis’ self-titled album was also getting a lot of play.
“Side A of that thing is just terrific,” he says.
These are the tracks that take him back to the time when he was 12-13 years old.
As he got older, he discovered college rock bands like R.E.M. and The Smiths.
“Summers in my high school years was R.E.M.’s Fables of the Reconstruction, and I was really into Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here.”
In the current century, summers are defined in part by War on Drugs’ Slave Ambient from 2011 and the 2013 self-titled release by Melody’s Echo Chamber.
“Both of those records, — when I think of outside, sunny, summer, happy times — that’s what I’m listening to these days.”