Summer playlist time again! I was initially going to use my playlist from last year, but said “nah, that’s cheatin’.” My next thought was to do the #1 hits from a random summer, such as 1974, but the more I did, the more I realized I’d already done that and you probably were sick of the songs. So I created a new playlist with summerlike songs. Some of them aren’t specifically summer songs, but they work.
- The Jamies, “Summertime, Summertime” Brother and sister Tom and Serena Jameson had a minor hit with this in 1958, when it reached #26. After a bunch more records that didn’t go anywhere, the re-released it in 1962, and it reached #38.
- John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, “Summer Nights” From the 1978 movie Grease, which was based on the musical of the same name. John and Olivia, as Danny and Sandy, are talking about their summer vacations, totally unaware that they’re talking about each other.
- Johnny Rivers, “Summer Rain” Johnny’s tribute to the summer of 1967, also known as The Summer Of Love. I was in San Francisco that summer, but only being 11, I didn’t partake in any of the festivities, so to speak…
- Kool & The Gang, “Summer Madness” A great instrumental that still gets a lot of play on Smooth Jazz stations, from their 1975 album Spirit Of The Boogie.
- Ramsey Lewis featuring Earth Wind & Fire, “Sun Goddess” Some more Smooth Jazz from a couple of Chicago acts. Title track from Ramsey’s 1975 release.
- Martha & The Vandellas, “Dancing In The Street” Summer’s here and the time is right… From 1964, when it went to #2.
- Linda Ronstadt, “Heat Wave” This could have been a Martha & The Vandellas twofer, then I remembered that the lovely Ms. Ronstadt had done it as well. 1975 is well represented in this list: this is from her Prisoner In Disguise album from that year, and reached #5.
- The Motels, “Suddenly Last Summer” From Berkeley, California, these New Wavers reached #9 in 1983 with this one.
- The Trashmen, “Surfin’ Bird” You have to include a surf tune if you’re talking summer, and The Trashmen are considered the greatest landlocked (they’re from Minneapolis, Minnesota) surf band ever. This is a combination of two R&B hits by The Rivingtons, “Bird Is The Word” and “Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow”. This went to #4 in 1963.
- Corey Smith, “The Baseball Song” Baseball players are sometimes referred to as “the boys of summer,” right? Corey’s from outside Athens, Georgia, which we all know by now is a sort of hotbed of musical activity. After graduating from UGA, he taught Geography, History and Guitar at North Gwinnett High School (the other side of Atlanta from me) until he decided to make music his life.
And that’s Monday’s Music Moves Me for June 24, 2019.
Monday’s Music Moves Me is sponsored by X-Mas Dolly, Callie, Cathy, Alana, Michelle and Stacy, so be sure and visit them, where you can also find the Linky for the other participants.
yes, these work just great!
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Thanks!
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Some great songs here and the Heat Wave is coming soon…yuck
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Loved all these, John. Summer songs were always such fun and such a symbol of good times. My go to summer song was always “Summer in the City” although I never lived in the city. These are the anthems and of our lives. Great list as always! Nice Monday pick-me-up!
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That’s on last year’s list: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDLDl0_pt_k&list=PLSyZ5mLbrD9MrS_z4GzcsvFEug8QVu1HT
Glad you enjoyed it!
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Now that 2018 playlist could be the score of my life. I might need to create a playlist in iTunes of all those songs! Before iTunes disappears…
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They do intend on replacing it, at least on Mac. They’re splitting it three ways: music, video, and podcasts. Windows, I think they’re keeping it around for now. I’m counting on things like playlists migrating, but with Apple lately, I have to wonder…
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I use iTunes to back up my iPhone and iPad. I wonder if this will force backups to iCloud? More money if it does.
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From what I gather, backups on Mac are going to be handled by Finder. I have no idea what that’s going to entail; here’s an article that explains as much as anyone knows: https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/06/tech/apple-explains-itunes-changes-trnd/index.html
Guess we’re going to have to wait until Catalina comes out later this year….
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John, I am at a bit of a standstill with storage on my MacBook. Should have purchased a much bigger machine. Thanks for the article.
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We’ve already had one. The joys of living in the South.
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I remember “Summertime, Summertime” but I don’t recall ever knowing who was singing it. Thanks John.
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I didn’t know, either, to be honest. I remembered the song and put “sum sum summertime” in the search, and there it was. Sometimes I’ll remember a line out of a song and find it that way, or maybe DuckDuckGo it. This Internet thing is gonna catch on…
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Ha ha!
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Great playlist and I picked “Suddenly Last Summer” also.
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Thanks!
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John,
I listened to your playlist through once and am starting it again while I do some things around this house. You did a great job pulling together songs for this week’s theme ‘summer songs’. Your last two titles are introductions, so thanks for sharing and for joining me on the dance floor. Have a boogietastic week, my friend!
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“The Baseball Song” was new to me, too, but that song by The Trashmen was popular when I was in grammar school, and we could all do it, including the dance.
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Love your playlist.
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Thanks!
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All of these are fun and bring back memories. A few of them are on my playlist.
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Thanks! Where is your playlist? I went to this address and didn’t see it…
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I’m going back around listening to the summer favorites. You have a stellar list.
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Thanks! I gave a link to last year’s, too.
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