It’s the weekend! Hooray! Which means it’s time for me to go spelunking in the world of vintage internet videos (or new ones, I’m not picky) to find goofy delights to share with you.
Today: Summer Songs!
It’s the last day of July, which often felt like the midpoint of summer, depending on when school was starting. I’m fascinated by the different start dates of schools in the US. Some don’t start until September while some start in early or mid August. When we lived in New Jersey, the schools didn’t let out for the summer until June 30. I went into a Toys R Us (RIP) the first week of July when our summer had JUST STARTED and it was wall to wall back to school.
Did we need a Justin Bieber pink sparkly backpack? No, we wanted some summer toys. And there were hardly any. The store folks told me and another family that they follow a national schedule for merchandise turnover, and the fact that locally summer vacation had just begun was irrelevant.
I’ve been thinking about that shopping trip often because our summer is totally different again. Now that both my kids are in college, our “summer” starts early and ends early, too. They were both done the first week of May, and are starting back at school the first and second week of August. Summer break is a shifty, weird thing.
Because the timing seems to move, summer itself feels sometimes like a state of mind. There are specific songs that I used to hear all the time between June and August that instantly make me feel like, “Ok, it’s summer officially. You heard that song.” It’s like the opposite of Whamageddon because I don’t seek out these particular songs, but eventually they find me and I’m delighted.
For example – anyone remember The Underdog Project’s “Summer Jam” from 2000?
I heard this constantly every summer after it came out. Also the resolution of the vide is incredible.
And there’s the Gentlemen of “Summertime:”
Are the words to this song deeply embedded in my brain to the point that they will never ever leave?
Drums please!
Absolutely yes.
This isn’t exactly a summer-specific song, but when I would go to the boardwalk in either Wildwood or Ocean City, NJ, I’d hear “Runaround Sue” by Dion almost every time. Boardwalk playlists used to love doo-wop.
“People let me put you wise: Sue goes out with other guys.” So sexist and yet SO CATCHY. I am bopping at my desk right now.
But if the Beach Boys date lots of people, it’s fine. They’re a “real cool head, making real good bread,” per “I Get Around.”
(I love the Beach Boys. My favorite is “Wouldn’t it be Nice.”)
What about you? When is your summer? And what songs make your summer complete?
Mississippi schools (at least the ones close to where I live in southeastern Louisiana) start today. In the school system where I work, school starts next Thursday. But I’ve been back at work since mid-July, so summer is becoming a distant memory at this point, lol. As for summer songs, my favorites are Bananarama’s “Cruel Summer”, Sly & the Family Stone’s “Hot Fun in the Summertime”, and Billy Stewart’s incredibly jazzed-up version of “Summertime” from Porgy & Bess.
Many, many, many, years ago, we always started the day after Labor Day. And we never got out until mid-late June. Which was an issue in Florida schools with no air conditioning. Because my Mom was a teacher, who also taught summer school, our whole year revolved around the school calendar. Vacation travel didn’t happen until late July or August. Now our school year starts in mid-August and ends before Memorial Day.
As for songs, dating myself again: Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Summer in the City”, the Drifters’ “Under the Boardwalk”, and of course — “Margaritaville”.
It’s not summer until I’m muttering It’s Too Darn Hot!
School in my GenX Midwestern world began the Monday after the County Fair (a slightly moveable feast, usually beginning of September but sometimes last week of August) and ran til the second week of June (unless you graduated, then just to the first week of June).
Summertime music means “Walking on Sunshine” by Katrina and the Waves, “Fun Fun Fun” by the Beach Boys, the theme to “Hawaii Five-O” and the original Muppets version of “Raimbow Connection” (probably because I saw it in the summer, as a kid).
IDK that I have one specific summer song, but I do have a massive playlist of summer songs. It’s about 1k and counting atm, so I’m not pressed for options.
When I was growing up in small-town New England, school started the Wednesday after Labor Day and ended the second week of June. When I started college, we moved in the first weekend in September and moved out the weekend before Memorial Day. Here in Georgia, school starts the first full week of August and ends the last week in May. We used to be able to plan vacation trips in early May because there would be fewer families at popular sites, but all that has flown out the window now that all the states have different school schedules.
When I was young, anything Beach Boys meant summer. Then I moved up to The Beatles’ Uncle Albert and Yellow Submarine, Chicago’s Saturday In The Park and Beautiful Morning, Country Roads by John Denver, and Brandy by Looking Glass. Finally when my son was in fourth grade, he did a puppet show to Catch a Wave by the Beach Boys and promptly got hooked on them, so we came full circle and listened to the Beach Boys on tape every summer.
I have to take a kid back to college in a few weeks, so I feel like summer is almost over.
In the GenX 80s, we had the hits mentioned above by other readers, plus we’d hear Beach Boys and Jan and Dean and other songs which just felt like summer. And you could buy concert tickets for less than $20, so lots of concerts at Vet Stadium, JFK, the Spectrum, and the Mann in Philly.
School in east Tennessee started sometime in the last ten days of August, and ended the first week of June. If we had snow days (never a guaranteed thing in TN!), the schools would just add a couple more days in June. I think the latest I remember ever getting out was June 7th. I heard a radio ad two weeks ago advertising back-to-school sales and said out loud “It’s July 15th, have you no decency?”
I hate “Summergirls” by LFO, but it embedded itself into my brain during its momentary window of popularity, and so regrettably it’s a summer song for me.
“Lay, Lady, Lay” by Bob Dylan forever. Playing at the Indiana Dunes State Park over the loud speakers on an incredibly hot night in 1970, waves in the background.
School started after Labor Day, no question. Early June we were free. Why mess with perfection, school districts?