The Songs of Summer

Historians call this relic a “cassette”. It played music on the 80s-era gadget the Walkman.

I love music. Love it. I love all kinds of music (except country. I’ve tried. Can’t stomach it.) I could wax poetic for tens of thousands of words about music. But as great as music is, it’s even better in the summer.. Don’t believe me? Check out this feature at Billboard.com that shows the top summertime tunes from the past twenty-seven years.

There’s a lot of memorable music on these lists. Notice I didn’t say “quality” music.  I mean, songs like “Party Rock Anthem” and “Call Me Maybe” didn’t exactly clean up at the Grammy awards. “The Power” by Snap won’t make it on any collection of greatest songs. But great summer songs aren’t great because they meet some music snob’s criteria of what makes a song worthwhile. They’re great because they’re memorable and they’re fun. Because hearing them brings back memories of the last day of school, a day at the beach, a trip to an amusement park. The mixture of nostalgia and lightweight pop music is a powerful thing.

So what’s your favorite year? Mine is 1987, hands down. It was an awesome summer, with an awesome soundtrack. Look at that top 10 list:

1. “Alone” – Heart
2. “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)” – Whitney Houston
3. “Shakedown” – Bob Seger
4. “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” – U2
5. La Bamba” – Los Lobos
6. “I Want Your Sex” – George Michael
7. “Who’s That Girl” – Madonna
8. “Head To Toe” – Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam feat. Full Force
9. “Heart And Soul” – T’Pau
10. “Only In My Dreams” – Debbie Gibson

 

There’s not a bad song anywhere in that list! I even like “Shakedown” by Bob Seger and I hate pretty much everything he’s ever done.  Looking at this list brings back so many great memories: going to my first concert ever, Madonna’s “Who’s That Girl” (more on that in another post); riding around the west side of Youngstown with my friends, windows down, singing “Alone” in our best wanna-be Ann Wilson voices; getting sick on the Zipper ride at the St. Christine’s festival while “Heart and Soul” played. Actually, that wasn’t all that great but it was memorable.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go make a mixtape of my favorite summertime hits. But first I have to find a tape deck. And some cassettes. And all of these songs on cassette. Never mind, I guess I’ll just go make a playlist.