Turn up the heat Sunny summer songs beg to be played at high volume By: Alan Small  Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Wednesday, Jun. 17, 2020

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/06/2020 (1556 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Summer begins Saturday at precisely 4:44 p.m., Winnipeg time, says the Old Farmer’s Almanac.

Every summer since the birth of rock ‘n’ roll seems to have been punctuated by great summer songs. They’ve mostly been happy, up-tempo numbers that rarely spark a political debate.

Exactly what is the philosophy behind the baby-boomer anthem Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley and the Comets, besides the need to get out of your seat and “rock, rock, rock till broad daylight?”

Our most memorable songs often come from the year we finish high school or the year we leave home. Those are big moments.

Looking back 35 years ago, when Generation X kids were in high school or just graduating, the Billboard Hot 100 chart had a host of forgettable unforgettable tunes that were big in June 1985. Back then, this often overlooked group was walking on sunshine while wearing a raspberry beret. Everybody wanted to rule the world or wanted to be spun round — like a record, of course. Folks would need a smooth operator to find some black cars, which look better in the shade.

And what exactly is a Sussudio?

Here are 10 tracks — it’s not the definitive list by any means — that might get you thinking about summer songs that were the soundtrack to that great backyard party, an easy moment resting in a hammock or driving down the road with the window rolled down. Let us know about your favourites.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVIttmFAzek

Tutti Frutti by Little Richard (1955)

Rock ‘n’ roll was born when Little Richard sang “A-wop-bop-a-loo-bop-a-wop-bam-boom!” to kick off Tutti Frutti, which was released in October 1955. It got the world off its feet with its infectious rhythm and Little Richard, who died on May 9 at 87, continued to inspire generations of performers with his energetic singing and outlandish presence.

Tutti Frutti remains the quintessential summer song. It’s fast, it’s exciting and like all the great summer songs, it demands you to turn up the volume, even just a little bit.

Without this song, and Little Richard, of course, there are no Beatles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XE2fnYpwrng

(Love Is Like a) Heat Wave — Martha and the Vandellas (1963)

Motown Records was called Hitsville U.S.A. for songs such as Heat Wave and the hundreds of others it put into the hearts and souls of listeners during the 1960s and ‘70s. Lead vocalist Martha Reeves, just like Little Richard, takes us away from the drudgery of our lives for an energetic two minutes and 43 seconds — twice as long if you play the song again — and reminds us about how people can be gripped by summer love.

The 2002 documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown — it’s a must-see — introduces the Funk Brothers, a group of musicians that backed up Martha and the Vandellas and countless other artists to create the Motown sound but remained mostly unknown prior to the documentary’s release. Joan Osborne performs the song in the film and the band cranks up the Heat Wave again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDcDnghSwnY

It’s Too Darn Hot — Ella Fitzgerald (1960)

There will be a day this summer — even in Winnipeg — when it’s just too darn hot. Ella Fitzgerald, one of the greats, recorded this Cole Porter number that was part of the musical Kiss Me Kate in 1956, but it’s a 1960 version she performs in Paris that burns. Anyone who has visited Paris in August will tell you the Queen of Jazz is singing the truth.

I dare you not to smile or chuckle when Fitzgerald sings “According to the Kinsey Report,” a reference that was changed in the musical’s film version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rts7Qdew3HE

Summer in the City — Lovin’ Spoonful (1966)

There’s a tension in this song that matches life in 1966, with the Vietnam War raging and the debate over civil rights building in the United States.

John Sebastian’s machine-gun vocals at first create an urgency as he describes daytime workers looking half-dead by the heat. When he sings “at night it’s a different world,” he slows down and in so doing creates images of two worlds — the bustle of the workday and the place to relax and romance in the evening.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tCc–3xw10

Hot Fun in the Summertime — Sly and the Family Stone (1969)

When it comes to the summer months, July is usually the busy one and August is the relaxing one. That’s certainly the case in Winnipeg.

Sly and the Family Stone released this single in August 1969, just weeks after the Apollo 11 moon landing. Perhaps Earth needed to chill after the nervousness and elation of watching Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on the moon, and Hot Fun in the Summertime chills beautifully. Summer doesn’t always have to be go-go-go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpPSBzGEklE

Into the Mystic — Van Morrison (1970)

Into the Mystic may be a bit too thoughtful to be a summer song, but playing it improves every occasion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rx5DnD-iaAE

Summer Days — Bob Dylan (2001)

How much influence has Little Richard had on rock ‘n’ roll? In the 1959 Hibbing High School yearbook, a young Robert Zimmerman wrote that his ambition was to join Little Richard.

Think of that when listening to Summer Days, which an older Bob Dylan released 42 years later, and how the song’s fast beat so resembles those put down by his high school idol and his band. Of course, Dylan’s song includes one of his trademark wry remarks: “Why don’t you break my heart one more time, just for good luck.”

And here are three nominees for summer song of 2020:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7ibUGJpY3k

Tears of Blue to Gold — Larkin Poe (2020)

Two sisters from north Georgia, Rebecca and Megan Lovell, released the exuberant new album Self Made Man on June 12, and it’s difficult to turn off.

Larkin Poe, which played last year’s Winnipeg Folk Festival, is labelled as Americana, but this is pedal-to-the-floor rock ‘n’ roll that has a nostalgic melody and lyrics that match. “Time moves on like a melody / And I can hear those memories sing,” the song goes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2x5KDxklUw 

Dance My Life Away — Mise En Scene (2020)

The Free Press wrote about this song, and the Winnipeg duo’s upbeat video, a couple of weeks ago, and it remains an ideal musical tonic to the doldrums.

Stefanie Blondal Johnson and Jodi Dunlop, the masterminds behind Mise En Scene, enlisted fans from around the world to send in videos of them dancing, and you can tell by the video they are dancing to the actual song and not just bouncing around to any old beat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1bAMZ9WDAo

I Fly — Galantis (feat. Faouzia) (2020)

The pandemic has overshadowed pretty much everything in entertainment. Faouzia, the singer from Carman who moved with her family to Manitoba from Morocco when she was five, has soldiered on, managing to release three singles and be featured on two other prominent ones so far in 2020.

She sang on a multilingual Kelly Clarkson song, I Dare You, which came out in April and she teamed up with Swedish EDM group Galantis on I Fly, which is part of the soundtrack to Scoob!, the latest film in the Scooby Doo franchise. The film was released digitally on May 15 and the song was dropped along with it.

Faouzia shows off her impressive vocal range amid the song’s thumping electronic beats, which would have made it a 2020 dance-club favourite, if not for COVID-19.

alan.small@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter:@AlanDSmall

Alan Small
Reporter

Alan Small has been a journalist at the Free Press for more than 22 years in a variety of roles, the latest being a reporter in the Arts and Life section.

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