While every year brings a new crop of pop tunes vying to be the song of the summer, most of them frankly aren't literalist enough for my taste. With that in mind, I decided to deep dive into the season's sonic options by trying to find the best songs with the word "summer" in the title. I listened to 100 songs for this exercise and ranked them by a completely arbitrary system (as one must with a list this expansive). You can check out the full rankings via our Spotify playlist at sptfy.com/InlanderSummerSongs (we simply don't have space to print 'em all!).
Has binge listening to that many summer songs melted my brain like a popsicle left on the sizzling asphalt? Absolutely! Let's do this!
100. "ALL SUMMER LONG" - KID ROCK
The chorus rhymes "things" with "things." I rest my case, your honor.
95. "SEX IN THE SUMMER" - PRINCE
Prince was a musical genius, but let's just say he wasn't always a lyrical genius...
89. "SUMMER DAYS" - MARTIN GARRIX FEAT. PATRICK STUMP AND MACKLEMORE
Because we are all so desperate for more EDM/emo/pop rap crossovers.
86. "GIRLS IN THEIR SUMMER CLOTHES" - BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
Just because you're a rock icon, it doesn't mean your "summer" songs are A+ material.
85. "ITALIAN SUMMER" - STEVIE NICKS
(See blurb above.)
84. "SUMMER '68" - PINK FLOYD
(Do I need to say it a third time?)
75. "SUMMER'S END" - FOO FIGHTERS
The Foos are headed to Spokane this summer! Even with the band's marathon concerts, we'd be OK with this middling album cut not making the set list.
59. "SUMMER GIRLS" - LFO
The D-list preppy boy band's one hit is so unabashedly dumb that it loops around to being kinda catchy. This is the best ad campaign Abercrombie & Fitch ever had.
52. "THE HISSING OF SUMMER LAWNS" - JONI MITCHELL
Did Joni play this at her big comeback concert at the Gorge last week? No. But she did cover No. 3 on this list...
35. "SUMMERTIME IN THE 509" - II REAL
I'm pretty sure I'd be kicked out of town if I didn't include this Spokane summer hip-hop anthem.
20. "IN THE SUMMERTIME" - MUNGO JERRY
An undeniable summer classic, but tailoring your dates based on the wealth of a woman's "daddy" seems slightly sketch.
19. "THIS AIN'T THE SUMMER OF LOVE" - BLUE OYSTER CULT
This dark rock jam serves as a friendly reminder that Blue Oyster Cult rocks and shouldn't be thought of only as the "more cowbell" band.
18. "SUMMERTIME BLUES" - EDDIE COCHRAN
Rock and roll's first youthful "summer" classic has so much more swing than the popular Alan Jackson cover version.
17. "FEEL GOOD HIT OF THE SUMMER" - QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE
Is this song just Josh Homme listing drugs over heavy riffs? Yes. Does it f'n rock? Also yes.
16. "SUMMER IN THE CITY" - REGINA SPEKTOR
15. "BLOOD RED SUMMER" - COHEED AND CAMBRIA
14. "IN SUMMER" - JOSH GAD (FROM FROZEN)
The beloved Disney's musical introduction to the snowman Olaf finds him obliviously dreaming of what it's like for snow to soak in the summer sun.
13. "SUMMER CANNIBALS" - PATTI SMITH
12. "SUMMER '79" - THE ATARIS
While the pop punk band is famous for a cover of another "summer" song (we'll get there soon), their best contribution to the micro-subgenre is this purely joyful dose of teenage nostalgia packed with roller rinks, drive-ins, sing-alongs and hopeless crushes.
11. "SUMMER SKIN" - DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE
10. "SUMMER BABE (WINTER VERSION)" - PAVEMENT
The first track off Pavement's classic debut album Slanted and Enchanted offers up a perfect initial dose of the band's slacker indie rock aesthetic. Ramshackle guitar noise and Stephen Malkmus' deadpan sardonic delivery is buoyed by a melodic underpinning. It's messy summer ecstasy for those who scoff at pop radio behind a cheap pair of disposable sunglasses.
9. "OPIATE SUMMER" - VENDETTA RED
If a screamo band was ever to cross over to mainstream radio, it would've been Vendetta Red with its 2003 album Between the Never and the Now. With razor sharp production and an undeniable pop sensibility, "Opiate Summer" captures the angst of summer love being just out of reach with sing-along bombast.
8. "SUMMER NIGHTS" - JOHN TRAVOLTA AND OLIVA NEWTON-JOHN (FROM GREASE)
Recounting one's summer flings is a high school tradition, and it has never been distilled better than in this music theater classic where Danny and Sandy recount their versions of summer lovin' at the beach. "Tell me more! Tell me more!" ... No, just go listen to it.
7. "SUMMER IN THE CITY" - THE LOVIN' SPOONFUL
Damn if this ditty ain't peppy as all get out. On the band's lone No. 1 hit, the folk rockers turned up the edge and got frenetic as heck while musing about the overheated and exhausting frenzy of summer days and the contrasting glory of summer nights.
6. "I DIDN'T HAVE ANY SUMMER ROMANCE" - CAROLE KING
You know what's more heartbreaking than a summer romance that fades? Being the lonely person who never has a summer romance in the first place. (Can confirm.) King's words fall soft but cut oh so deep on this dreamy little gutpunch.
5. "SUMMER OF '69" - BRYAN ADAMS
...nice.
4. "BOYS OF SUMMER" - DADDY ISSUES
Don Henley's original "Boys of Summer" is a bit too '80s synth soft. The Ataris' improved on it with a beefier pop punk cover. But the best version comes via female grunge pop group Daddy Issues on Deep Dream (one of my favorite summer albums ever). The trio takes the tune in a heavy, smoldering, slow-creeping direction that better emphasizes the song's inherent lovesick nostalgia.
3. "SUMMERTIME" - ELLA FITZGERALD AND LOUIS ARMSTRONG (FROM PORGY AND BESS)
No song has ever captured the weighty feel of an oppressively hot and humid summer day. This operatic jazz aria sets the table for Porgy and Bess' underclass tragedy by lyrically and sonically alluding to the more sinister side of the season without being blunt. In terms of pure musical talent it's hard to top a George Gershwin-penned song performed by Fitzgerald and Armstrong at the peak of their powers. Completely justifiable if this is anyone's No. 1 summer song.
2. "INDIAN SUMMER" - PEDRO THE LION
Catching Pedro the Lion at its absolute expansive rocking out pinnacle, "Indian Summer" is a captivating chapter in the superb concept album that is Control. David Bazan's tongue-in-cheek lyrics drip with a melted ice cream cynicism as he expresses dismay in capitalism's rotting effects on the magic of childhood innocence before the choruses explode in heavy riff bliss.
1. "CONSTRUCTIVE SUMMER" - THE HOLD STEADY
While summer tropes often focus on things like the weather and vacations, the real magic of summer — the thing we actually remember — is the people. It's the camaraderie that exists between you and your buds through both the eventful and aimless warm evenings. The Hold Steady distills this perfectly while ripping full throttle through "Constructive Summer." Craig Finn encapsulates the dreaming, youthful, almost spiritual hope that a summer represents: "Me and my friends are like / the drums on 'Lust for Life' / We pound it out on floor toms / Our psalms are sing-along songs." A sweaty summer of working construction and drinking on top of water towers comes to life in vivid detail. "Let this be my annual reminder that we could all be something bigger," Finn yelps. Raise a toast to that sentiment forever. ♦
