Summer tunes

What with the summer being well and truly under way with our mini heatwave today in the UK, why not let's have thread about summery music.

So, what's your favourite summer music, or music that evokes good memories of summers gone by.

Here's a few of mine for starters, in no particular order:

The Beatles - Here Comes The Sun
Gabriel - Sunshine
Stranglers - Always The Sun
Billy Ocean - Carribean Queen
Don Henley (or DJ Sammy ) - The Boys Of Summer
10CC - Dreadlock Holiday
Bob Marley - Three Little Birds
Sting - Fields Of Gold
Kiss - Crazy Crazy Nights (!?)
Gershwin - Summer Time (lots of versions of this to choose from... Hmm, probably go for Ella F and Louis A)
Mozart - Piano Concerto No. 21; First Movement (don't ask me why but this always makes me feel like the sun is out and everything is just :MILD: ).

 

Roy Ayres.. Everybody loves the sunshine

Diana Brown.. Sunworshippers

Groove Armada.. Easy

The Isley Brothers.. Summer breeze.

Nightmares on Wax.. Rise

Thievery Corporation.. Lebanese Blonde

Up bustle and out.. One colour reflects another (album)

The Gotan Project (album)

Just a few of mine but all make me feel sunnier than a day on the beach.

 

Hmm - funny one that...

• Lovely day - Bill Withers
• I feel fine/Here comes the sun/Dear Prudence - Beatles
• Children - Robert Miles
• Itchycoo Park - Small Faces
• Still of the night - Whitesnake
• Hot in the city - Billy Idol
• Summer in the city (can't remember who it's by though - Isley Brothers or someone?)
• Bummer in the summer/Seven and seven is - Love
• Waiting for the sun - Doors - ha ha ha nice pun but great tune
• Sleeping with the past (the album) - Elton John - great memories of 1992's summer holiday in Italy
• Chorus (album) - Erasure/Hormonally yours (album) -Shakespeare's sister - for the same summer as Elton's but not the Italy part
• Barcelona - Freddie/Monserrat - bloody 1992 Olympics, and a damn hot 1987 summer!
• Rain in the summertime - The Alarm (NOW 10 has a lot to answer for, what with this and Barcelona on the same tape!)
• Is this love/Three little birds/Exodus/Jamming - Bob Marley
• News - Dire Straits (don't ask me why - something about most stuff off of Communique reminds me of the summer - must be the Bahamas recording studio vibe or something)
• ANYTHING from Blur's Parklife - instant summer 1994 time machine there!
• Down under - Men at work
• Love changes everything - Climie Fisher (from a great summer even though it's cheese!)
• Boys of summer - Don Henley
• No fate - Limited Growth
• The one I love - REM (not sure why - maybe 'cos of the video?)
• Friday I'm in love - The Cure
• ...urm, this is actually quite difficult! I give up Black hole sun??

 

Duplication time here! There's a few classics that will probably appear multiple times more but they deserve too! Plus a few with memories attached...

Lovin' Spoonful - Summer In The City
Don Henley - The Boys of Summer/The End Of The Innocence
Neil Young - Heart of Gold
Supergrass - Sun Hits The Sky / Alright
Happy Mondays - Step On
Blur - This Is A Low
Sting - Fields Of Gold
Jimmy Cliff - Wonderful World, Beautiful People/Many Rivers To Cross
Desmond Dekker - You Can Get It If You Really Want
Bob Marley - Easy Skanking/Three Little Birds/One Love-People Get Ready 12"mix
Primal Scream - Movin' on Up
U2 - Staring At The Sun/Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
Oysterband - After Rain
Manfred Mann/Bruce Springsteen - Blinded By The Light
Underworld - Born Slippy
REM - Electrolyte/Don't Go Back To Rockville
Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun (cheers for reminding me of that one Dom... must dig the single out)
Led Zeppelin - Going To California/Battle of Evermore/Tangerine
Grateful Dead - Eyes Of The World

(doubtlessly will be back to add more!)

 

pwie - defcon 1
pwie - not now james we're busy
jesus jones
janes addiction - whens the new one out???
klf chill out.
the kevin and perry go large ost
bt - escm
the beach - ost
chicane - behind the sun
anything by groove armada especially by the river
g'n'r appetite for destructruction...donnington and blackpool '87
kiss - strutter.. austin 92.
death in vegas - dead elvis... ao nang '02
nirvana - smells like...
pearl jam - ten.
rem - orange crush
currently it's the lisa lashes extreme euphoria double cd doing summer choonz duties in the car at the moment...

cheers


julian

 

XTC: Skylarking
New Order: World in Motion
Happy Mondays: Bummed
Bob Marley: Catch a Fire
Kraftwerk: The Model/ Tour de France
The Smiths: Cemetry Gates

 

Really, is that why your list is about twice as long as everyone else's so far?

Think it's got to be "Follow Me Home" from that album, what with the sound of gentle lapping waves and crickets chirping in the background on that track, definitely makes you think of sunset on a tropical island. :MILD:

Wham - Club Tropicana
Dire Straits - Twisting By The Pool
Bryan Adams - Summer of '69
Mr. Joshua presents Espiritu - In Praise Of The Sun (Erm had to look the artist of this track up on Amazon. Got it on a compilation CD, but as is always the case with dance music, I can never remember the name but have no problem with classical names - the complete inverse of most people )
S-Express - Theme From S-EXpress *
Yazz - The Only Way Is Up *

* Both these tracks always remind of summer '88.

 

Spiritualized – Lay Back in the Sun, Anyway that you want me
Polyphonic Spree – It's the Sun, Holiday and Reach for the Sun... actually probably the whole album except for the tedious last track...
Pixies – Surfer Rosa
The Barracudas – errr... all the upbeat surfer tunes
Flowered Up – It's on
St. Etienne – Who do you think you are
Any Louis Phillippe album
Orbital – Lush 3
Oh and The Ketchup Song!

 

bit naughty but blasting pharoahe monch / simon says on the beach is always a favourite summer past time (girlies rub on those titties!)

seriously tho I like to go back to the big favourites for the summer. here's some of the varied summer stuff on my minidiscs at the moment, some from an old mix i did and some thought up as I go along,

quincy jones / summer in the city & stuff like that
barbara acklin / i can't do my thing
mica paris / i should've known better
the staple singers / i'll take you there
sly & the family stone / if you want me to stay
kinobe / slip into something..
zero 7 / give it away & red dust
nightmares on wax / les nuits
painted van / summertime bass
smoke city / underwater love
freestylers / here we go
soul ii soul / keep on movin
makoto / take my soul baby
peshay / you got me burnin
roni size / brown paper bag & watching windows
goldie / inner city life
big bud / stone groove
adam f / circles
roni size
ltj bukem / the essence
cut la roc / ny pimp & freeze
wiseguys / cowboy 78
groove armada / superstylin' & my friend & i see you baby
jah schreechie / walk and skank
us3 / you can't hold me down
herbaliser / shattered soul & mission improbable & ginger jumps the fence
cafe del mar / everybody loves the sunshine (gotta have the roy ayers version as well)
herbie hancock / fat mama & all of headhunters
mungo jerry / in the summertime (u gotta love it)
arrested development / mr wendal & everyday people
tribe called quest / left my wallet in el segundo & can i kick it
del la soul / me myself and i & aint all good & thru ya city
krs one / sound of da police
fatboy slim / star 69 (wine 'em dine 'em 69 'em mix?!)
azzido da bass / dooms night (timo maas remix)
outkast / so fresh so clean (fatboy slim remix)
layo & bushwacka / love story
apollo 440 / can't stop the rock (mint royale remix)
plump djs / move it with your mind

bloody hell this list could go on forever i'll stop now. imagine a massive mix of all those tracks (and some that i forgot)

edit: oops almost forgot marley / three little birds & redemption song - which would have been an absolute crime

 

God - thought of some more...

• Wiggle it - 2 in a room
• Moving on up - Primal Scream (damn you Ian - I *knew* there was one I'd forgot!)
• The boys are back in town - Thin Lizzy (for the lyrics about "won't be long til summer comes now that the boys are here again")
• Don't turn around - Aswad (same reason as Henryt's S'Express/Yazz tracks)
• Love like a river - Climie Fisher/I want it all - Queen/Song for whoever - Beautiful South/Do you love what you feel - Inner City/This time I know it's for real - Donna Summer (summer 89 was almost as good as summer 88!)
• (Highway to the) Danger Zone - Kenny Loggins
• ThE LoSt BoYS soundtrack
• Snuffin' in a Babylon - Albertos Y Los Trios Paranoias
• Here comes the summer - Undertones
• The heat is on - Glenn Frey
• Axel F - Harold Faultytowers (I can't remember how to spell his blooming name!!)

Phew - there's bound to be even more...

 

Nobody has mentioned :-

Schools out for the summer by Alice Cooper

 

Pretty much anything can sound good. Just play it loud enough to hear it from the garden!

Beer is helpfull too

Bob Marley again, and Basement Jaxx are always nice.

Soundtrack for last summer was probably 2 many DJS. And in previous years everything from Plastikman to beth orton!

Too many to mention! MOst infact

 

So Henry where did Vivaldi's Summer get lost - after the last few days the sultry nervelessness seems to get it just about right.

Surely the obvious summer tunes are:
The Lambarda
Agadoo
The Birdy Song

and just about anything else to ooze out of the naff British summer holidays. (And hold the bus...we forgot Sir Cliff too)

 

Sprung Monkey - Party Like a Rock Star
Lene Marlin - Sitting Down Here
Vanessa Carlton - Thousand Miles
Shakira - Underneath Your Clothes
Incubus - Are you in?
Alanis Morisette - Ironic
REM - Find the River
REM - Nightswimming

 

Graham, true that would have been an obvious one. It did cross my mind, but for some reason the music doesn't immediately evoke thoughts of summer for me, despite the self suggesting title. Guess I haven't lived in a mediteranean country, so my ideas of summer are of a British (not normally so sultry) summer rather than what one would experience in Italy. Mind you, the last movement of that concerto depicting a heavy thunderous downpour would seem quite timely, at least the forecasters have predicated thundery showers for us but none experienced so far up this end of the country.

Speaking of thundery showers:

Beethoven's "Pastoral" Symphony.

Now that's one piece of music that does conjur up various images of walking through the countryside in the summer whenever I hear it, and not only because of the self suggesting subtext provided by Ludwig Van.

Mendelssohn's "A Midsummer Night's Dream"?

Hmm, this has turned into a classical discussion, is this allowed in this area of the forum?

 

No - desist. Classical isn't music. Just kidding - classical can be pretty cool if it's upbeat

And yeah, The Four Seasons' "summer" doesn't remind ME of summer either (and I actually own that piece too - one of about only 5 classical pieces I DO own). Mind you, even unborn foetus' (would that be foetae??) have copies of The Four Seasons!