“Mungo Jerry and Bing”

By Chris Busone.

Well children, summer’s here and the time is certainly right. So I thought it’d be the perfect time to shine a little sunlight on some songs traditionally set aside for the sultry summer season. Not just songs with the word “summer” in them, that would be too easy. But songs that just feel like summer to all of us, or maybe it’s just me. Sometimes it’s just me. 

But first, this month’s quote, which inspired this inspiring inspiration:

It comes from a man who needs no introduction, but I have a dozen or so paragraphs to fill, so let’s give him one anyway. He was the badass Bard of Avon. A playwright, a poet, an actor, and he did it all while wearing the most uncomfortable-looking shirt collar ever tailored. We are, of course, talking about the man from Stratford himself, William Shakespeare. And from Will’s quill came his 18th sonnet, most famous for its opening line in which he compares his lady love to a summer’s day. But it is a few lines later when Will waxes, “Summer’s lease hath all too short a date,” that made my Doppler radar perk up. 

And as I mulled over Will’s Elizabethan weather forecast, it struck me that now that we have completely screwed up the balance of the planet’s atmospheric levels, it seems like we’re on a nine months of winter, three months of summer program. With practically nothing in between. So, in the shortened lease that summer hath (or is it hathes?… hathened?) and after months and months and still more months of icy, snowy, sleety schmutz, let’s pack in all the beachy bliss and warm weather tunes that we can.

Right, groundwork laid, so off we go …

Up near the top of my list is the Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Summer in the City.” Hot town … Sebastian at his best with the back of his neck all dirt and gritty. Just paints an indelible image of a city in heat. What about the pulsing sun-soaked beat of Eddie Cochran, lamenting the “Summertime Blues”? This is blues with a most joyful noise. I mean, he works all summer just to try and earn a dollar. And his mom and papa still won’t let him use the car to go ridin’ next Sunday? But is Eddie downhearted? Oh no, he just keeps on rockin’ those blues. 

There are, of course, some ubiquitous summer tunes that break out of their assigned season. Take Bryan Adams’ “Summer of 69” or Sinatra’s “Summer Wind.” These chestnuts are played all year; winter, spring, summer, or fall, the calendar be damned. But let’s dig a little deeper, shall we? 

How about Martha Davis and the Motels, “Suddenly, Last Summer”? A melody line so liltingly warm that it just makes you want to close your eyes and swing in that hammock. Follow that up with Sly and his family’s “Hot Fun in the Summertime” and OOOW LORD, you’re off to summertime dreamland.

And lest we forget, summer’s answer to White Christmas, Mungo Jerry’s “In the Summertime.” Just like Der Bingle’s classic, it only gets played at that special time of year, and we all just nod along in seasonal agreement. It’s a jumpy, bumpy sing-along that never fails to bring a grin and make you feel like “you can stretch right up and touch the sky.”  Hell, Jerry’s muttonchops alone are worth the price of admission on that one. Those things start at his temple and end up in Fort Lauderdale. And while we’re at it, I’m just saying, can’t someone gin up an AI duet with these two guys? Bing in his ascot scattin’ “Bub bub baa bub bub …” and Mungo on a stool, shoeless and stoned, talkin’ ’bout “Dee dee dee-dee-dee …” That way, when AI and the machines finally take over, at least we had that.    

There are outliers like Eddie and the Cruiser’s (Beaver Brown Band) “Wild Summer Nights” that really just grab me. I’m not gonna lie, love me some John Cafferty and Beaver Brown. I don’t care if you think he sounds like Bruce; he’s from New Jersey, so he comes by it honestly. Of course, Seals & Crofts is making us feel just fine with a warm “Summer Breeze.” And does that warm California sun make the girls frisky in old ‘Frisco? Just ask the Rivieras, they’ll tell ya.

But no worries, when the sun beats down and burns the tar off of the roof, we can always go “Under the Boardwalk” with the Drifters. Out of the sun … people walking above … and we’ll be fallin’ in love, under the boardwalk … never mind the seaweed and Coney Island whitefish. 

There are songs, groups, or records that make no reference to the season but just mean summer to me all the same. We all have them. For no particular reason, it’s always been that way with Steely Dan for me. When I hear that first guitar plunk of “Hey Nineteen” and the windows are down in the car, warm air circulating, oh yea, it’s summer man. And Elvis Costello’s “My Aim is True” record, which at 17 my friends and I played for one entire five-day Memorial Day weekend because we loved it so much, and it was the only cassette tape we had in the van. 

When I’m in a punkish mood and the warm weather kicks in, I wanna hop in the car and drive to “Rockaway Beach” with the Ramones and blast the Ataris’ cover of Don Henley’s “Boys of Summer,” which rocks so freakin’ hard I just never ever want to hear the original ever again … if I’m being honest, I never did. 

On a jazzier tip, I gotta have Lou Donaldson’s “Alligator Boogie” record when the mercury climbs, with Lonnie Smith on the B3 and George Benson on guitar. And Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers delivering their jazzy message and “Just Coolin’.”

But whether it’s punk, rock, jazz, or punk-rock-jazz (is that a thing? That should be a thing.) summer should be filled with music so we can celebrate the sliver of warm air and cool times it brings. Sh**, everything should be filled with music. A friend of mine and I are fond of saying that a great jukebox can make a dive bar cool, and a crappy juke can make the best bar in town a drag. It’s always all about the tunes. 

So come on, you bronze gods, oil up and smear that white stuff on your nose like Blotto taught us. Now order yourself a chilly martini and a hearts of palm salad, put your feet up on the empty chair next to you, and tune in to some summer sounds that take you to that warm, happy place that you dreamed of all winter.

As for me, it’s time I wrap this thing up because this is the Great Northeast and it’ll be fall in 15 minutes, which means winter in 20. So quick like, before summer hath ended, count it off with me, 2…3…4…(are we sure it’s not hathened?…hathened sounds right to me).