Songs of Summer

Every summer one pop hit dominates the radio, and subsequently, every time you hear it that summer you want to barf. Yet, when that song comes on two years later, it evokes a feeling of nostalgia for summers past. Entertainment Weekly has claimed that this year's summer runaway hit is Taio Cruz's Break Your Heart. Although later they also claimed that Jason Derulo's Ridin Solo could be the second runaway hit. If only songs like V.V. Brown's Shark in the Water or Sarah Bareilles King of Anything could be the hit of the summer. But alas, they are not mainstreamed enough yet.

In the meantime let me reflect on some of my favorite songs of summer. Note that many of them may not be as popular as you would assume.

First let me talk about Hot in Herre by Nelly. Ohhh the summer of 2002. I was a camp counselor and bus counselor at a camp with no A.C. and how this song rang true for me. Every day the bus driver would listen to Z100, and why wouldn’t they when there are kindergartners- fifth graders on the bus? Nelly’s hot jam came on every single day and all the little kids would sing a long: “Its getting hot in herre so take off all your clothes.”Admitedly I was a bit horrified, but none-the-less, I bobbed my head a long to Nelly’s bodacious rhymes.

My other favorite summer song of 2002 (well if EW can say two so can I!) was Jason Mraz’s The Remedy. Jason Mraz was, at the time, a talent that I couldn’t really comprehend. He had so many rhymes and such speedy delivery that I couldn’t help but be impressed. Later, while I was interning at WMG and researching his latest album We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things I read that Jason plays a game with other songwriters where he is given a phrase and has to come up with a song based on that phrase. Most of the time they are extremely quick phrasing songs (see Dynamo of Volition on We Sing).Yet, The Remedy, written about how his life was changed after his close friend was diagnosed with cancer, still holds a near and dear place in my heart and will forever be a light and sweet reminder of the summer past.

In 2003 my favorite summer song was Boys of Summer (the cover) by The Ataris. Now this will be the only song on my list with the word summer in the title, but it had to be said. I loved this cover. It was punkier (and you all read that I used to be into more punk style pop, the stage with I like to call the –groan- blink182 phase) and more upbeat then Don Henley’s original, and it still made me feel like going to the beach….Or at least makes me remember all the fun times I had while riding to work in my car.

In 2004 I had two songs which I loved. The first was Pharrell’s Frontin featuring Jay- Z. I loved the soft and sultry, yet fun hip hop vibe of the song. It was super exciting to me at the time because I hadn’t really listened to non-mainstreamed hip-hop that much and couldn’t get enough of this song. The other song I loved was Phantom Planets’ California. Yes, as my sister can attest, I loooved the O.C. when it first came out. I couldn’t get enough of it, and this was the theme song. What had started as a short summer show, boomed to success and became one of the most popular teen shows on t.v. This was largely due to the soundtrack (Thank You Alex Patsavas), but also because of the ritzy Orange County Community and loving family that was the Cohens. Regardless, anytime I hear this song all I think about is that summer I started watching the O.C. and forcing my sister to tape every episode for me while I was abroad.

In 2005 my favorite summer song was The All American Rejects Dirty Little Secret. When I got the AAR’s first album, It was the first album where I was able to predict, without fail, which songs would be singles, and I did that for their next album Move Along as well. I listened to that album my entire trip to California that summer (I frequently went to California in the summers for vacations).

The Summer of 2006 was devoted to KT Tunstall. Yes, I didn’t listen to her before she got popular in the U.S, which I admit is embarrassing, but that summer all I could listen to was Suddenly I See. This song theoretically became popular because of the movie The Devil Wears Prada. But I will chalk up my love for KT because of her righteous female empowerment tunes and because of my love for Black Horse and The Cherry Tree. Theoretically, I should put some random, terrible, gym-like covers of popular songs for the summer of 2006, because I spent so much of it at Curves, and trust me, that place does NOT have good music. But I will stick with KT instead.

In 2007 what other song could I choose but Rhianna’s Umbrella? I mean come on. That hit was EVERYWHERE. Admittedly, I didn’t really like Rhianna until she came out with Umbrella, but that all changed once I heard this tune, which I still maintain is not at all sexual, even though she grinds with an umbrella in her music video. My friend Betsy came to visit me that summer and this song was #1 on the mix I made for her, and how could it not be? I mean seriously? Ella…Ella.

In 2008, I would say there are about a million songs I could choose from. This was the summer I started interning at WMG and was exposed to so much good music. I didn’t even know what to do with myself. My mainstream hit was definitely Viva La Vida by Coldplay, since that song was on the radio every minute and is still one of my favorite albums ever. It takes a lot for a song to still be awesome after being overplayed and not make me change radio channels whenever I hear it. Coldplay managed to do just that. The other two songs I would choose are Oh by Eric Hutchinson. Now I loved Eric for many reasons. The first was that he was so adorable, and yes I got to meet him in person and acted like a fool. The second is the fact that I loved every song on his album Sounds like This and recommended it to my friends and family ad-nauseum as a result. But the biggest reason is the fact that he is talented. When he came to WMG to perform he sang his song All Over Now and proceeded to show us why the song HAD to be a hit. His reasoning was because it had the same chord progression of just about every major hit out there (including but not limited to Material Girl, and Little Red Corvette). Oh was one of my favorites on his over-played album that summer. My other favorite summer hit was the much less popular song by Spoon You Got Yr Cherry Bomb. Yes its risqué, but it is so darn catchy! How can you not bob your head and tap your feet when listening to it?!

Lastly my summer song of 2009 is Jordin Sparks Battlefield. Yes this song is pretty lame, but I would venture to say that it is mine and my husbands “song.” Not because our love is a battlefield, but rather because my husband, for no reason, at the most random times would scream out BATTLEFIELD. GET YOUR ARMOR! It still cracks me up thinking about it, since we had just gotten married, and he continued to do this for months at a time.

My song of 2010? I will let you know once the summer is over. Post your favorite summer songs below!