Summer Songs & This Month's Statistics

The time is drawing near: we will soon say our annual goodbyes to summer. Now that we're about to lose it, we get to appreciate it for what it was... and there are songs that help us tell the story.

The end of summer brings back friends that had been separated by their holidays - and they're anxious to tell each other all about it, like in this mega-hit from the 1978 musical "Grease", Summer Nights, sung by Olivia Newton-John, John Travolta, and company:

The end of summer brings back memories of a love that was, as in Simon May's The Summer Of My Life:

Then again, the feelings generated by summer's halcyon days can inspire poetic thoughts, such as those in Summer’s Almost Gone by The Doors:

In order to end, the summer has to begin, right? And there are many songs that express what it's like when a long winter is being defeated by the warm rays of the sun. The best song to welcome the warmest season of the year has to be The Beatles' Here Comes The Sun:

This is a hit cover version by Cockney Rebel, which I like:

Then there are the surfers, who can't wait for June in order to spend countless hours riding the waves. Listen to The Beach Boys talking about it in Surfin' USA:

What about the school students, who are waiting impatiently for their schools to close for the summer? Alice Cooper says it best in School’s Out:

The young people's view is also examined in Summertime, by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince:

Not everybody is happy to have their summer holidays, however. The Sex Pistols trashed the idea in the song Holidays In The Sun:

The Undertones, on the other hand, welcomed the season in their song Here Comes The Summer:

Keith Urban is looking forward to summer because he imagines being together with the girl of his dreams in the song Long Hot Summer:

Cliff Richard is having an ecstatic moment in anticipation of his Summer Holiday:

While the Bay City Rollers dream of a Summerlove Sensation:

Some time summer hits can be classist: "If her daddy's rich take her out for a meal, If her daddy's poor just do what you feel", say Mungo Jerry in their huge hit, In The Summertime:

Beach Baby by First Class is perfect for those who chose the seaside for their holidays:

But not everyone goes on holidays in the summer. The Lovin' Spoonful have the best song about spending Summer In The City:

Eddie Cochran shares his summertime woes in Summertime Blues:

The Who did a great cover of this song in quite possibly the best live rock album ever, Live At Leeds:

Summer can be the source of heartbreak, as Stevie Wonder attests in Never Dreamed You’d Leave In Summer:

Many summer songs are immersed in nostalgia. Don Henley's The Boys Of Summer is one of them:

Bryan Adams' Summer of ’69 is another:

So is The Ataris' Summer '79:

Bananarama's Cruel Summer is a song of loneliness and pain:

Style Council's Long Hot Summer is also a song of pain:

Summer Girl by HAIM is a song of empowerment:

So is Taylor Swift's Cruel Summer:

Perhaps the most famous summer song of all, the Gershwin classic Summertime is a gentle lullaby. There are literally thousands of versions out there. I chose two. The superb duet between Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong:

... And the rock version by the inimitable Janis Joplin:

Chad & Jeremy's A Summer Song combines nostalgia with poetic images:

Summer Breeze perfectly captures the feeling of summer. This is the original by Seals & Crofts:

... And this is a great cover version by The Isley Brothers:

Lee Hazlewood's Summer Wine, a hit that he recorded with his then girlfriend, Nancy Sinatra, uses psychedelic imagery:

Summer is often the subject of films. It seems that somehow it's considered the best time for a teenage boy to lose his virginity to an older woman. Such as the movie Summer of '42. This is the title song by Michel Legrand, as performed by Andy Williams:

Bobby Goldsboro's Summer (The First Time) tells a similar story:

The rural drama of Bobbie Gentry's Ode To Billie Joe takes place in June:

Back to the movies: "A Summer Place" would have been a slightly forgettable romantic drama, if not for its theme, written by the legendary Max Steiner. It wasn't even the main theme. Yet, when Percy Faith arranged and recorded the theme with his orchestra, it became one of the biggest instrumental hits ever:

Another movie, 25 years later, was called "Summer Lovers" and was filmed on the beautiful Greek island of Santorini. On this movie was the #1 hit by Chicago, Hard To Say I’m Sorry:

Finally, here's a very popular boyband that's called 5 Seconds Of Summer. This is their biggest (and best) hit, Youngblood:

Now, it’s time for our statistics. The top 10 stories of the month were the ones concerning George Maharis (with almost four times as many visits as #2), Dave Clark, Mitch Ryder, Simon & Garfunkel, Luther Vandross, Freddie Jackson, Joe Jackson, Peter Allen, Tevin Campbell, and Peter Straker. These stories generally attract a lot of visits. My theory is that perhaps these stories appear on the first or second page of a Google search, being therefore available to more people. It's just a theory...

As far as countries are concerned, France and Greece suffered minor losses, while winners include the United States, the Netherlands, and Brazil. The rest of the major players kept their percentages stable.

Here are this month's Top 10 countries:

1. the United States

2. the United Kingdom

3. Canada

4. Australia

5. Germany

6. Russia

7. France

8. Greece

9. the Netherlands

10. Brazil

Here are the other countries that graced us with their presence since our last statistics (alphabetically): Albania, Algeria, Argentina, Austria, Azerbaijan, the Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Bermuda, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cayman Islands, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Eswatini (Swaziland), Ethiopia, Finland, Georgia, Ghana, Guam, Guatemala, Guernsey, Haiti, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Isle of Man, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jersey, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Lithuania, Macau, Malaysia, Malta, Martinique, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar (Burma), Nepal, New Zealand, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Saint Lucia, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Vincent & the Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, US Virgin Islands, Venezuela, Vietnam, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Happy to have you all!

And here's the all-time Top 10:

1. the United States = 36.2%

2. France = 14.6%

3. the United Kingdom = 11.1%

4. Greece = 6.8%

5. Russia = 3.0%

6. Canada = 2.1%

7. Germany = 2.0%

8. Australia = 1.0%

9. Italy = 0.8%

10. Cyprus = 0.7%

That's all for today, folks. Till the next one!

It was 50 years ago, today: part 3 & This Week's Statistics

Today, we conclude our presentation of the UK top 50 singles, as they appeared 50 years ago. Let's get on with it!

No 15: There are many songs that tell stories but The Beatles' The Ballad Of John And Yoko was almost like a newsreel of one of the most famous marriages (plus honeymoon and bed-in) of all-time. The verse told the story as any newspaper would - while the chorus and the middle eight functioned like an editorial. The song was already a UK #1, it was currently on its way down.

No 14: There was a time when one of the most eclectic singer-songwriters of the last 60 years actually had hit singles: We are talking about Scott Walker. Lights Of Cincinnati had peaked at #13 the week before - and it's a sublime song.

No 13: Also on its way down was the rock classic, Proud Mary, by one of America's best rock bands, Creedence Clearwater Revival. Having peaked at #2 in the US, it was a top 10 hit in the UK.

No 12: The Beatles had launched their own record company, Apple. Billy Preston was one of the company's main acts and That's The Way God Planned It was his biggest hit during his stay at the company. It would peak at #11.

No 11: Break Away was one of The Beach Boys' less successful hits in the US. It did much better in the UK, peaking at #6.

No 10: The Family Dogg was a British vocal group created by Steve Rowland, future hit songwriter Albert Hammond, and his writing partner Mike Hazlewood. Christine Holmes, Pam "Zooey" Quinn, and Doreen De Veuve completed the original line-up. The musicians playing on the hit single at #10, Way Of Life, are all extraordinary: they include 3/4 of Led Zeppelin (Page, Jones, and Bonham) as well as Elton John! The single, written by regular hit-makers Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway, had already peaked at #6.

No 09: Another Beatles' connection here: The Marmalade were a Scottish pop/rock band who, a few months earlier, had topped the charts with their version of the Beatles' Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da. They thus became the first Scottish group to top the UK chart. Baby Make It Soon was their follow-up, written by Tony Macaulay - and it peaked at #9 in the UK and at #3 in South Africa.

No 08: Clodagh Rodgers, a pretty blonde singer and actress from Northern Ireland, began her professional singing career at 13. In 1969, she was the best-selling female singles artist in the UK, partly because of Goodnight Midnight, a top 5 hit.

No 07: Desmond Dekker was a Jamaican ska, rocksteady and reggae singer-songwriter, and musician. Together with his backing group, The Aces, he was very popular and paved the way for Bob Marley & The Wailers. The single in question, peaking at #7, was called It Mek. The song's title is Jamaican patois meaning "that's why" or "that's the reason." The phrase was also used as a schoolyard taunt roughly meaning "that's what you get." This was the sense used in the song's lyrics, which metaphorically tell of the problems that happen when someone (such as a lover) goes too far.

Desmond Dekker's preceding single was also his only #1 hit in the UK, called Israelites. Since it's my favorite reggae song outside of Bob Marley, here it is as a bonus:

No 06: We've heard artists from England, from the US, from Scotland, from Northern Ireland, from Jamaica - now it's time for a Welsh band called Amen Corner. Hello Suzie (written by the Move's Roy Wood) was their follow-up to their #1 hit (If Paradise Is) Half as Nice. Hello Suzie peaked at #4.

No 05: After the Bee Gees' original international success, tensions began to mount within the group. Robin Gibb had a brief solo career - and Saved By The Bell was his most successful European hit. It peaked at #2 in the  UK. It was a #1 hit in New Zealand, South Africa, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Ireland.

No 04: In 1968-69 everybody was trying to be socially and politically relevant with their songs. Even The King, Elvis Presley, not the most progressive of artists, released In the Ghetto, a socially sensitive song written by Mac Davis.

It is a narrative of generational poverty: a boy is born to a mother who already has more children than she can feed in the ghetto of Chicago. The boy grows up hungry, steals and fights, purchases a gun and steals a car, attempts to run but is shot and killed. The song ends with another child being born in the ghetto and implies that the newborn could meet the same fate, continuing the cycle of poverty and violence. The feeling of an inescapable circle is created by the structure of the song, with its simple, stark phrasing; by the repetition of the phrase "in the ghetto" as the close of every fourth line; and finally by the repetition of the first verse's "and his mama cries" just before the beginning and as the close of the last verse. It is played in the key of B flat.

The public rewarded Elvis' turn. In the Ghetto became one of his two most popular hits since 1963. The other was Suspicious Minds. In the Ghetto peaked at #2 in the UK and Canada and at #3 in the US. It was a #1 hit in Germany, Australia, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, and New Zealand.

No 03: In 1969, Pete Townshend, The Who's guitarist and songwriter, was the catalyst behind the formation of the band Thunderclap Newman. The concept was to create a band to perform songs written by drummer and singer Speedy Keen, who had written Armenia City in the Sky, the first track on "The Who Sell Out". Townshend recruited jazz pianist Andy "Thunderclap" Newman (a friend from art college), and 15-year-old Glaswegian guitarist Jimmy McCulloch, who subsequently played lead guitar in Paul McCartney's Wings from 1974 to 1977 and died of a heroin overdose in 1979 aged just 26. Keen played the drums and sang the lead. Keen also wrote Something In The Air, the band's first single.

Townshend produced the single, arranged the strings, and played bass under the pseudonym Bijou Drains. Originally titled Revolution but later renamed to avoid confusion with the Beatles' 1968 song of that name, Something in the Air captured post-flower power rebellion, marrying McCulloch's sweeping acoustic and glowing electric guitars, Keen's powerful drumming and yearning falsetto, and Newman's felicitous piano solo.

The single reached #1 in the UK Singles Chart just three weeks after release, holding off Elvis Presley in the process. This had just happened in the previous week to the one we are presenting today. In this chart, it had moved down to #3.

The song was used in various movies and on TV and received multiple covers, the most notable being the ones by Labelle (1973), the Eurythmics (1985), and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (1994).

I have a special affection for songs that mirror the sociopolitical climate of their era, so, as a bonus, here's a song that was released more than two years earlier and is one of the best of its kind: Buffalo Springfield's For What It's Worth. It was written by Stephen Stills and was inspired by the Sunset Strip curfew riots in November 1966. The song was a big hit, peaking at #7 in the US and at #9 in Canada.

No 02: At #2 is Give Peace A Chance by the Plastic Ono Band, the song that became the anthem of the anti-Vietnam-war and counterculture movements, and was sung by half a million demonstrators in Washington, D.C. at the Vietnam Moratorium Day, on 15 November 1969.

The Plastic Ono Band was John Lennon's ad hoc group of friends, including Yoko, Tommy Smothers of the Smothers Brothers, and various celebrities, including Timothy Leary, Rabbi Abraham Feinberg, Joseph Schwartz, Rosemary Woodruff Leary, Petula Clark, Dick Gregory, Allen Ginsberg, Roger Scott, Murray the K, and Derek Taylor, many of whom are mentioned in the lyrics.

When released in 1969, the song was credited to Lennon–McCartney. On some later releases, only Lennon is credited. Lennon later stated his regrets about being "guilty enough to give McCartney credit as co-writer on my first independent single instead of giving it to Yoko, who had actually written it with me." According to author Ian MacDonald, the credit was Lennon's way of thanking McCartney for helping him record The Ballad of John and Yoko at short notice.

The song reached #2 in the UK and #14 in the US. Shortly after John's tragic death, fans gathered outside the Dakota (the building in which Lennon lived at the time) and sang Give Peace a Chance. The song is one of three Lennon solo songs, along with Instant Karma! and Imagine, in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.

No 01: For its first of four weeks at the top, we now go to the Rolling Stones' smash hit Honky Tonk Women. It was a single-only release, available from 4 July 1969 in the United Kingdom, and a week later in the United States (although a country version called Country Honk was later included on the album "Let It Bleed"). It topped the charts in both nations.

The song was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards while on holiday in Brazil from late December 1968 to early January 1969, inspired by Brazilian "caipiras" (inhabitants of rural, remote areas of parts of Brazil) at the ranch where Jagger and Richards were staying in Matão, São Paulo.

Honky Tonk Women is distinctive as it opens not with a guitar riff, but with a beat played on a cowbell. The Rolling Stones' producer Jimmy Miller performed the cowbell for the recording. Except for the US and the UK, the song was also a #1 hit in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and Switzerland. It hit #2 in Canada, Germany, and Norway, #4 in Austria and the Netherlands, and #5 in Belgium.

Now, it’s time for our statistics. There was a 29% increase in the number of visits from the previous week, which is natural, considering there were more stories. The new stories did OK - but I am glad to say that people keep going back to read the older stories. Thanks!

As far as countries are concerned, Greece was the only major player that suffered minor losses, while winners include the United States, South Africa, and the Netherlands. The rest of the major players kept their percentages stable.

Here are this week's Top 10 countries:

1. the United States

2. the United Kingdom

3. Canada

4. Russia

5. Australia

6. Greece

7. Germany

8. South Africa

9. the Netherlands

10. France

Here are the other countries that graced us with their presence since our last statistics (alphabetically): Argentina, Austria, the Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Cameroon, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Eswatini (Swaziland), Finland, French Polynesia, Georgia, Ghana, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jersey, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kosovo, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Maldives, Malta, Martinique, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar (Burma), New Zealand, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Norway, Oman, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago, Turkey, Turks & Caicos Islands, Uganda, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe. Happy to have you all!

And here's the all-time Top 10:

1. the United States = 35.8%

2. France = 14.9%

3. the United Kingdom = 11.1%

4. Greece = 6.9%

5. Russia = 3.0%

6. Canada = 2.1%

7. Germany = 2.0%

8. Australia = 1.0%

9. Italy = 0.8%

10. Cyprus = 0.7%

That's all for today, folks. Till the next one!