SUMMER SINGLES

The Songs of Summer blog hop is being hosted by  the Armchair Squid, Cygnus and Suze, although I heard about it from Trisha F's blog ( Word+Stuff).

It seems simple enough-list five of your favorite summer songs and share some memories about them.

As usual, I don't follow rules very well, as there are seven songs below (although the songs that are my blog hop entries are clearly labeled)
  

1966-THE LOVIN' SPOONFUL
"SUMMER IN THE CITY"

I was five and sharing a room with my oldest brother who played this song to death. 

When he moved out, his two Spoonful albums mysteriously made their way into my record collection.

One of the first perfect summer songs I became aware of, and while the Beach Boys made a career out of perfect summer songs, this one resonated more to an east coast kid (a 'woody and your best girl' had a whole different meaning in the Philadelphia suburbs)

1975-WAR
"LOW RIDER"

More LA than Philadelphia, the song still ruled the airwaves that summer, even though to someone from Philly, low riders were jeans.

I was still on the young side in 1975, but this song seemed to get resurrected each year, especially at the Jersey shore.

The melody really makes you feel like you're crawling through traffic in the hot sun.

Although you never truly know what the hot sun is until you come to Arizona in July...

1982-SURVIVOR
"EYE OF THE TIGER"

By this summer, our gym of choice had moved from the Police Athletic League gym over the Upper Darby Firehouse to The Rock's (my friend Ken was "The Rock" long before Dwayne Johnson stole the moniker from him) basement, and this song was the soundtrack of that summer.

In fact, the memory of those days is making my muscles sore...

A runner-up for this summer would have been "Take The L" by the Motels. 

While it was not the big hit from their All Four One album, we played that one to death as well because we could make fun of each other to it (take the L out of loser, you're an 'oser').

1985-DAVID LEE ROTH
"CALIFORNIA GIRLS"

I can hear Stephen T. McCarthy foaming at the mouth, so let me start by saying this song is not here because it is better than the Beach Boys' version, but I was four when Brian Wilson wrote and released this soundtrack to his first LSD trip (according to Wikipedia, that's what the music was inspired by), and let's face it...one thing David Lee Roth knows is how to show off sexy women in videos.

This song got a lot of play that summer, something that I am sure had Mr. Wilson smiling all the way to the bank.

2010-KATY PERRY
"CALIFORNIA GURLS"

This song seemed to be playing every time I walked through the lobby of the bulding I worked in during the summer of 2010, and I stand here to confess to Katy Perry being a guilty pleasure. 

Yeah, it's pop fluff, but the song is catchy, she's a hottie, and what's not to like about the video?

In no way is this list comprehensive, nor would I say these are my top five summer songs. These are the five that came to mind as I composed this.

Ask me next week, you'd probably get a different list.

I'll leave you with a song that seems appropriate, John Welsey Harding's "Summer Single."

It sounds the the hosts of this fest are Down Under, so stay warm my friends!