Month: June 2024

Summer Songs of the 1960s

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The Everly Brothers “Cathy’s Clown”

In 1960, The Everly Brothers “Cathy’s Clown” spent 5 weeks at #1 early in the summer. Then the made-for-summer song from Brian Hyland “Itsy Bitsy Yellow Polka Dot Bikini”, hit #1 for just one week but it was in the top 10 for July and August and stayed in the top 20 into September for a total stint of 10 weeks. Billboard would select “I’m Sorry” by the 15-year-old Brenda Lee which hit #1 for 3 weeks and spent more weeks in the top five and top ten than any other song that summer.

In 1961, a man who literally ran away to join the circus, Bobby Lewis was at #1 for 7 weeks in July and August with “Tossin’ and Turnin’” and was the Billboard choice for song of the summer. Bobby’s original song was also named the #1 song for 1961. Also from that year, 55BS1S lists Chubby Checker‘s “Let’s Twist Again” on it’s list at #35. On Billboard it hit top 10, peaking at #5 that summer.

In 1962, Bobby Vinton’s “Roses are Red” was the Billboard selection and Neil Sedaka’s “Breaking up is Hard to Do” was another chart topper that summer. The 55BSS ranks Surf Guitar King Dick Dale’s “Misirlou” at #15 and the second instrumental on the list.

Dick Dale “Misirlou”

In 1963, recorded before he turned 13 on May 13th, by August Stevie Wonder hit #1 for 3 weeks with “Fingertips Part II” and is the Billboard Choice for that year. “Surf City” by Jan and Dean (sounds like the Beach Boys because it was co-written by Brian Wilson) was #1 for 2 weeks and is ranked #22 on 55BSS. “(Love Is Like A) Heat Wave” by Martha and the Vandellas is ranked at #34 on the same list.

In 1964, “Dancing in the Street” by Martha and the Vandellas hit #2 on Billboard and #4 in the UK. Written by Marvin Gaye, Ivy Joe Hunter, and William Stevenson, 55BSS ranks this song as the #2 Greatest Song of Summer and one of the few artists to appear twice on the list.

“Under the Boardwalk” by The Drifters is ranked at #23 and Chad & Jeremy with “A Summer Song” at #52. The Billboard selection for that year was “Where Did Our Love Go” by the Supremes which was at #2 for 2 weeks in August.

In 1965, “California Girls” by The Beach Boys is ranked #7 overall on the 55BSS and peaked at #3 on Billboard in August. The Rolling Stones hit #1 for 4 weeks in July with “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” and they are the pick of the summer for Billboard Magazine.

In 1966, “Summer in the City” by Lovin’ Spoonful hit #1 on Billboard for 3 weeks and was ranked #10 on the 55BSS. Also from that year, “Sunny Afternoon” by the Kinks ranks at #44. Billboard’s song of summer is “Wild Thing” by The Troggs which charted #1 for 2 weeks. Other hot tunes were “Sunny” by Bobby Hebb and “Sunshine Superman” by Donovan.

In 1967, Billboard had “Light My Fire” by The Doors as the song of the summer. After 9 weeks on the charts it hit #1 at the end of July for the first of three weeks.

“Light My Fire” by The Doors

Also in 1967 Aretha Franklin’s “RESPECT” was still in the top 10 in July after 2 weeks at #1 in June. For 2 weeks before and another 2 after “RESPECT”, The Young Rascals hit #1 with “Groovin’” and along with three more songs, they were in the top 20 for 26 weeks. Also that summer, The Association preceded “Light My Fire” with “Windy” (#1 for three weeks).

Windy, Light My Fire, how often do you hear those words!

In 1968, Billboard’s choice is “This Guy’s in Love with You”, by Herb Alpert which was at #1 for 4 weeks. While Rolling Stone Magazine does not have a song from either 1967 nor 68 on their list, I think The Rascals (The Young Rascals prior to 1968) may have been overlooked. “People Got to be Free” was #1 for 5 weeks starting August 17. As just mentioned above, preceding their original “Groovin’” in 1967, The Rascals had a spring #1 hit in 1966 with a cover of Limmie Snell’s song “Good Lovin’”.

“Good Lovin’”

One of these days I’m thinkin’ I will do an ed. on all these apostrophe songs and maybe incl. abbreviated ones too!  Anyhow, “Good Lovin’” was ranked #333 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, and along with “Groovin” appears on The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. Author Dave Marsh placed “People Got to be Free” at #237 in his book, Heart of Rock and Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles of All Time.

In 1969 we have “Hot Fun in the Summertime” by Sly and The Family Stone which is ranked #9 overall by the 55BSS. Billboard’s song is “In the Year 2525” by Zager & Evans. This to me is no comparison to Sly’s song, however it did spend 6 weeks at #1 in July and August. By summer’s end people were so sick of the overplayed song it dropped off the charts completely by September. I recall that my terrified ten-year-old brain thought this apocalyptic song was truly predicting the end of the world …”as we know it” but now “I feel fine”.

“Hot Fun in the Summertime” by Sly and The Family Stone

  1. Rolling Stone Magazine list of The 55 Best Summer Songs of all Time. To simplify (my life anyway) I will shortform that to 55BSS and all references to a “ranked” song are from this list. ↩︎

Nurses – That Thing You Do Thursdays

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This is a new weekly feature that will explore original songs and their covers about an occupation/vocation, such as a sailor, teacher, doctor, or writer. Now “If I Were a Carpenter” I would have led with that, but no, I am not that talented. Not likely any songs that celebrate my particular job(s) but this series is thankfully, not about me. It may however be about you or at least, “That Thing You Do” (and yes I am ripping off the 1996 film).

Today that thing you do honors The Nursing profession.

“A Nurse’s Life Is Full Of Woe” by Billy Bragg. In his unique style, a song about the challenging job.

We all appreciate our Nurses, but unfortunately, not quite enough.

To live forever in your stupid dream
And face the ignominy that old age brings
Looking up in your heart, but I think you know
That a nurse’s life is full of woe

But Jimmy Quail in another town
They shift it up and they push you around
If you find it’s hard, you should think you so
That a nurse’s life is full of woe

She was in this fetid lie
This is not the way that I would choose to die
I wish you were ever in my heart
And I miss you in heaven to this day

And I wonder how you find it out
And you’re looking up and you’ll lock me out
‘Cause you know in your heart if you want to go
For a nurse’s life is full of woe

To live forever in your stupid dream
And facе the ignominy that old age brings
Looking up in your heart, and you’rе ever so
That a nurse’s life is full of woe

Do you believe any children survive?
I wonder if you wanna stay alive
And I wonder if you feel this gift
If you have to work a thirty-six hour shift

The Bentley Boys + Bob Fenster with a cover of “A Nurse’s Life Is Full Of Woe”.

Honourable mention to “Night Nurse” by Gregory Isaacs.

“On the Sunny Side of the Street” – Weather Wednesdays

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Every Wednesday I will pick some original weather-related titles and list a few covers. I will try and follow the most covered songs of all time list and pluck out the applicable titles, next on the list is the 96th most covered song of all time.

Ted Lewis and His Band had the first recording in 1930.

Grab your coat and get your hat, leave your worry at the doorstep
Just direct your feet to the sunny side of the street
Can’t you hear that pitter pat and that happy tune is your step
Life can be so sweet on the sunny side of the street

I used to walk in the shade with those blues on parade
But I’m not afraid ’cause this rover, crossed over

If I never had a cent I’ll be as rich as Rockefeller
Gold dust at my feet on the sunny side of the street

With those blues on parade
Because this rover, it crossed over

If I never had a cent I’ll be as loaded as old Rockefeller
With that gold dust ’round my feet
On the sunny side of the street
On the side, at that side of the street that is sunny

“On the Sunny Side of the Street” is From the Broadway musical Lew Leslie’s International Revue from 1930. Music written by Jimmy McHugh and Lyrics written by Dorothy Fields. The pair wrote the even more successful “I Can’t Give You Anything but Love (Baby)” that has 836 versions.

Dorothy Fields is the most recorded woman songwriter with the most artists and the most versions, by a fair margin over the #2, Carole King. It has become both an American Standard vocal song and a Jazz Instrumental Standard, with 760 versions.

On the sunny side of the street, On the side, at that side of the street that is sunny. It means now what it meant back then, to be on the “sunny side’ of anything, is a good thing. You can leave your troubles behind if you just walk on the sunny side, would if life were so simple.

Tommy Dorsey with The Clarke Sisters in 1945.

Not a big chart-topping song once again, as is not uncommon for Standards. Tommy Dorsey and The Sentimentalists (Clarke Sisters), reached #16 and The Pied Pipers #17, both in 1945.

The first version to come up on my YouTube search was Frank Sinatra from 1961.

Summer Songs of the 1950s

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Well around these parts Summer officially starts at 4:50 pm on Thursday, June 20, 2024. Whenever it begins for you, todays post celebrates some of the most popular summer songs from the 1950s and I will follow with one for the 60s. Billboard Magazine has a long history of naming “The Song of the Summer” going back to 1958, the first full summer for the Hot 100.

Today we list the officially named Billboard Song of the Summer with some reference to the Rolling Stone Magazine list of The 55 Best Summer Songs of all Time. To simplify (my life anyway) I will shortform that to 55BSS and all references to a “ranked” song are from this list.

Songs of the Summer

Domenico Modugno


“Nel blu, dipinto di blu” (“Volaré”) was the 1958 Song of the Summer.

The first “song of the summer” listed on Billboard and from Wikipedia (which seems to just have copied the Billboard list) is “Nel blu, dipinto di blu” (roughly meaning in the blue painted sky) and better known as “Volaré”. This plucky song was co-written by the prolific Franco Migliacci along with the original singer/songwriter Domenico Modugno.

Just a bit of trivia about Migliacci, he wrote hundreds of songs, including “La terza luna” by Neil Sedaka. Yes, this song hit #1 in Italy in April of 1963, one of many songs Sedaka sang in Italian, he also did a Yiddish album and songs in French, German, Hebre,w and Japanese.

“Nel blu, dipinto di blu” is much more than a summer song, in fact if the song could speak it may say “I’m kind of a big deal”, not to take anything away from Anchorman Ron Burgundy. First introduced on January 30, 1958, after winning first prize at the San Remo Festival, it was immediately released as a 45 rpm single. After finishing third at Eurovision (recently named #2 of all time) it very quickly became an international sensation and was recorded in nine languages in just its first year.

In 1958, the same year it was released it was covered 18 times in Italian.  After entering the charts at #54 for the week of August 4th it spent five weeks at #1 on the newly formed Billboard Hot 100 in August and September. While it hit top tens worldwide, it was only #1 in the US. It would go on be the #1 Year End song on Billboard and at the very first Grammys in 1959 it won Record of the Year and Song of the Year.

The first version with English translation (words by Mitchell Parish) was by Dean Martin (my favorite, which hit #1 in the UK) with his dual language version. It was the first of eight such covers in 1958. The first Italian language release titled as “Volaré” was in 1959 by Connie Francis who was another artist well known for recording in multiple languages. To date, this song has been covered over 280 times, which is quite a number but still only 385th on the Most Covered Songs list from Secondhandsongs.com. Other popular versions are by Sergio Franchi (The 1976 Plymouth car commercial guy), and The Gipsy Kings.

Apparently, Ricardo Montalban did not record this song, which runs contrary to my own and others’ recollection. Although he did do a car commercial with the memorable phrase “fine Corinthian leather”.

Other songs from 1958

“Nel blu, dipinto di blu” is a great song no doubt, but I find it difficult to picture the younger crowd dancing or sitting around the jukebox during the summer of 1958 with “Volaré” playing instead of the popular pop and rock and roll songs of the day.  Having said that, just two years later, teenage heartthrob Bobby Rydell hit the top ten in 1960 with his version of “Volaré”. But back to 1958, The Everly Brothers were all over the charts at this time. “All I Have to do is Dream” is the only song in history to hit #1 on all the Billboard Charts simultaneously, occurring on June 2. It was #1 in Canada (May 5-June 2) and on June 19th it hit #1 on the UK Singles Chart.

“All I Have to do is Dream”

Also very popular was Elvis Presley’s “Hard Headed Woman”, along with Ricky Nelson’s “Poor Little Fool”. Both were #1 for two weeks that summer. If we look at the Disc Jockey chart (one of several before the Hot 100 amalgamation August 4th) the novelty song “The Purple People Eater” was also #1 for four weeks.

The better pick for me that year would be Eddie Cochran with “Summertime Blues” which came out in June, hit #8 on Billboard, and was #18 in the UK. It was co-written by Cochran and his manager/songwriting partner Jerry Capehart. The 55BSS ranks this song at number three. Most famously covered by The Who (their version ranked at #19 on the same list). “Summertime Blues” is the only song to appear twice on the list. There is also a great rendition by Brian Setzer for the movie La Bamba (1987) and Alan Jackson had a #1 Country hit with it in 1994. Also if I may, an honorable mention for a memorable cover (in the style of the Who) from my brother Ivan’s band, my fuzzy recall places it circa 1980 at the old Oxford Tavern (the OxBox).

Eddie Cochran with “Summertime Blues”

Let’s backtrack just a bit before moving on to my next post on the 60s, here are more unofficial Summer Songs from the 1950s.

In the years prior to the Billboard Hot 100, I would have to say “Rock Around the Clock” was among other things, the top summer song, spending 8 weeks at #1 during the summer of 1955.

In 1956 there were very few R&R songs that hit #1, except for Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel” which topped the charts for 7 weeks from May 5 to June 16. He hit the top 10 with “I Want You, I Need You” (#3), “Hound Dog” (#2) and finished in September with “Don’t be Cruel” which spent 7 weeks at #1 up to the end of October of 1956.

In 1957, we had Elvis again with “All Shook Up” ending an 8-week run at #1 in June. Afterwards, Pat Boone occupied the top spot but Elvis returned with “(Let Me Be) Your Teddy Bear”, for 7 weeks at #1 until the end of August. Honestly, this man blows me away every time.

Elvis, “(Let Me Be) Your Teddy Bear”

This brings us back to where Billboard started in 1958, but to finish the decade, 1959 had very few true R&R songs at the top of the charts. That summer it was two songs; there was Country artist Johnny Horton with “The Battle of New Orleans” and teenage idol Paul Anka with “Lonely Boy” (Billboard’s choice) that dominated the #1 spot.

Elvis had the only really rocking song “A Big Hunk o’ Love” for 2 weeks at #1 in August. Ray Charles “What’d I Say” spent the month of August in the top 20 extending into September for a total of 7 weeks peaking at #6. 55BSS ranked the instrumental “Sleepwalk” by Santo & Johnny at #19; it was a late summer song that hit #3 on August 31 before reaching #1 for the last two weeks of September.

Eat Your Words – Mondegreen Mondays

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Eurythmics, Annie Lennox, Dave Stewart “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)”

Apparently Sweet Dreams can be made of cheese? Or we could just go with the actual lyrics.

Sweet dreams are made of this
Who am I to disagree?
I travel the world and the seven seas
Everybody’s looking for something

Abba “Dancing Queen”

“Dancing Queen, Feel the beat from the tambourine, oh yeah” is the way the song goes. However, some seem to have fruit on their minds.

“Dancing queen, Feel the beat from the tangerine, oh yeah”

“I’ll never be your beast of burden, My back is broad but it’s a-hurting”

However, perhaps some were in the mood for a snack and well .. “I’ll never leave your Pizza burnin’ , My back is broad but it’s a-hurting”.

In the song Pink sings “Just give me a reason, just a little bit’s enough”

Some apparently hear this “Just give me a raisin, just a little bit’s enough”

Hungry for more?

“Oh don’t lean on me man, Cause you ain’t got time to check it”

“Oh don’t lean on me man, Cause you ain’t got time for Chicken“

Ok, maybe just some rice then.

Classic song, classic words by The Beatles, right?

Oh, yeah, I’ll tell you somethin’
I think you’ll understand
When I say that somethin’
I want to hold your hand
I want to hold your hand
I want to hold your hand

How is it some seem to hear I want to hold your HAM??

We all know this song by The Killers, right. “Mr. Brightside”. The outro of the song repeats the word “I never”, and there is some variation in the pronunciation just a little perhaps but “Paella”? Now we’re back to chicken and rice.

Folks I am not the cook, just the server, and “I’m here all week”…

Lyrics by Genius.com