As we close in on your Top 100 All-Time Summer Favorites, I thought it might be nice to share a few comments and observations that we’ve received along the way …
You can keep tabs on the countdown right here …
We’re counting down Your Top 200 All-Time Favorite Songs of Summer EVERY DAY thru Labor Day Weekend. And then, all Labor Day Weekend long, Scott Shannon will be playing the winners on The True Oldies Channel … with a special Top Ten Countdown on Labor Day Monday (September 7th) at Noon Eastern. (kk)
And, speaking of the True Oldies Channel, here’s a note from Scott Shannon himself!
This list is GREAT! Already getting lots of positive feedback from True Oldies listeners about the upcoming Summer Weekend and your site.
Scott Shannon … Dee Jay
Scott Shannon … Dee Jay
The more I look at the whole list, the more I’m blown away. Our readers and your listeners have put together an incredible collection of songs, all paying tribute to the spirit of summer and the music of summers past. I can’t wait to hear it myself!!! (kk)
Just saw your #1 listing …
Great song and a great story from John Sebastian!
I’m a huge fan of all the Beach Boys summer songs but Summer In The City deserves to be honored,
Phil
PrayForSurgBlog.blogspot.com
How popular was “Summer In The City” this time around?
Forget the fact that we received more votes than ever before in our most recent Summer Favorites Poll …
It’s really irrelevant …
Because the percentages don’t lie.
And, this time around, “Summer In The City” earned 60% more votes than our #2 song.
And that’s really saying something.
It also earned 2.2% of ALL of the 45,348 votes we received. (Only The Top 4 songs received more than 500 votes … and “Summer In The City” earned better than TWICE that many!)
So yes … I can VERY easily proclaim it to be the #1 FAVORITE SUMMER SONG OF ALL-TIME.
(That being said, The Beach Boys are pretty well represented with SIXTEEN tracks on the list! Lol) kk
Hey Kent,
You really have to LOVE that snare drum and that piano in 'Summer In The City'.
You can feel it.
Radio Played the heck out of it 'COOL Stuff'
LJ Coon
Some ole favorites, Kent.
Congrats to John Sebastian on his "Summer in The City" being at the top of the list. I recently saw John Sebastian on a retro folk music program that he was hosting on PBS. Funny how a name comes up that you haven’t heard about in recent times and all of a sudden you hear it more often.
Hmmm ...
Hope you are well and staying safe being near the "Windy City." Take care.
Sandy
Forget the fact that we received more votes than ever before in our most recent Summer Favorites Poll …
It’s really irrelevant …
Because the percentages don’t lie.
And, this time around, “Summer In The City” earned 60% more votes than our #2 song.
And that’s really saying something.
It also earned 2.2% of ALL of the 45,348 votes we received. (Only The Top 4 songs received more than 500 votes … and “Summer In The City” earned better than TWICE that many!)
So yes … I can VERY easily proclaim it to be the #1 FAVORITE SUMMER SONG OF ALL-TIME.
(That being said, The Beach Boys are pretty well represented with SIXTEEN tracks on the list! Lol) kk
Hey Kent,
You really have to LOVE that snare drum and that piano in 'Summer In The City'.
You can feel it.
Radio Played the heck out of it 'COOL Stuff'
LJ Coon
Some ole favorites, Kent.
Congrats to John Sebastian on his "Summer in The City" being at the top of the list. I recently saw John Sebastian on a retro folk music program that he was hosting on PBS. Funny how a name comes up that you haven’t heard about in recent times and all of a sudden you hear it more often.
Hmmm ...
Hope you are well and staying safe being near the "Windy City." Take care.
Sandy
kk's COUNTDOWN = " SUMMER IN THE CITY " # 1 Every Time
WCBS-FM COUNTDOWN = " IN THE STILL OF THE NIGHT " # 1 Every Time.
FB
It’s all determined by the way that you guys voted. (I guess you could say “I see a trend developing here” … I think we've had a different #2 song every time we've done the countdown ... last time, in 2010, it was Chad and Jeremy's "A Summer Song" ... and this time it's something else ... but honestly the #2 song wasn’t even close this time around. There were times along the way when it had TWICE as many votes as whatever the #2 song might have been at that time. Without question, the biggest landslide ever! (kk)
Really looking forward to the Labor Day Weekend Summer Hits Countdown from Kent and Scott Shannon on The True Oldies Channel.
Geoff Dorsett
Radio Presenter
Hi Kent,
What an amazing selection of great songs!
We appreciate your time and effort in putting this together and respect and appreciate your dedication to preserving and bringing the music to a new generation.
Tommy James and Carol Ross
You’ll find a couple of Tommy’s tunes on the list …
“Hanky Panky” was certainly one of the biggest summer hits of 1966 … man, I LOVED that song!!! (I’ve told the story before about how my two brothers and I would lip-sync and perform the song for the other kids in the neighborhood, standing out in front of the old tool shed in our yard, strumming rakes for guitars and beating on large empty buckets for drums … and the kids LOVED it!!! Of course back then “Hanky Panky” was coming on the radio every fifteen minutes if you switched back and forth between WLS and WCFL!!! Lol Chicago was DEFINITELY Tommy’s town!)
And, incredibly, this year, ANOTHER one of Tommy’s songs ranked even higher on the countdown.
Stay tuned and listen … this is a KILLER list of Summer Favorites! (kk)
I loved watching the Turtles mime to Happy Together, the song Karen and I fell in love to back in 1968 ... April 9th. On September 2nd it will be 48 years. Oh man! Thanks for all the great video memories you share with us 60s and 70s junkies.
And thanks again, Kent, for all you do to make us feel 19 again.
Rock on!
Jimbo and all the Ides of March and team.
>>>My song Green Grass was written by Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway in 1965. They were from Nashville. (Gary Lewis)
Really? I thought Cook & Greenaway were British.
– Randy Price
Actually yes, they were. I’m guessing that maybe the song was pitched to Gary’s producer Snuffy Garnett in Nashville (???) kk
Hi, Kent ...
The multi-talented genius Jack Nitzsche passed away 20 years ago, on 8-25-2000. I'm not an expert on surf music, but in my opinion, his "Lonely Surfer" was the best surf tune ever made.
I’m wondering how this one fared in your Summer Countdown.
Mike
I agree with you that it’s a great song … but, believe it or not, it wasn’t even nominated! Not this year OR last for that matter! Kinda surprising, no?
(By the way, did you know that Jack was born right here in Chicago?) kk
And leave it to Frank B to send us some additional videos for songs that made our Top 200 Countdown …
kk:
I think this one already made your countdown as an “honorable mention” …
Wow! This is a GREAT clip … and the guys sound fantastic!!! (Frank also sent me a list of upcoming shows featuring The Cyrkle … mostly east coast stuff … wonder how many of these 2020 dates will go off as planned … they’re still postponing and rescheduling everything here in Chicago!) kk
This one came in at #150 on the summer countdown …
Check out Connie Francis Singing Where the Boys Are at the Film's 50-Year Anniversary on the Beach - YouTube
#153 …
Howard Kaylan – The Story Behind "Happy Together" | GRAMMYs – YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrPzSEnXqzA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrPzSEnXqzA
And more:
FB
I think any song to be listed as a "Summer Favorite" should at least have some lyrical (or, if instrumental, emotional) connection to the season. That means classics like "Beach Baby," ""Surfer Girl," "Remember Walkin' in The Sand," "So In Love," "Summer Sand," "Surf City," "Palisades Park," "Summer In The City," "Green Grass," ""Summer (The First Time)," "Wipe Out," "California Sun," "All Summer Long," etc. would all qualify. A single that just happened to be released during the summer but does not at all evoke the season ("It's Too Late," "Sukiyaki," "Lonely Boy," "Morning Train," etc.) would not.
Gary Theroux
The History of Rock 'n' Roll
We’ve been putting together these Summer Countdowns for the past twenty years now and have always set the criteria as “Which songs evoke the spirit of summer for you?”
As such, some of the biggest songs of each summer ALWAYS make the list … because they ignite a specific memory that made that particular summer so special to you. (Why is it that summer ALWAYS seems to be the time of year that sparks the most powerful moments and memories? Maybe it’s because after you’ve caught spring fever, your heart is emotionally ready to take on the world … and any new challenges … romantic or otherwise … that come your way.)
All of the songs you listed above made the list … as they should … but how do you rule out tracks like “Satisfaction” or “Light My Fire” or “All You Need Is Love” or "Born To Be Wild" … absolute summer ANTHEMS, if you will, that all place high on the list.
Check out the Forgotten Hits website and you’ll see that we list The Biggest Songs Of Summer for every year, 1955 – 1980. You’ll find a good number of these titles on the list as we count from #200 to #1 … but you’ll also find the lion’s share of tunes are definitely summer inspired tracks. Watching it all unfold is the “funnest” part of doing the countdown! (kk)
http://forgottenhits.com/
http://forgottenhits.com/
