Hot hot hot songs for summertime

THE recent good summer weather has got me thinking about the greatest ever summer songs and this week I’ll take a look at some of my personal favourites.

There’s certain ones that I play on radio and in clubs every summer, and let’s face it, lots of music sounds better when the sun is shining all day long.

It’s only my personal list, and nothing definitive, but let’s go though 10 summer classics, in no particular order.

Roy Ayers – Everybody Lovesthe Sunshine

This is what it’s all about. Nearly 50 years old but with a synth line that will last forever, Roy Ayers created one of the best summer jams of them all. Like many of his great 1970s contemporaries (Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder), Roy Ayers pens an ode to nature that is devastating in it’s simplicity. “Just bees and things and flowers”, and a track that will continue to be sampled and played forever. Roy, a regular visitor to Cork over the years, is still performing it well into his 80s.

Kool & The Gang – SummerMadness

This is another of my all-time favourite tracks and it’s another tune that continues to be sampled. Most famously, it provided the backbone to one of raps greatest summer hits, by Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince (‘Summertime’), but Aaliyah, Ice Cube, Adina Howard, Snoop, Tatyana Ali, and many more hip-hop and R&B artists used it too. It’s an instrumental by a group who later had many pop hits, but who remain one of the most original and influential soul, funk, and jazz groups of all time.

Sly and the Family Stone – HotFun in the Summertime

Boy the 60s and 70s were great! This transports me to San Francisco and an era before I was born, but the music is so powerful and vivid that it can take me there every time. Sly Stone is one of the most important music figures of all time and he made it look effortless really.

Bill Withers – Lovely Day

This soul legend also made it look so easy. Summer was a familiar theme from an artist who brought us ‘Ain’t no sunshine’ and later ‘Lovely Day’, a track that is still heard in 2023. On a sunny day, it sounds better than ever too. One of the best songwriters of all time.

Nina Simone – Here Comes the Sun

Nina Simone, like Aretha Franklin, could regularly provide the definitive version of tracks that she didn’t write herself, and this is my favourite version of the tune written by George Harrison for the Beatles. A beautiful rendition by one of the best artists of the 20th century.

Arrow – Hot Hot Hot

Let’s take it to the Caribbean. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything else by Arrow, but who cares. This is a summer dance floor smash that never fails to get a party started. A track which can bring a carnival vibe to almost any situation!

Sean Paul – Temperature

Dancehall and reggae is responsible for so many summer bangers, and Sean Paul has a huge catalogue of hits. Temperature uses the “Applause riddim” that provides an uptempo backdrop for a huge summer banger, which was ironically first released in December 2005.

Sergio Mendes – Mas Que Nada

Originally recorded by Jorge Ben, this became the most popular version of a track that again never fails to rock the party. A version of the track famously later soundtracked one of the great TV ads of all, set in a Brazilian airport ahead of the 1998 World Cup, and featuring the original Ronaldo and co! In Cork and elsewhere, it helped lead to a huge interest in latin music; we even ran a cool night called Yo Latino in the Half Moon for a few years during this time!

Tekno – Pana

Modern day afrobeats is the soundtrack to so many great parties and for the purpose of this list I could have picked many different tracks. I’m going to choose this 2016 anthem from Tekno, which had the club scene in a chokehold and which helped provide the soundtrack for our own Taboo night. This really is a classic, and it never fails to get everyone dancing.

Brandy and Monica – TheBoy is Mine

Released just in time for the summer of 1998, this is a classic Rodney ‘Darkchild’ Jerkins production that demonstrated just how sophisticated R&B had become by the late 90s. An absolute masterpiece which sounds better than ever 25 years on.