July/August 2009 Issue

Unregistrable

Songs of Summer
With summer in full swing, let’s take a break from trademarks and head to the beach for some much needed R & R.  And what better to accompany some well-earned recreation than a soundtrack of seasonal songs guaranteed to put you in a summertime state of mind.  Here, in no particular order, are our Top 10 Songs of Summer.  Some you may know, some you may not, but all are worth a listen.

1. Summertime Thing—Chuck Prophet—incredible groove, tremendously evocative.  Perhaps the most underrated summer song of all time.
2. Good Vibrations—The Beach Boys—this classic virtually oozes summer.
3. The Boys of Summer—Don Henley—listening this track puts you on a beach road in a hot convertible with the top down, even if you’re stuck on the freeway in a clunker.
4. Summer in the City—The Lovin’ Spoonful—the back of my neck is gettin’ dirty and gritty just thinking about it.
5. In the Summertime—Mungo Jerry—Clearly my favorite all time Mungo Jerry track.  Come to think of it, it’s the only Mungo Jerry track we’ve ever heard.  But we’ve been trying to “stretch right up and touch the sky” every summer since 1970.
6. Summer Breeze—Seals and Croft—even in the dead of winter, it’s warm and fragrant when this Breeze hits the airwaves.
7. School’s Out—Alice Cooper—the last bell has rung, and freedom awaits for two and a half months.  Need we say more?
   
8. On the Beach—Neil Young—langorous, hypnotic, just like spending a sun-drenched day sitting, well, on the beach.
9. Vacation—The Go-Go’s—“it’s all we ever wanted.”
10. Woodstock—Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young—Yasgur’s Farm, August 15, 1969, “we were half a million strong, and everywhere there was song and celebration.”  As Archie and Edith Bunker would sing: “Those Were the Days.”