I said last week that I had loads more songs I could play with variations on the theme of summer, sunshine, hot and the like in their titles, and as our current hot spell shows no signs of disappearing just yet I thought I’d play some more of them this week. All of these have been here before in a variety of posts, but as with last week’s set they are all good tunes well meriting another outing.

Let’s start with a classic:

Eddie Cochran, of course, with Summertime Blues. It is all too short, like Eddie Cochran’s life, sadly. Released in July 1958 in the States, September in the UK, that reached #8 in the US and #18 here. There have been many cover versions, notably by The Who, but I don’t think the original has ever been beaten. Its description of teenage angst and frustrations is superbly captured in such a succinct fashion. Cochran was only 21 when he was killed in a car crash in Wiltshire on his way back to London in April 1960, having just played a show in Bristol. He was already a star and could well have gone on to become huge, though his posthumous legacy has done well and he has taken his place as an icon of rock and roll history. There is a tragic irony in that the final single he released in the US when alive had just come out before the crash that took his life: it was Three Steps to Heaven. It wasn’t released here until the month after his passing – we took it to #1 in his honour.

I’m going back to my favourite decade for this next one:

Sunshine Superman was the title track of Donovan’s third album, which was released in the US in July 1966, reaching #11, but due to a contractual dispute with his record label wasn’t released here at that time. It finally appeared in the UK in July 1967 as part of a compilation of songs with his March 1967 album, Mellow Yellow. Stay with me! The single of this song was released in July 1966 in the US and topped their charts. In the UK it came out in December 1966 and got to #2. Donovan had a string of hit singles here in the Sixties, starting with folk songs like Catch the Wind and Colours, and then branching out into a more rock-based sound. To illustrate his rock credentials, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones, who went on to form Led Zeppelin, were session musicians who both played on this recording (guitar and bass respectively). One of my favourites from that era.

I’ve played one from the Fifties and one from the Sixties, so how about something from the Seventies? Another welcome return visitor, from a band who were huge here but never really broke big in the US:

T. Rex began as Tyrannosaurus Rex, and were known here for an early series of albums with mythical themes, which performed respectably in our charts and gave them a few lower ranked hit singles, but their big breakthrough came in 1970 with the abbreviation of their name and their hit single, Ride A White Swan, which got to #2 here (#76 in the US) and began an incredible spell of four UK #2 hits and 4 #1s in less than three years. Hot Love was their next single, released in February 1971, and gave them the first of those #1s, though it only reached #72 in the US. The track was only released as a single, though it has since been on many compilation albums and was included on a re-release of their September 1971 album Electric Warrior. This performance was from the BBC’s Top Of The Pops show – you can see their resident dance troupe, Pan’s People, prominently in it. Marc Bolan, who led the band and wrote their songs, was much adored by fans, particularly the female ones, and T.Rex were part of the soundtrack to my uni days. Marc came to a tragic end, when he died after his girlfriend crashed their car into a tree. I remember it well: he was just two weeks away from his 30th birthday, and his death occurred on my 24th. We had been out for a meal, and turned on the tv news when we got home: that rather dampened my celebration.

I’ve played this next one both as a Tuesday Tune and in a separate post, but as I really like it you’re getting it again! One of our favourite summer pastimes, hopefully done responsibly these days:

Sheryl Crow released Soak Up The Sun as a single in February 2002, ahead of its inclusion on her album C’mon C’mon in April of that year. The single peaked at #17 in the US and #16 in the UK – maybe they should have waited until the summer to bring it out? The album did much better, though, reaching #2 in both the US and the UK. I’ve always liked Sheryl’s records since she first burst onto the scene with Tuesday Night Music Club, and she has continued to give me music I enjoy: her most recent album, Evolution, came out in March 2024 and while it hasn’t done all that well in the charts I quite liked it (it made #90 in the UK and #24 in the US Top Album Sales chart). Her previous record, Threads, which came out in August 2019, is a series of collaborations with a wide range of artists, and there are some real gems on it.

After that brief stop in the 21st century it’s back to familiar territory for today’s closer. It’s another that I have played before, but only once, and classics like this deserve to be heard again:

Sunny Afternoon, by The Kinks, was the biggest UK hit of summer 1966, displacing The Beatles’ Paperback Writer from the top of the charts. It was their third (and last) UK chart topper, and was also #1 in Canada, Ireland and the Netherlands, and #2 in New Zealand. It reached #14 in the US, and apart from a couple of minor hits it was the start of a three year absence from the US charts. The band had a massive falling out during a live show in Cardiff, which resulted in drummer Mick Avory being briefly hospitalised, and US radio bosses decided not to play their records for fear of setting a bad example to their impressionable kids. What a bunch of wusses! Pete Quaife, the bass player, is missing from the video: he was recovering at the time from a car accident. Life with this lot was anything but dull! The album that included this song, Face To Face, reached #12 in the UK and #135 in the US.

That’s my five done for today, and as always I hope you enjoyed them. If the weather holds I’ll probably play a third set next week, but if I choose ‘thunder and lightning’ as a theme you’ll know that it hasn’t! I’ll see you again soon, and wish you an enjoyable week. Enjoy the sunshine, stay hydrated and slap on the Factor 50 if you are out and about. Take care 😊