How many of these 25 songs with “summer” in the title do you remember? (2023)

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Chances are you’ve heard some version of “Summertime,” even if you don’t know who first wrote the famous lyrics: “Summertime, and the livin' is easy / Fish are jumpin' and the cotton is high.” These words were originally penned by composer George Gershwin for the 1935 opera “Porgy and Bess,” but the song - or some version of it - has been famously covered by the likes of Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong, Sam Cooke, Billy Stewart, The Zombies, Janis Joplin’s Big Brother & the Holding Company, and Sublime.

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A true golden oldie, Jerry Keller’s 1958 hit “Here Comes Summer” spent 13 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 charts and peaked at No. 14, while also finding success in the United Kingdom, Canada, and Norway. The song summarizes the happy feelings associated with summer love in that old-school, innocent kind of way. Just look at the lyrics: “Here comes summer / School is out, oh happy days / Here comes summer / Gonna grab my girl and run away / If she's willing / We'll go steady right away.”

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Another commonly covered song, Eddie Cochran’s “Summertime Blues” was first released in 1958 and peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100. Since then, versions have been released by The Beach Boys, Blue Cheer, The Who, Alan Jackson, Rush, and the Black Keys. However, Cochran wouldn’t get to experience the continued success of his song, as he tragically died in a car accident in 1960 at the age of just 21.

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“Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer” isn’t just a song, it’s an entire album by Nat King Cole that begins and ends with the eponymous tune. When you think of seasonal songs by Cole, it’s usually Christmas carols that come to mind, but the King was just as adept at singing about bikini girls and heading to the drive-in. So adept, in fact, that “Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer” (the album) reached No. 14 on Billboard’s LP chart.

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Chad Stuart and Jeremy Clyde made up the English folk duo Chad & Jerry, who scored their biggest hit in the states with the bittersweet love tune “A Summer Song.” Although it failed to catch on in the UK, American listeners launched “A Summer Song” to No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was later covered by the likes of The Letterman, Skeeter Davis, and the Doodletown Pipers.

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Like almost all songs by The Beach Boys, “All Summer Long” is about warm weather, cars, and having fun. Also, like most songs by the group, it’s only about two minutes in length. When “All Summer Long” was initially released in 1964, it wasn’t a huge hit, but it was successfully revived in 1973 whenGeorge Lucasselected it to close out his hit film “American Graffiti.” Interestingly, the film took place in 1962, two years before “All Summer Long” actually came out.

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The Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Summer in the City” spent three weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 charts in August 1966, and is best known for its signature keyboard sound and unique use of car horns and jackhammers during its instrumental bridge. “Summer in the City” was later named No. 401 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

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“Summer Wind” was actually a German song written in 1965 and entitled “Der Sommerwind.” However, it was quickly translated into English by legendary lyricist Johnny Mercer and covered by Frank Sinatra just a year later, when it appeared on his Grammy-winning album “Strangers in the Night.” It has also been covered by everyone from Wayne Newton and Michael Bublé to cartoon character Martin Prince at the end of the classic “The Simpsons” episode “Bart of Darkness.”

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From one Sinatra to the next. Only a year after Ol’ Blue Eyes crooned the warm-weather tune “Summer Wind,” his daughter Nancy recorded “Summer Wine” with Lee Hazlewood. Hazlewood actually penned the song in 1966 and originally released it with Suzi Jane Hokom, but it didn’t become famous until it appeared as a B-side to Sinatra’s “Sugar Town,” and later the 1968 LP “Nancy & Lee.” Numerous artists have since covered “Summer Wine,” including Lana Del Rey and Barrie-James O’Neill in 2013.

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The summer got a little more soulful and funky when Sly and the Family Stone released “Hot Fun in the Summertime” in August 1969. In addition to being a successful ode to a season, the classic tune is also credited for inspiring Phil Collins’ “Misunderstanding” and Toto’s “Hold the Line.”

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Plenty of people won’t recognize the band name “Mungo Jerry,” but they definitely know the lyrics “In the summertime, when the weather is hot / You can stretch right up and touch the sky / When the weather's fine / You got women, you got women on your mind,” as well as the song’s distinct keyboard and banjo notes. After being released in 1970, “In the Summertime” has been featured in countless TV shows and films, and is still Mungo Jerry’s biggest hit to date.

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Fans of instrumental and piano music will immediately recognize “The Summer Knows,” otherwise known as the theme from the 1971 film “Summer of ‘42.” Even those who didn’t see the film or hear the soundtrack would later get a taste when pianist Peter Nero’s version charted in the same year the film was released, and it was later covered by numerous other famous musicians, including Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Andy Williams, Sarah Vaughn, Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, andBarbra Streisand.

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“Diamond Girl” and “Get Closer” received their fair share of fame, but no Seals and Crofts song will ever be as popular as 1972’s “Summer Breeze.” Although it has been covered countless times over the last 45 years, the Seals and Croft version and its toy piano sound will be the one forever blowing through the jasmine in our minds.

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The chorus to Meat Loaf’s “You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth” is well-known by a multitude of music fans, but many forget that the full name of the song is actually: “You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night).” That’s probably because radio stations often cut out the spoken dialogue at the beginning, which repeatedly mentions summer. Other than that, the word only appears in the very first lyric. The 1977 “Bat Out of Hell” song peaked at No. 39 on the Billboard Hot 100 and remains one of Meat Loaf’s most successful songs to date.

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It’s a scientific fact that few Americans can utter the phrase “tell me more” without breaking into a rendition of “Summer Nights” from the 1978 big-screen adaptation of the musical “Grease.” Although many have tried, no one can top the version sung by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, which was written by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey for the 1971 musical on which the film was based.

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The new wave band The Motels enjoyed some success in the 1980s, and their biggest hit was 1983’s “Suddenly Last Summer.” Lead singer Martha Davis said she was inspired to write the song after hearing an ice cream truck drive by for the last time of the season, knowing that summer would soon be over. “Suddenly Last Summer” peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100, but made it to the top spot on the Hot Mainstream Rock charts.

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According to Bananarama singer Sara Dallin, “Cruel Summer” is about “the darker side (of summer songs): it looked at the oppressive heat, the misery of wanting to be with someone as the summer ticked by.” Yet the 1984 hit has such a great dance beat that it’s hard to feel too down when listening to it, which is why “Cruel Summer” ends up on so many lists of the best summer anthems. The song was actually released in the United Kingdom in 1983, but didn’t become a hit stateside until it was featured in the 1984 film “The Karate Kid.”

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“The Boys of Summer” is one of the biggest summer hits of all time, and we owe all our thanks to former Eagles vocalist/drummer Don Henley and guitarist/songwriter Mike Campbell, who is best known as a member of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Henley and Campbell wrote, composed, and recorded the tune in 1984, and it eventually reached No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100, earned Henley four MTV Video Music Awards and a Grammy for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, and inspired a successful 2003 cover by The Ataris.

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1984 was a big year in regard to summer songs in America, as “Cruel Summer” and “The Boys of Summer” were joined by Bryan Adams’ smash-hit “Summer of ‘69.” It tells the story of a narrator who got his first real six-string at the five-and-dime, and played it until his fingers bled in the summer of ‘69. We’re pretty sure you have to know those lyrics in order to pass a United States citizenship test (even though Adams is Canadian). We’re even more sure that no summer soundtrack is complete without this classic tune.

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Richard Marx spent a lot of time on the music charts in the ‘80s and ‘90s, and one of his biggest hits was the 1988 track “Endless Summer Nights.” Telling the story of love found in the warmer months and lost in the fall, Marx’s tune reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, and was only barred from the top spot by Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror.” Interestingly, Marx would contribute to another chart-topping summer tune more than two decades later, as he andKeith Urbanwrote Urban’s 2011 hit “Long Hot Summer” together.

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Before he was an acclaimed actor and even before his mom got scared and moved him in with his auntie and uncle in Bel-Air, Will Smith was simply known as The Fresh Prince, a rapper who spat rhymes alongside his friend, producer, and turntable specialist DJ Jazzy Jeff. After scoring big with their song “Parents Just Don’t Understand,” they topped that success in 1991 with the release of “Summertime.” The smooth hip-hop tune samples Kool & the Gang’s “Summer Madness,” and made it as high as No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100.

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Even some non-country fans are down with Garth Brooks, which probably explains the popularity of “That Summer,” a song that skyrocketed to the top of the Billboard Country charts in 1993. (Apparently a lot of people had the need to feel the thunder that year.) The song was released as the fourth single off of Brooks’ fourth studio album, “The Chase.”

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In our minds, two songs ruled the summer of 1999: Len’s “Steal My Sunshine” and LFO’s “Summer Girls.” While the former was a more universally appealing rock duet, the latter was a cheesier boy band tune that was basically a love rap crossed with a salute to ‘80s and ‘90s pop culture. In addition to the famous line about liking girls who wear Abercrombie & Fitch, the lyrics also mention everything from “Home Alone,” “Family Ties,” and “Footloose” to fellow musicians New Kids on the Block, Beastie Boys, and Eric B. & Rakim.

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Remember the Y2K hysteria from back in 1999? Although clocks around the world didn’t reset to 1900 and machines didn’t go haywire and turn on their human creators, another interesting and shocking event occurred: Kid Rock went country. Before that, KR was known as a rapping metal musician, but he turned over a new leaf in the new millennium. Although it took a couple albums for the Detroit-born musician to carve out his niche, he eventually arrived in a big way. 2008’s “All Summer Long” (which featured samples of Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London” and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama”) became a No. 1 hit in the US and eight other countries, and helped Kid Rock crack the country charts for the first time ever. It remains the biggest hit of his career.

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We wouldn’t want to exclude any of our younger readers, fans of current music, or those with lousy long-term memories, so here’s a more recent track. Musician and producer Calvin Harris has only four studio albums to date (with a fifth scheduled to drop on June 30), but he has actually released has a whopping 28 singles in his 15-year career. This figure includes the hit “Summer,” which reached No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2014, and was named the official song of the summer by Spotify. It was also named one of the worst songs of the year by Time Magazine. Different strokes, right?