Opinions August 27, 2009

SURVEY SAYS – What's Your Favorite Summer Song?

August 27, 2009 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Hard to believe, but Labor Day is just around the corner, and with it the end of summer.
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This week I asked readers to share their favorite summer song/song about summer.   These will get you ready for the weekend!  

As you might expect, we got a LOT of great suggestions to this week’s survey.   On the other hand, it turned out to be harder to tabulate than I had anticipated.  

…And the Winner Is…

The “winner”, numerically speaking, anyway, was ” Summer in the City ” by the Lovin Spoonful.   However, ” Summertime ” was not only a close number two, it managed to win an ad hoc award for the song (or song title, anyway), covered by most artists in the survey (New Kids on the Block, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, Rascal Flatts, and the version from Porgy & Bess were all cited).

Number three happened to be a new favorite of mine as well – ” All Summer Long ” by Kid Rock, while the ever-popular ” Margaritaville” by the inimitable Jimmy Buffet was the fourth most-cited.   ” The Hazy, Lazy Days of Summer” (either by Nat King Cole or Ray Charles) rounded out the top five, just ahead of Bryan Adams’ (no relation) “Summer of ’69.”

You can catch up/check out the top five on the following pages.  

Other songs cited included:

  • Beach Baby - First Class
  • Hot Fun in the Summer Time (Sly & the Family Stone)
  • Boys of Summer (Don Henley, though the Ataris also did a version)
  • School's Out - Alice Cooper
  • American Pie - Don McLean
  • California Dreamin (Mamas & the Papas)
  • California Girls - Beach Boys
  • Endless Summer Nights - Richard Marx
  • Good Vibrations - Beach Boys
  • Holiday Road - Lindsay Buckingham (the theme from "Vacation")
  • Hotel California - the Eagles
  • I Get Around - Beach Boys
  • In the Summertime - Mungo Jerry
  • Night Moves - Bob Seeger
  • Ode to Billie Jo
  • Sea Cruise
  • Sealed with a Kiss
  • Seasons in the Sun
  • Smooth - Santana/'Rob Thomas
  • Stay - Dave Matthews Band
  • Steal My Sunshine
  • Sunshine of my Life - Stevie Wonder
  • Summer Breeze - Seals & Crofts
  • Summer Days - Bob Dylan
  • When Summer is Gone - Gary and the Playboys
  • A Summer Song - Peter & Gordon

Now, it really wasn't a commentary-laden survey this week - but I'm going to give this week's Editor's Choice to the reader who said; "This may be dumb, but I actually clicked through to this survey to respond with "I don't have any songs that I associate only with summer"! Reminds me of the Kathleen Madigan routine where she talks about a poll that costs money to participate and 15% were undecided. She LOL'ed at the fact that 15% actually dialed a number that cost money to say "uh, I don't know". Ok, at least for me this morning, it's not costing me anything but a little bit of time :-)"

and now - 15 seconds of "fame!"

Thanks to everyone who participated in the survey!

New Kids on the Block version at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25qiZy7vmqY

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