Song(s) of the Summer Edition Part 1

Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia

Slate Podcasts

Music, Music History, Music Commentary

4.8 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 13 July 2024

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“Summer in the City.” “I Feel the Earth Move.” “Bette Davis Eyes.” “Whoomp! There It Is.” “Get Lucky.” “Espresso.” What do these big summer hits all have in common? None of them was Billboard’s official Song of the Summer. Wait…there’s an official Song of the Summer? Isn’t that something that just happens organically? Every year, it seems everybody has an opinion on this musical national pastime. But the Hot 100 often tells a different story. For every “Light My Fire,” “Bad Girls,” “Crazy in Love,” “California Gurls” or “Call Me Maybe”—a hot-weather hit that unites the charts and the punditry—there are confirmed summer smashes that no one would pick out of a lineup, from Zager and Evans to Iggy Azalea. Join Chris Molanphy as he traces the tangled story of how America came to decide there should be one victorious summer hit to rule them all. And he counts down the best Songs of the Summer by decade. Is it getting “Hot in Herre,” or is it just us…? Podcast production by Kevin Bendis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey there, hit parade listeners, what you're about to hear is part one of this episode.
0:07.0	Part two will arrive in your podcast feed at the end of the month.
0:10.9	Would you like to hear this episode all at once, the day it drops?
0:15.0	Sign up for Slate Plus. It supports not only this show but all of Slate's acclaimed journalism and
0:22.0	podcasts. Just go to Slate.com slash Hit Parade Plus.
0:27.6	You'll get to hear every Hit Parade episode in full the day it arrives. Plus, hit parade, the bridge,
0:35.0	our bonus episodes, with guest interviews,
0:38.0	deeper dives on our episode topics,
0:40.0	and pop chart trivia.
0:42.0	Once again, to join join that's slate.com slash hit parade plus.
0:48.0	Thanks.
0:49.0	And now please enjoy part one of this hit parade episode. Hot Down Summer in the City,
1:03.0	The City,
1:04.0	Welcome to Hit Parade, a podcast of pop chart history
1:08.0	from Slate magazine, about the hits from Coast to Coast.
1:12.0	I'm Chris Malamphi, chart analyst pop critic, and writer of
1:15.8	Slate's Why Is This Song Number One series. On today's show, 58 years ago in July of 1966, a song all about hot weather and urban ferment by the New York
1:31.1	folk rock band The Loveen Spoonful,
1:34.0	entered Billboard's Hot 100 and climbed the chart rapidly.
1:39.0	In a summer marked by protest and cultural upheaval, the song evoked the national mood.
1:46.6	It was called, appropriately enough, Summer in the City, and by August it had reached number one.
1:54.4	Don't you know it's a pretty of the days
	...

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