Song(s) of the Summer Edition Part 2

Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia

Slate Podcasts

Music, Music History, Music Commentary

4.8 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 26 July 2024

⏱️ 60 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	This podcast is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.
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0:46.1	Prices vary based on how you buy. Welcome back to Hit Parade, a podcast of Pop Chart History from Slate magazine.
1:05.8	About the hits from Coast to Coast.
1:08.2	I'm Chris Malanfi, Chart Analysts, pop critic, and writer of Slate's Why Is This Song Number One series.
1:15.0	On our last episode, I explained the twisted backstory of The Song of the Summer, America's growing obsession with debating hot weather hits,
1:26.7	and how Billboard magazine belatedly built a bespoke chart to try to determine one definitive annual winner.
1:36.0	Now that the Chart Bible has gone back in time to declare an official song of summer for every year since the Hot 100 was founded,
1:46.0	I'm going to attempt to rank the winners by decade.
1:50.0	A few provisos for this ranking of historical summer hits. First, as always with my hit parade hierarchies, the results are ultimately subjective and unscientific.
2:05.0	But I am factoring in chart performance and cultural legacy,
2:10.0	as well as my own personal preferences. In the case of Songs of the Summer, I have actually
2:18.0	ranked a few songs higher than I otherwise might based on how summary they feel or how well they captured the
2:27.1	zeitgeist. Also, this ranking only covers the winners of Billboard's annual songs of the summer surveys, even when I like a runner-up better.
2:40.0	For example, if it were up to me, the song of the summer for 1971, a year that was the subject of a previous hit parade episode, and, not incidentally, the year of my birth really should have been
2:55.6	Carol King's double-sided single it's too late and I feel the Earth Move.
	...

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