From June 22, 2004:

Summer Music: Host Picks

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Warm breezes and a rolling surf; a road trip with the windows down; lazy days and languid nights; summer is here again. On this edition of All Songs Considered NPR hosts share their favorite songs of the season.

Hear the whole show with the links above or individual songs below.

'All Things Considered' Summer Songs
Listener Picks: Your favorite summer songs.
Summer Songs 2003: Last year's picks.

Robert Siegel

The Jesters originally released "The Wind" as a single in 1954. It's now available on this Doo Wop box set from Rhino.

"I first heard 'The Wind' long after it was popular, when I was playing old Doo-wop records on the college radio station. While 'The Wind' is not very well known, it touches all the bases of Doo-wop: the harmony, the falsetto, the talk over. Whenever I hear it (which is pretty rare nowadays) first I can't stop smiling, and then it's a belly laugh powered by sweet memories of very simple summers years ago."

- All Things Considered host Robert Siegel

The Jesters

CD: Doo Wop Box
Song: "The Wind"
Label: Rhino Records

Listen to "The Wind"

Michele Norris

Released in 1975, "Rock Creek Park" is considered one of the pinnacles of '70s jazz-funk.

"'Rock Creek Park' by the Blackbyrds is one of those songs that I always associate with summer. I think it was on the City Life album from 1975. I first heard it as a teen in Minnesota and it reminds me of cruising around the lakes in the city, grooving to the 8-track. In my mind I had a picture of Rock Creek Park as a leafy oasis filled with family picnics and impromptu dance parties. Whatever they were doing in Rock Creek Park sure sounded like a lot of fun to me. Years later when I first moved to Washington, DC I was driving through Rock Creek trying to find my way in a new city and the song came on the radio. Once again I was lost in the funky groove. I was long way from Minnesota... but somehow I knew I had found my home. I now live near Rock Creek, drive through it almost every day and whether it is on the radio or not, I often hear the song as I snake through the Park."

- All Things Considered Michele Norris

The Blackbyrds

CD: City Life
Song: "Rock Creek Park"
Label: Beat Goes Public

Listen to "Rock Creek Park"

Melissa Block

Singer/songwriter Patti Griffin mixes traditional rock arrangements with country, folk and catchy pop on this 1998 album.

"In my mind, there's nothing better than a great, sad song, and nothing more evocative than the powerful pipes of Patty Griffin. This song has nothing to do with summer, but it has everything to do with cranking the volume all the way up and rolling the windows all the way down and letting Patty's powerful crescendo fly out into the summertime air. That's what I did when this album, Flaming Red came out in 1998, and I was driving fast across the New Mexico desert. The song's a heartbreaker."

- All Things Considered Melissa Block

Patti Griffin

CD: Flaming Red
Song: "Goodbye"
Label: A & M

Listen to "Goodbye"

Neal Conan

"I first heard 'Summertime Blues' on the radio...I can't have been more than eight years old at the time, but the big, bouncy chords and Eddie Cochran's plaint absolutely floored me. Though the lyrics seem pretty ordinary on paper, the conviction and more than anything else the sound of this song communicated...oh, I don't know, freedom, anarchy, anger, a new world of promise. I guess 'Rock and Roll' pretty well sums it up. The tune proved to be sturdy enough to bear up under the much later assault by a summer-of-love San Fransisco act called Blue Cheer, but may be best remembered as a regular part of The Who's act. Hard to imagine a better song to smash a guitar to."

- Talk of the Nation host Neal Conan

Eddie Cochran

CD: Something Else: The Fine Lookin' Hits of Eddie Cochran
Song: "Summertime Blues"
Label: Razor and Tie

Listen to "Summertime Blues"

Scott Simon

With hundreds of cover versions by bands like the Who, Grateful Dead, David Bowie and Van Halen, "Dancing in the Street" for many is the quintessential summer song.

"The first time I can recall hearing this song, I was walking back down Broadway Avenue in Chicago after playing softball in the parking lot of our grammar school. The country was stirring with marches, riots, and sit-ins. A chorus of new phrases scored the times: Stop the war! We Shall Overcome! Viva Che! Hey, hey, LBJ... Chicago, my beloved home town, seemed to be home to much of that ferment. I stopped for a hot dog at the cart on Belle Plaine and Broadway, a good Chicago dog with a crisp red skin and spicy mustard, neon green relish, hot yellow peppers, and a pickle spear laid across all like a sword.

"Someone had their windows open. Or, someone had their car door open. Between the clatter of the L cars and the screech of horns and laughter from a child chasing a ball down an alley, I heard Martha Reeves and the Vandellas sing, 'Shout it out around the world, are you ready for a brand new beat? Summer's here and the time is right for dancin' in the streets.' And then, the local pride that swelled when they called out the names of all those places in the world that were ready and eager for a brand new beat in what seemed to us youngsters a tired old world: 'They're dancin' in Chicaaago...'

"You bet we were. When I hear that song today, I try to stop whatever else I am doing, and spend a moment feeling lucky to see how much has changed; and eager for the future."

- Weekend Edition Saturday host Scott Simon

Martha and the Vandellas

CD: The Ultimate Collection
Song: "Dancing in the Street"
Label: Mowtown

Listen to "Dancing in the Street"

Liane Hansen

This Latin-flavored pop song was widely heard blaring from stores and passing cars through the summer of 1999.

"Summer and radio are synonymous. In my youth, the music of my babysitters and the older girls on the street filtered out of the transitor radios tuned to WORC - AM - Radio A Go Go. We sang along with 'Be My Baby' by the Ronettes - and danced to Martha and the Vandella's 'Dancin' in the Street.' When I got my drivers license, the radio was in my grandmothers 1967 Red Rambler with three on the column. 'Born to be Wild' blasted out the open window as I drove that baby on the expressway to meet my girlfriends for ice cream on the other side of town. (Now) I admit to a guilty pleasure - Ricky Martin's 'La Vida Loca.' (It) has a great beat, I can dance to it, and I heard it on top 40 radio. Summer songs are supposed to be about that delicious sense of abandon that comes with putting aside our responsibilities and enjoying the moment. That moment comes when I'm listening to the car radio on the way out of town."

- Weekend Edition Sunday host Liane Hansen

Ricky Martin

CD: Ricky Martin
Song: "Livin' la Vida Loca"
Label: Sony

Listen to "Livin' la Vida Loca"

Steve Inskeep

"Chantilly Lace" was originally released as a single in 1957 and is now available on this best-of collection.

"I heard (this) song in the summer, in the late 1980s, on AM radio somewhere in upstate New York while driving around in my girlfriend's Pontiac Tourismo, which was about to die, but had not quite died at that time. I don't even know what station we were listening to, but it seems in retrospect that we heard this song again and again and again again, as though it was very high on someone's playlist. Of course I made fun of the song and mocked it, but as with so many things you make fun of, you secretly like it and I guess maybe I did. But even if I didn't, the truth is it brings back memories of that time I spent with my girlfriend who is now my wife. By the way, I mentioned this to her and she says this is a very dumb selection and the selection I should make is the jingle on the (Mister Softee) ice cream truck... so that would be my runnerup."

- Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep

Big Bopper

CD: Helloooo Baby! The Best of the Big Bopper, 1954-1959
Song: "Chantilly Lace"
Label: Rhino

Listen to "Chantilly Lace"

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