10 Songs is a weekly list of ten songs that happen to be on my mind at the moment. The lists are usually dominated by songs played on the previous Sunday night's edition of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. The idea was inspired by Don Valentine of the essential blog I Don't Hear A Single.
This week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1210: SUMMER IN DECEMBER! This show is available as a podcast.
IT'S MY PARTY: On The Beach Tonight
When school is done for everyone/We'll have some fun under the sun!
Statement of intent. If you're gonna pause the Central New York snowfall for an out-of-season celebration of summertime, you've gotta open with an enthusiastic statement of your sun-kissed intent. And if your sun-kissed intent just happens to involve girls in bikinis, well, all the better.
Rochester, NY's It's My Party! provide that statement. "On The Beach Tonight" first appeared on the 2000 compilation International Pop Overthrow Volume 2, and wound up on the group's album Can I Get To Know You Better? that same year. The "group" is really an ever-changing line-up of three young ladies playing the role of an early '60s girl group--kind of a distaff Menudo via the Brill Building (and 1650 Broadway)--executing both period covers and similarly sparkly originals.
It's My Party! recorded the definitive version of "That Boy Belongs To Yesterday," the song Mick Jagger and Keith Richard wrote (as "That Girl Belongs To Yesterday") for Gene Pitney, and I tell ya, there aren't many renditions of Gene Pitney hits that can eclipse Pitney's take. "On The Beach Tonight" is still my favorite It's My Party! favor. And it was the undisputed choice to kick off our summer party this week.
SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE: Hot Fun In The Summertime
In (I think) the early '80s, readers responding to a poll in Trouser Press magazine named "Hot Fun In The Summertime" by Sly and the Family Stone as the all-time greatest summer single. It's a fantastic choice, and it was also carved in (wait for it!) stone as one of my picks for this SUMMER IN DECEMBER! playlist.
As I write this, an email from my local library informs me that my reserve copy of Stone's new memoir Thank You (Fallettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) is ready for pickup. I'm very much looking forward to reading this, and even though I just started reading Quentin Tarantino's novelization of Once Upon A Time...In Hollywood, I'm thinkin' ol' Sly moves into place ahead of ol' Quentin. Hi, hi, hi, hi there.
THE RAMONES: Oh Oh I Love Her So
"Oh Oh I Love Her So" offers solid evidence of the Ramones' sheer 'n' irresistible prowess as a pure pop group. A pure pop group on amphetamines, sure, but a pure pop group nonetheless. Here, they exchange their familiar chainsaws and tubes of E-Z Sniffin' glue in favor of hangin' out by the soda machine at Burger King and ridin' the coaster at Coney Island. Yes, it's summertime with America's band!
(Oh! As SUMMER IN DECEMBER! surfs headlong into the ho-ho-holidays, I'd be remiss if I didn't recommend my Ramones book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones as the ideal stuffing for the stocking du jour. Naughty AND nice. Oh? OH!)
LAURIE BIAGINI WITH MARTY RUDNICK: As Long As I'm With You
The late Marty Rudnick's fab "Some Summer" would have been an absolute natural in this spot, as would a number of Laurie Biagini's Beach Boys-influenced treasures. And "As Long As I'm With You," the non-LP B-side to the Rubinoos' hit cover of Tommy James and the Shondells' "I Think We're Alone Now," was likewise an important track to consider. So much summer to pick from!
Realizing that I also really wanted to include both "As Long As I'm With You" and the Rubinoos' cover of the Raspberries' "Cruisin' Music," it was an easy solution to program the latter alongside Marty 'n' Laurie's ace rendition of the former. Solomon ain't got nothin' on us.
BLUE ÖYSTER CULT: This Ain't The Summer Of Love
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
THE SPONGETONES: This Kiss Is Mine Tonight
Songs played within a musical salute to summer don't need to be all summer-specific; the playlist should include selections that aren't necessarily about just sun, surf, the beach, bikinis, and the celebratory lack of pencils, books, and/or teacher's dirty looks. There are a plethora of songs that can make us think of summer, many that evoke the feel of summer without invoking its tropes.
That's why we played the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations" instead of "Surfer Girl," "Surfin' USA," "The Girls On The Beach," et al. It's why the playlist includes "Windy," "Mr. Tambourine Man," "I'm Tired," "Stay," ""I Saw The Light," "Some Jingle Jangle Morning," and others that aren't exactly summer songs, except that they are. Hell, it's why I almost played "Shout It Out Loud" by KISS. I'm still bummed we didn't have time for a KISS record.
And speaking of that word "kiss"...."This Kiss Is Mine Tonight."
Credit the Only Three Lads podcast for the inspiration that landed the Spongetones on this week's playlist. The Spongetones' Jamie Hoover was a guest on a recent O3L, and that episode's interior spin of the 'Tones classic "This Kiss Is Mine Tonight" provided sufficient and welcome oomph for me to cry out WE GOTTA PLAY THIS AGAIN ON TIRnRR THIS WEEK!
Luckily, there wasn't anyone else with me in the car at the time. Some of my fellow commuters may have cast a worried glance my way, but what do THEY know about summer in December? No harm, no foul. I'm only proclaiming what's mine.
THE TEARJERKERS: Syracuse Summer
There was no friggin' way TIRnRR was gonna do a SUMMER IN DECEMBER! special without a spin of the Tearjerkers' "Syracuse Summer." And I say that even though we initially, y'know, forgot to program it. Yeah, we surprise ourselves sometimes. As always, that initial programming blueprint included a few open spots to be filled in, and "Syracuse Summer" shot right into the curl of one of those open surfin' spots.
Seasons change and you live extremes/You got snowfall covering your sunny dreams/You have to wait, but you want it more when it comes. Yeah. No friggin' way we do this week's theme without "Syracuse Summer." (The Tearjerkers' original 1980 45 is loooong OOP, but you can still get the track itself digitally as part of our own 2013 compilation This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 3.)
THE FLASHCUBES: Come Out And Play
"Syracuse Summer," of course, was written by Gary Frenay, bassist for Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse the Flashcubes. Gary also recorded his own version with the FabCats, the British Invasion-salutin' combo that includes Frenay as well as 'Cubes guitarist Arty Lenin.
The Flashcubes themselves have never recorded (nor performed) "Syracuse Summer." Had I my druthers, the Flashcubes' current (and spectacular) all-covers album Pop Masters would have expanded an eensy bit beyond its twelve-track menu for some bonus tracks of our Cubic Heroes covering...themselves, i.e. songs written by Gary, Arty, or guitarist Paul Armstrong (and drummer Tommy Allen, if he has tunes any up his sleeve), but previously recorded by some of their other rockin' pop DBAs. That certainly could have included a Flashcubes reading of "Syracuse Summer."
That said, I've been flat-out thrilled with Pop Masters as-is, and it surprises no one when I say it's my # 1 album of 2023. For the summer music playlist at hand, the Flashcubes' Pop Masters cover of Chris Stamey's "The Summer Sun" would have been our most obvious selection, or we could have reached back to the late '70s for the group's own "Muscle Beach."
Instead, we went with "Come Out And Play," the Flashcubes' Pop Masters collaboration with the Paley Brothers to remake the latter's pure pop gem. Because c'mon: What's summer without a chance to go out and play?
THE MONKEES: You Bring The Summer
From their magnificent 2016 album Good Times!, the Monkees' "You Bring The Summer" offers a perfect summation of the implicit intent of SUMMER IN DECEMBER!: Summer from your clear blue skies will melt away the winter's gloom.
It's going to snow. We get it. And, if past is prologue, it's likely we're gonna get it. But I've got snow tires and determination, I've got warm clothes, and I have the most important magic totem of all: I've got my music.
That music brings the summer. Year-round.
LIBRARIANS WITH HICKEY: Listen, The Snow Is Falling
Can't stop the inevitable. Yoko Ono (via Librarians With Hickeys) invites you to listen. We'll serve up the soundtrack, and plow through together. Summer will come again.
And really: Winter ain't that bad. Pass the eggnog! We'll spin our first holiday track of the season on our next show.
If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider a visit to CC's Tip Jar.
Carl's new book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones is now available, courtesy of the good folks at Rare Bird Books. Gabba Gabba YAY!! https://rarebirdlit.com/gabba-gabba-hey-a-conversation-with-the-ramones-by-carl-cafarelli/
If it's true that one book leads to another, my next book will be The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). Stay tuned. Your turn is coming.
This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, streaming at SPARK stream and on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. Recent shows are archived at Westcott Radio. You can read about our history here.
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