Summer Songs from the '60's

Katie’s friend pulled into the driveway last night, a popular tune blaring from the radio of her Volkswagen convertible. When you’re 19 and hanging with your friends, summer songs become the soundtrack of long days and breezy nights, an anthem to freedom and friendship.

I really got to thinking about summer songs after reading the Chicago Tribune this morning. Reporters listed their favorites with reasons why. There are so many great classics but the ones we remember are accompanied by vivid memories of other times, other places.

The Sixties…

’62 Telstar - The Tornadoes

We moved from New Jersey to Phoenix in ’62. I rode the train out west with my mother, brother and grandparents. My brother and grandfather flew back to drive out on Route 66 with my father. I remember my dad saying they heard the instrumental Telstar many times on the cross-country trip. I felt like I was living the trip with them every time I heard the song.

‘64 A Summer Song - Chad & Jeremy

The song has had different meanings during different times of my life. The last time it spoke to me was in the summer of 2004, 40 years after its original release. Jeff and I and our friends Janie and Brian were spending a few days at Susan and Steve’s Wisconsin lake house. We had a great day on the lake and were playing bumper pool when “A Summer Song” came on the radio. Susan and Steve were moving out of state at the end of the summer and I dreaded saying goodbye, but knew from the song “that all good things must end some day”.

‘65 California Girls - The Beach Boys

Growing up in Phoenix, I longed to be a California girl. I envied the models on the cover of teen magazines. They were tan, blond and always on the beach. For a couple weeks each summer, I too was a Cali girl, vacationing a block from the ocean in La Jolla or Oceanside.

‘66 Cherish -The Association

I was in middle school in the summer of ’66. My friends were having boy-girl parties with dancing. The “slow songs” were popular when you had a boyfriend and Cherish was the one we always requested even though it was about unrequited love. I still remember the initial feeling of dancing with someone I liked.

‘67 Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison

A free spirited love song with laughing sunlight, a rainbows wall and a chorus of Sha la la’s that’s so great to sing along to. I was the brown-eyed girl in the summer of ’67 hanging with my friends at the schoolyard, watching the boys play baseball and dreaming of things to come.

‘68 Born to be Wild - Steppenwolf

This was always on the radio during our family’s summer trip to Oceanside with my best friend Barbara. This song was the antithesis of who we were with its hard driving rhythm and rebellious lyrics, but we loved it anyway.

’69 Get Together - The Youngbloods

I remember going to The Youngbloods concert and hearing this song about peace, love and brotherhood during the Vietnam War era and wondering why young men had to die.

To be continued….