Saturday, August 12, 2006

Summer Compilation


Okay! I finally finished my first compilation – a compilation of “summer” songs that hit the Top-40 between 1955 and 1978! Yeah, I know summer is half over – oh, well. There are 28 songs in this compilation and they will all fit on one 80 minute CD. I had a hard time choosing the songs because I have so many summer songs. Finally, I decided to just do songs with “summer” in the title, and only if they had hit the top 40 between 1955 and 1978. Why these dates? They didn’t have Billboard charts before 1955, so I don’t know what songs actually charted – this means that a couple of my favorite songs aren’t on here – and I chose 1978 as the last year to include because I just HAD to include “Summer Nights” from “Grease”, plus I wanted to create a nostalgic feeling. I had two more songs for this compilation, “Summer Rain” by Johnny Rivers and “Summer (The First Time)” by Bobby Goldsboro, but they didn’t fit on the CD when I went to burn it, so I removed them to keep the compilation down to one CD. If anybody wants either of these, I’ll be happy to post them. I also had a song called “Hot Summer Nights” by Night from 1979, but it was more of a hard rock song, so I nixed it. There was one song that I haven’t been able to find, “Summer Set” by Monty Kelly – it reached #30 in 1960. If anyone has it, please let me know!
Here’s the track listing:
  1. Theme from ‘A Summer Place” – Percy Faith & His Orchestra - #1 in 1960 (instrumental - the granddaddy of ALL summer songs, if you ask me)
  2. Hot Fun in the Summertime – Sly & the Family Stone - #2 in 1969
  3. In the Summertime – Mungo Jerry - #3 in 1970
  4. Summer Nights – Olivia Newton-John & John Travolta - #5 in 1978
  5. Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer – Nat King Cole - #6 in 1963 (kinda hokey, but it grows on you)
  6. One Summer Night – The Danleers - #7 in 1958
  7. Song for a Summer Night – Mitch Miller - #8 in 1956 (instrumental)
  8. Summertime – Billy Stewart - #10 in 1966 (I could do a couple of CDs just with different versions of this song alone)
  9. Soft Summer Breeze – Eddie Heywood - #11 in 1956 (instrumental)
  10. That Sunday, That Summer – Nat King Cole - #12 in 1963
  11. Here Comes Summer – Jerry Keller - #14 in 1959
  12. My Summer Love – Ruby & the Romantics - #16 in 1963
  13. Lazy Summer Night – The Four Preps - #21 in 1958
  14. Summer Nights – Marianne Faithfull - #24 in 1965 (NOT the same as the one from “Grease”)
  15. Summer Wind – Frank Sinatra - #25 in 1966 (what would ANY compilation be without Frank?)
  16. Summertime, Summertime – The Jamies - #26 in 1958 AND #38 in 1962
  17. Happy Summer Days – Ronnie Dove - #27 in 1966
  18. Almost Summer – Celebration (featuring Mike Love) - #28 in 1978 (Does anyone remember this movie? I loved it back then!)
  19. Summer Sand – Dawn - #33 in 1971
  20. Summer Samba (So Nice) – Walter Wanderley - #26 in 1966 (instrumental)
  21. Theme from “Summer of ‘42” – Peter Nero - #21 in 1971 (instrumental)
  22. Wonderful Summer – Robin Ward - #14 in 1963 (1963 was a good year for summer songs)
  23. Summer’s Gone – Paul Anka - #11 in 1960
  24. Summertime Blues – Eddie Cochran - #8 in 1958 (the original, and best, version)
  25. A Summer Song – Chad & Jeremy - #7 in 1964
  26. Summer Breeze – Seals & Crofts - #6 in 1972
  27. Summer in the City – The Lovin’ Spoonful - #1 in 1966
  28. Summer – War - #7 in 1976
Here’s the link:

7 comments:

ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ said...

E, Nice "mid-summer" comp! Hope the luau is a success! Sure would like to hear the two Mystic Moods you show. Linked you up at LP and AToV. Timbo

nomwl1 said...

Hi Esther!

Great compilation! I love the criteria and the explanation behind it. We appreciate the time and effort it took to pull all the tracks together. I love these kinds of compilations. Can't wait to listen to it.

Esther said...

Hi, nomwl1!
Thanks for the kind words! I really enjoyed putting the compilation together. BTW, love your site, too!
Esther

Lacey said...

If all you posted was "Chad and Jeremy - A Summer Song" you would have had a fan for life.
If all they ever did was this one song they still would have been legends.

Great comp. You only missed one, "Roll out those Crazy,Hazy, Lazy, days of summer . . .The days of soda and pretzels and beer." LOL

Keep up the good work.

Lacey said...

OOOOppppppssssss

I just found it.

Sorry my mistress, you DO have the most complete Summer comp on the web.

Forgive me.

(very good job)

makewell said...

Worth it for Ruby & The Romantics alone- wonderful stuff.

Manfred said...

Here's Monty Kelly & his Orchestra - Summer Set. for ya (mp3, 192kbps)

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=477F9KQM