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:

Summer Compilation