The Jasmine In My Mind

It's the first day of summer. What better or more cliched time to post about the joys of summer songs?

There's a good write-up today on the topic over at NPR.* Billboard also has a list of top summer songs throughout the years. What makes a good summer song? Usually, it's lighthearted, it's fun, and a song everyone embraces. Turn on the radio, you're going to hear that song. Car drives by you with the windows down? You're going to hear that song.

The first time I really became aware of a song completely dominating a summer was 1976 with Silly Love Songs by Wings. Summer songs also make me think about 1983 when Every Breath You Take was everywhere. Or 1988 with Sweet Child O' Mine. Those were true summer songs.

Granted, I'm not sure what we were thinking when we made Sting's ode to stalking a feel good summer hit.  Ewww....

Does the summer song still exist? I'm not sure. Music has become so fragmented these days. And with so many specialized delivery channels, I wonder if we all can rally around one song this summer. Regardless, there is one we we should rally around:  

The Only Place by Best Coast.



The Only Place has everything a great summer song needs. It's wickedly catchy (just try getting it out of your head), it's jangly, and it's got fun in the sun. So what if the song is about how great it is to live in California and most of us don't live there. You don't write summer songs about Iceland. Unless you're sigur rós. For all I know, valtari is Iceland's Surfin' Safari; I'm not really an expert on Icelandic summer culture (more on that another time - I'm seeing sigur rós later this summer so maybe I'll learn something).

I doubt there will be a better summer song in 2012 than The Only Place. I'm also a realist who knows an indie buzz band has little chance of pulling off a summer hit like Jim Croce's Bad Bad Leroy Brown or Gnarls Barkley's Crazy. No matter how deserving The Only Place is, most likely the summer of 2012 will be remembered for whatever song the conglomeratized radio stations deem it to be (which is why I pretty much exclusively listen to Colorado Public Radio's OpenAir** - they play Best Coast and a lot of other great music).

We can change that. In four easy steps:

1. Go out and BUY Best Coast's new album, The Only Place.  Pay for it and help support the band. Really, you don't want any more lectures about illegally downloading music.
2. Anytime you're driving, play the song The Only Place, at full volume with the windows down. Repeat.
3. Call your favorite radio station DJ and demand they play The Only Place. Tell them you're Mr. or Mrs. Muckety-Muck, Director of Clear Lincoln Enter-Citadel Channel Communications, and they must play  The Only Place if they want to keep their jobs. 
4. Tell all your friends to do steps 1-3.

People, we can do this. We can make The Only Place the song of the summer of 2012. 



*Editor's Note: I swear to God I am not making this blog just about things that are first posted at NPR. After yesterday's post and now this, I'm up to three public radio references in eight posts. Hall of Fame numbers, baby! I promise this is the last one for a while. But check it out, it's a good playlist.

**Yet More Editor's Notating: SHIT! I did it again. Another public radio mention. Pretty soon, I'm going to be holding my own pledge week.