When people mention songs of summer, my thoughts go back to the pre-air conditioning days. When it was too hot to sleep at night, you could lie awake listening to those odd radio bounces and sun spot-inspired radio signals from stations near and far. Whether it was WWVA and "that Wheeling feeling" playing country music from West Virginia, or Jean Shepherd playing his Jew's Harp along with the Radetsky march on WOR in New York. During WWII, some folks in Rhode Island even picked up German tank radio communications thanks to the bounce.
The songs I associate with summer are all related to summer activities. The first is the family road trip. Who better to start the car rolling down the highway than Willie Nelson, who, in his prime, put on the best shows you'd ever want to see?
Then, as the road dragged on, you might want to slow it down with John Denver.
If you are flying instead of driving and looking out over those blue skies, who better than Karen Carpenter to sing to you?
And if you are traveling by train, Arlo has got you.
No trip is complete without the Rees family, my Byrnes cousins 50 times removed, from Lafayette, La. I still have friends from some of the great dances they used to play.
And then there is the slate of summer Irish festivals. Yes, this is our family song. We are still dreaming and believing.
If you were stuck in New York City in the heat, you went to "Tar Beach" on the rooftop or the CYO saltwater pool next to the East River (free water is free water). Or maybe you braved the traffic to Jones Beach back in the days when it seemed no one ever heard of sunscreen. One of the favorite groups at the dances was the Arthur Avenue Boys from Little Italy in the Bronx, classic greasers. At most dances, the girls talked to the girls, and the boys talked to the boys until the boys got tired of talking and decided it was time to start throwing punches.
Ah, summer's unrequited love. But please don't try singing along.
Another summer memory was listening to a high school kid filling in on a radio show. Rich Conaty, who would become a lifelong friend, was playing 78 rpm records in what would morph into a decades-long Sunday Night radio program, "The Big Broadcast," which was music for the old and the old at heart. Nothing on the show was more current than midnight on Dec. 31, 1939. Many of the shows are in the process of being archived here. Good stuff.
Our listeners ranged from the commissioner of Major League Baseball to Woody Allen to a band inspired by Rich, which eventually won a Grammy for "Boardwalk Empire." On July 4 weekend, another radio station plays 24 hours of Louis Armstrong for his traditional birthday. You can't get more American than that. And in the heart of Manhattan next to Lincoln Center swing dancers still gather for a month of outdoor dancing to live music at Mid-Summer Night Swing, now called Social Dance and Silent Disco.
This is a song for those late nights that seemed to stretch into mornings back when cigarettes were in.
And what summer is complete with boy meets girl, boy loses girl, and boy finds girl.
The famous Old Man in the Mountain rock formation in New Hampshire may have tumbled to the ground, but the Mills Brothers can still carry a tune to the sky.
And as for true love, "They Can't Take That Away From Me." Here Louis Armstrong uses his operatic trumpet with Elle Fitzgerald.
And there is always the Newport Jazz Festival in August.
And if you find true love on that summer break.
And if you want to tap your toes and put on the Ritz, people are still playing the music.
And enjoy your trip to the beach whether it is the American version with Bobby Darin...
...or the original "La Mer" with Charles Trenet. Just remember the sunscreen.
