A Summer Song

Listen while you read: with intro by Dick Clark!

Trees swayin' in the summer breeze
Showin' off their silver leaves
As we walked by

Soft kisses on a summer's day
Laughing all our cares away
Just you and I

Sweet, sleepy warmth of summer nights
Gazing at the distant lights
In the starry sky

They say that all good things must end some day
Autumn leaves must fall
But don't you know that it hurts me so
To say goodbye to you
Wish you didn't have to go
No, no, no, no

~  Chad Stuart with Clive Metcalf and Keith Noble (for Chad & Jeremy)

Today is the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. That's the good news. The bad news is that from today on, the days will be getting shorter. Oh, no! No, no, no, no!

Chad & Jeremy (often confused with Peter & Gordon) were part of the British Invasion, a heady time for music and fashion and just about everything else that the staid 50s had delivered to the post-WWII generation. "A Summer Song" appeared on their 1964 release, Yesterday's Gone. The video linked above is from Dick Clark's American Bandstand. It's pretty obvious that Chad and Jeremy are lip-syncing the song, as there are no strings or brass accompanying their guitars to be seen. But they do "harmonize like angels," as Rolling Stone asserted when listing "A Summer Song" as #47 of the Best Summer Songs of All Time. (If you watch the video, see it through to the end where you can witness Dick Clark marvel over the little machine that runs the program credits while puzzling over who ate a bite out of his sandwich.)

I was fourteen when this song came out, and my fantasies were full of British boys with names like Nigel and Julian who crossed the Atlantic Ocean just to come to America to find me, their one true love. I perfected a British accent just to be cool, and it sounded particularly cool after inhaling some helium from a carnival balloon. I ironed my hair to straighten it, placed the appropriate color hair bow to match my homemade Mary Quant-style mod dress, and hooked my textured stockings to my garter belt. Goodbye to the Stroll, the Twist, and the Mashed Potato (which I could never master); I was ready for the Freddie and the Monkey and that everlasting standby, the Slop. Never mind that Rudi Gernreich had just designed the topless bathing suit . . . I was fully clothed and ready to dance!

Ah, teenage summers! Good times stretched out before us with no homework, no alarm clocks, and no having to sit still for endless algebra instruction. We were still too young for summer jobs, except for weekend babysitting stints paying $1.00 an hour. (An hour's work could buy us ten afternoon snacks of a cherry Coke and a Devil Dog.) Romance was in the evening air if one was lucky enough to have a boy hold her hand while walking her home.

And when the rain
Beats against my windowpane
I'll think of summer days again
And dream of you

Summer solstice . . . worth a celebration! Raise your glass of cherry Coke (or whatever)!