100 Greatest Summer Songs: Nos. 50-26

Bee Gees

A year and a half before the smorgasbord of Saturday Night Fever, the Bros. Gibb served up this relentless falsetto romp as a sort of...disco appetizer.

The Eagles

The Pacific Coast Highway vision of summer: seven women and one set of wheels.

Bill Haley & His Comets

Sounds harmless enough now, but when introduced in the film Blackboard Jungle, the very first No. 1 rock single represented juvenile delinquency nonpareil and made a whole nation of restless youth wanna play hooky. Fortunately, it was summer.

Beyoncé & Jay-Z

Those horns! Producer Rich Harrison's brass-laced backdrop would be enough to drive anyone crazy and/or make them fall in love — including the reigning royal couple of R&B and hip-hop, whose flawless chemistry has never been more obvious than on this collab.

Paul McCartney and Wings

That tuxedo-clad suzerain of summer, James Bond, never got a better theme than McCartney's operatic anthem.

Sonny and Cher

Do we care that they didn't stay together forever? Nope — for these three moony minutes, puppy love beats all the societal odds.

Elvis Presley

The two moods of the teenage summer experience — an earnest plea to a would-be lover and a too-cool brush-off — on one of the rock era's first double-sided smash hits.

''Don't Be Cruel''

''Hound Dog''

Booker T. & the MG's

A steaming skillet of groove, greased by the smoothest organ riff ever.

Donovan

This giddily effervescent trifle (possibly the first No. 1 pop song to contain an explicit drug reference) went down easy no matter what kind of sunshine you thought he was talking about.

Chic

The sinfully infectious bass line alone was enough to fill a sweltering dance floor in 100-degree weather.

Hugh Masakela

Anyone who thinks this is about cows should consider that Masakela was hanging out with Jimi Hendrix around the time this horn-spiked romp was recorded.

The Rascals

A serene Sunday afternoon stroll with the one you love, captured as never before (or since) in song. Maybe it's the chirping birds.

Chris Brown

What began as a jingle for a Doublemint commercial soon became one of Brown's biggest hits — an airy R&B dream of AutoTuned coos and soaring synths. The singer's career took a serious dip following his assault on then-girlfriend Rihanna on the eve of the 2009 Grammys, but the song would go on to play an unexpected role in his redemption when a young Minnesota couple's wedding-party entrance to it went massively viral several months later.

Ben E. King

Moonlight, commitment, and a Drifter. What more could a girl ask for on a summer night, except maybe a River Phoenix flick?

The Allman Brothers Band

Dickey Betts' mellifluous guitar was the key to this primo highway song, the perfect soundtrack for speeding on melting asphalt.

Aerosmith

Summer hits are usually supposed to be upbeat, but when Steven Tyler wailed an emotional love song in a movie about the destruction of the planet, it was destined to become a hit.

The Knack

The new wave ''Wipe Out'': one dumb hook repeated over and over until it approaches moronic ecstasy.

Rolling Stones

Rock, meet disco. Disco, meet the harmonica. America, meet yet another unstoppable Stones summer anthem.

TLC

Sad stories from the ghetto, a buoyant hook, and a water image — '90s summer hits don't get any more timely or irresistible.

Bananarama

Even a heat wave seems less cruel thanks to the cruising-the-street guitar riff, the lyrics (''The air is so heavy and dry''), and the three slinky voices.

Sheryl Crow

Barfly-poetry verses outta Tom Waits meet a chorus veritably lifted from Brian Wilson's picnic basket: It's the most literary-minded mindless summer single ever.

Chubby Checker

Back before the word franchise was even a twinkle in the major movie studios' eyes, twist-meister Checker foresaw the value of a warm-weather sequel. And so America contorted again, like it did last summer.

''THE TWIST''

''LET'S TWIST AGAIN''

Steppenwolf

If that opening riff doesn't make you want to hit the highway, you are officially a coma victim.

John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John
''GREASE'' (1978)
Frankie Valli

Grease, with a side order of cheese. The three moods of summer — a tease, a strut, a sigh.

''YOU'RE THE ONE THAT I WANT''

''SUMMER NIGHTS''

''GREASE''

Bob Dylan

Long, hot summer days heated up every time this galvanizing record came over the airwaves. With its headlong rush of organ, piano, drums, guitars, and Dylan's accusatory vocals, his first top 10 smash was so different it stopped conversations. While it had nothing to do with the Vietnam War or the civil rights demonstrations, this attack on a down-and-out debutante still felt like a political manifesto. Maybe it was.

''LIKE A ROLLING STONE''

Written by David Browne, Jeff Gordinier, Leah Greenblatt, Sean Howe, Mark S. Luckie, Tom Sinclair, Ethan Smith, Simon Vozick-Levinson, Amy Wilkinson, Chris Willman

More Summer Music Countdown!:
The 100 Greatest Summer Songs: Nos. 100-76
The 100 Greatest Summer Songs: Nos. 75-51
The 100 Greatest Summer Songs: Nos. 25-1