The 100 Greatest Summer Songs: The Top 25

Elton John and Kiki Dee

But if you do, make sure you arrange for (1) a production that swings like the world's greatest Holiday Inn band on a major inspiration jag, (2) a string section that saws away sumptuously in the background, (3) a melody that is musical cotton candy, all thick and gooey, (4) congas that thwack!, and (5) duet partners who sing it with such playful zest that you just know they'll be together forever.

The Carpenters

In 1970's politically charged, post-Kent State months, people still wanted to fill the world with silly love songs. Two of them were Burt Bacharach and Hal David, who wrote this standard. The other two were Richard Carpenter, whose pristine arrangement was so unhip that it's hip, and his sister, Karen, who sang every word as if she were resigned to feeling unrequited — no matter what time of year.

Tupac Shakur and Dr. Dre

From the addictive vocodered chorus to the high-concept Mad Max-style video, the song would likely have been a hit even without two of the biggest stars in West Coast hip hop. With the pair's easy, silver-tongued interplay, it was an unstoppable summer smash in '96.

The Police

Paranoia never sounded as sweet as it did during the summer of '83, when Sting's ode to spying on a lost love smothered the airwaves like Bain de Soleil. Although it feels as wistfully romantic as an old doo-wop ditty, ''Every Breath'' actually nails down the acquisitive spirit of the '80s — the sense of amour as an investment: ''Oh, can't you see?'' Sting's lament warned. ''You belong to me.''

The Beach Boys

Perhaps the happiest, most heartbreaking song Brian Wilson ever wrote — because for many of us, like Wilson, its vision of happily ever after didn't come true. (Check out its use at the bummer denouement of Shampoo.) But time hasn't removed an iota of jubilant hope from an anthem looking forward to a blissful adulthood where two teen lovebirds might walk in the sun and even, gulp, ''sleep together.''

The Surfaris

Who needs words? Few songs in the history of rock & roll can beat this churning instrumental when it comes to the mindless, wave-buffeted abandon of summer. ''Wipe Out'' kicks off with a lunatic cackle — imagine Beavis hanging 10 on a long board — and plunges into a backwash of tumbling tom-toms and repetitive riffs. No wonder it's still covered by every garage band in America.

Gnarls Barkley

Star Wars get-ups aside, duo Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo made pop history when their single became the first to reach No. 1 on the UK charts based on the strength of its online sales.

The Beatles

It might be the best-recognized chord in history, that anticipatory G-sustained fourth that opens the song we most associate with Beatlemania. Fortunately, the rest of the tune's pretty terrific too. Lennon and McCartney held out a taste of honey as the carrot on the end of a nine-to-five stick, making toiling by day and sweating by night seem a perfectly romantic trade-off for us working-class slugs.

Rod Stewart

It doesn't matter what year it is: The kid's fling with the older, wiser person of the opposite sex is a classic hot-weather fantasy. ''Maggie May,'' the song that turned Rod the Mod into Rod the Bod, was Summer of '42 for boomers — tender, but with a rock n' roll kick and an arrangement ripe for air drumming (and mandolining). And what is it with organs (the keyboard kind) and summer songs, anyway?

Mungo Jerry

''When the weather's fine/You got women, you got women/On your mind.'' The British skiffle quartet that recorded this lighthearted novelty never made it onto the U.S. charts again, but their sole hit was a good 'un. With its ticktack piano motif, shuffling beat, and simple lyrics about swimming, looking for girls, driving, looking for girls, fishing, and looking for girls, this was a song only a sourpuss could hate.

Grand Master Flash & the Furious Five

Like a mirage on a hot day, ''The Message'' floated right off the steaming asphalt of New York City's streets. Unlike a mirage, the vision was real — seven stark and sweltering minutes about life in the ghetto. Rapper Melle Mel delivered the urban jeremiad, DJ Flash served up the shimmery synthesizers and Jeep-quaking beats, and ''The Message'' gave America its first wallop of socially conscious hip-hop.

The Beach Boys

The Beach Boys' fantasy of California as a land of perpetual sun and fun still seemed believable in the pre-countercultural summer of '64 when this, the group's first No. 1 single, hit the charts. The song's protagonist boasted of ''making real good bread,'' and of the power of his car to attract girls, as the song zoomed along like the pop-music equivalent of a smooth-riding hot rod. It was fun, fun, fun while it lasted.

OutKast

Andre 3000 has cooked up plenty of Southern-fried rap bangers with Big Boi over the years, but his most enduring contribution to the summertime genre isn't a rap song at all — just four minutes of pure guitar-pop ecstasy.

The Hues Corporation

The epitome of summer trifles, courtesy of an L.A. trio who never went top 10 again, this bit of disco bubblegum had a rollicking rhythm that matched its title, not to mention lyrics great for boating season (''Our love is like a ship on the ocean/We've been sailing with a cargo full with love and devotion''). Depending on your politics, it was also a great way to celebrate — or try to forget — Richard Nixon's resignation.

Eddie Cochran

Propelled by Cochran's jaunty rhythm guitar, this song had little or no connection to the blues, but who cared? Written from a teen's perspective, it took aim at those hard-hearted authority figures — bosses and parents — out to quash a kid's right to have fun. Cochran even managed a bit of wry political commentary: ''I called my congressman and he said, quote, 'I'd like to help you, son, but you're too young to vote.' ''

The Rolling Stones

Small wonder this record has endured: It distilled the sexual frustration and angst of the nation's adolescents as succinctly — and catchily — as any song ever has. There was no mistaking this rude little masterpiece for anything but the cry of a male animal in heat. The nagging guitar hook, Jagger's tough, bitter vocals, and that mantra-like chorus made this libido-soaked howl impossible to escape or deny.

Sly & the Family Stone

One of Sly's most sophisticated productions, this remarkable record blended piano, strings, brass, and post-doo-wop harmonies into an enduring hymn to the soul-stirring effects of free time and hot weather. Has there ever been a more meaning-packed non sequitur than ''Bop-bop-a-bop-bop when I want to'' for conjuring pleasures both wholesome and illicit? Buoyant and melancholy, this is one for the ages.

Madonna

The headlines belonged to Walter Mondale's slow death march against Ronald Reagan. But the airwaves succumbed to that poignant opening keyboard lick, burbling disco melody, and masochist-delight lyrics. If infatuation is an essential summer experience, then so is romantic frustration. Pleading while standing up for herself, Madonna scored her first top 10 hit and made romantic disappointment as uplifting as it'll ever be.

Martha and the Vandellas

Martha wasn't just describing a furtive bout of the twist under a traffic light; this was the heralding of a worldwide block party. And, with the civil rights movement taking shape, why not imagine the marches and riots of the early '60s superseded by a coast-to-coast frug-fest? This oldies staple may be long divorced from its context, but it sounds even more celebratory with civic hurts kept in mind amid the partying.

The Doors

Anything went during the Summer of Love, or so goes the mythology of the '60s, and this monster proved it. At what other time could a six-and-a-half-minute song hit No. 1 on the pop chart? Credit goes to Jim Morrison, whose voice made sex sound mysterious and dangerous, and Ray Manzarek's interminable lounge-organ solo, which captured what it meant to feel stoned on the beach even if you weren't.

The Drifters

Sadly, it's now impossible to reenact the romantic scenario dreamily laid out by the Drifters, at least under the boardwalk, at Coney Island; the formerly cavernous space under the decaying planks was filled in with sand. (The homeless and all, you know.) But do we cherish the ballad any less as a period piece? Not on your life — this make-out place is a safe haven we can always retreat to in the shade of memory.

Martha and the Vandellas

One of the earliest smashes from Motown's legendary Holland/Dozier/Holland songwriting team, this rollicking song's central metaphor was driven home by music as riveting as Martha Reeves' scorching vocal delivery. With the Vandellas urging her on (''Go ahead, girl!''), the singer seemed to be courting heatstroke as she worked herself up into an impassioned frenzy. Hotter than July.

Alice Cooper

Rock & roll was practically invented as a way to decry classrooms and cruel gym teachers. But few warm-weather smashes capture the exuberant ''See ya!'' feel that the last school bell rings in like this snarly anthem. The taunting guitar intro screams release, while the lyrics — ''We've got no class, and we've got no principals!/We can't even think of a word that rhymes!'' — scream attitude. It even ends with the sound of a school bell ringing.

The Beach Boys

Psychedelia was looming, but the West Coast's favorite sons were content to keep singing about cars and girls. And why not, when the results were as stellar as this? With their sparkling harmonies, the Boys sang the praises of coast-to-coast womanhood before fessing up to their preferences: ''I wish they all could be California girls.'' The combination of regional chauvinism and all-American sexism never sounded so good.

The Lovin' Spoonful

So sweat rolled down your back by the bucketful, the noise was suffocating, and it wasn't the heat, it was the humidity. But you liked it, because it was summer. In the city. And, with a keyboard riff sent like Morse code to every kid whose parents had moved to boring suburbia, John Sebastian made downtown cool again in the most sweltering of circumstances. As urban solstices go, the Spoonful dished up the definitive one.

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. 50-26