SONG OF THE SEASON

Macro iPod, originally uploaded by lily_bart.

The weather has finally changed (yes!) and spring is here, headed into the precious months of summer. Soon, school will be out (for those lucky enough to not have the year round schedule), the beaches will be flooded with tides of tourists, and the thermostat will sky rocket. In short, it is my favorite time of year.

My good friend and I wandered around New York City yesterday afternoon, and the buzz of happiness about the warm weather and green on the trees was unavoidable. We sat in the park and people watched. Even the babies who were strapped in strollers by parents or older siblings seemed to have a permanent smile on their little faces. I overheard a group sharing their pending trips for the summer and how they couldn't wait for school to be out (even if it meant forced family fun). There we all were, strangers united by the fantastic weather and milkshakes, happily letting the sun slip by from east to west.

As my friend and I enjoyed the day, we started talking about soundtracks of this season. Each year, there are always those summer songs that define the warm months. This soundtrack is usually comprised of both songs that have come out for the purpose of being the song of the summer (like Kid Rock's ALL SUMMER LONG last year, which you couldn't stop hearing anywhere you went, even if you tried to tune it out!) or those random songs that find you through memories made that particular summer.

I have had this discussion in the past. Last year, I debated for what felt like hours about which song is really the ultimate summer song. I had been a fierce advocate for Beyonce's CRAZY IN LOVE, which reminded me of when I first got to the Big Apple and how exciting it was just to walk around the streets and people watch (it still is, as per my story above). My friend fought for SUMMER OF '69, a wicked awesome song by Bryan Adams, because her sister had introduced her to it a few years before. Another talked about The Lovin Spoonful's SUMMER IN THE CITY and how it reminded her of being little when her mom would sing it to her. Side note: Regina Spektor put out a great song of the same title in 2006, which has a place in my top ten of summer songs. In the end that night last year, we decided that finding one song to encompass how all of us felt about the season was impossible. We put all of our songs on the jukebox where we were and loved each of them (some, more than others).

Yesterday, my friend and I joined up with another of our group and decided that we needed one song for our gang to represent 2010--we wanted one track that, whenever it came on Pandora or our ipod shuffles, we would think of each other and that moment. As the sun came down and we made our way to a friend's restaurant for dinner, we chatted about this. We are an odd crew, so from an earlier suggestion by a friend, we decided on the George Harrison (yes, the very same as the Beatles' icon) cover song from the 80s, I GOT MY MIND SET ON YOU. This song was originally recorded by James Ray in 1962, but the fantastically 80s version performed by George Harrison made it a staple on the radio in 1988. Harrison's version has the perfect blend of cheesy 80s synthesizer and catchy hook. We are a pretty nerdy (and sentimental) group, so having a summer song represent us where the music video showcases singing taxidermied animals kinda works. If you haven't ever danced around to this silly song, check it out (but don't judge us!):

Upon deciding we needed to hear our song right away, we asked our friend managing the small restaurant were we were to put it on the sound system. Sadly, the three minutes and fifty-three seconds passed all too quickly. What were we to do? We glanced around at the other patrons and decided to go for it. My friend grabbed the ipod and hit the back button. In trepidation, we started to bob our heads again, worried what the other patrons might say at hearing this super 80s song back to back. We were greeted with a vast majority of the patrons singing along and bobbing their heads in mutual happiness. We had discovered a song that was infectious in the simple joy that playing it caused. I GOT MY MIND SET ON YOU officially became our song and I will always smile when I hear it because of last night.

What is your ultimate summer song? Girls in the Hall wants to know! I might be listening to George Harrison on loop right now, but SHHH!, it is our secret.