Summertime, and the livin' is easy!
- Keith Toop
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
'Summertime, and the livin’ is easy'.....
by Guest Blogger : Keith Toop.
To borrow some of the lyrics to George Gershwin’s song, in the summertime, is the living easy? Well for many artists it is. Everyone knows that every year in December many artist’s cash registers are going Kerching! As the money go round starts again for the artists Christmas songs. The question is, is it the same for summer hits that do the rounds through our summer months?
So let's start with Gershwin's “Summertime”. Composed by George Gershwin in 1934, for the 1935 opera “Porgy and Bess”, with the lyrics done by DuBose Heyward, who was the author of the novel “Porgy”, on which the opera was based, and George Gershwin's brother, Ira. So did it pay well for royalties? The simple answer is yes. It is not known how much royalties were earned, but the song has become one of the most covered songs of all time, being covered over 25,000 times.
Assuming he actually owned the rights to the song! Having just written a blog about Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, where Brian's father owned the song rights for a short time. So I googled it... (Jon)
The Gershwin estate's control over royalties is a result of copyright law and the fact that Ira Gershwin lived for a long time after his brother. The copyright on their joint work extends for 70 years after the death of the last surviving co-author, meaning the Gershwin estate will continue to collect royalties until 2053.
The next question is what constitutes a “Summer” song. Christmas is easy to define, but there are many songs that get played year in, year out. So let's explore some songs that have “Summer" or "Sun” in their titles.
"In The Summertime", by Mungo Jerry was a big hit in 1970. Written by Ray Dorsey, he claims in only ten minutes, has paid well for him for the last 55 years. "Walking On Sunshine" by Katrina and the Waves was a massive hit back in 1983, but does it pay well each year? The song is believed to generate $1million annually, however the band no longer get royalties from it, with all of them going to Kimberley Rew, the songwriter.
Our next classic is “Here Comes The Sun” by The Beatles. Although the song did well, the
earnings for The Beatles were a complex business, so it did well for the Abbey Road album at the time. Longevity has done well for the song though, as to date it has been streamed over a billion time and has been used for commercial uses. The song was written and sang by George Harrison. In the summer it was released it was a balmy hot time and so is synonymous with a summer hit.
Last year Keith wrote a two part blog on the songwriting contribution of George Harrison to The Beatles, you can find them via the links at the bottom.....
Summer in the city ~ The Loving Spoonful, Cruel Summer ~ Bananarama, Steal My Sunshine ~Len, Summer Holiday ~ Cliff and the Shadows, Sunny Afternoon ~ The Kinks, Boys of Summer ~ Don Henley, Summer Breeze ~ originally done by Seals and Crofts but more associated with The Isley Brothers. All these hits have had success and have got an obvious link to summer, where as, all of these next hits have been summer hits but don’t contain an obvious “summer link”.
Under The Boardwalk ~ The Drifters, Hot Stuff ~ Donna Summer (I know, she’s got “Summer” in her name), Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay ~ Otis Reading, Schools Out ~ Alice Cooper, Dancing In The Street ~ Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, Rock Lobster ~ B52’s, Dancing In The Moonlight ~ Toploader. and the many, many songs of The Beach Boys. All have an association with summer which has given them continued success year in year out.
So what of the modern hits from today? Taste by Sabrina Carpenter is considered a good summertime hit, as is her song “Espresso”. Watermelon Sugar by Harry Styles from 2019 and Get Lucky by Daft Punk from 2013 are both considered good summertime songs. Whether they will stand the test of time remains to be seen, but one thing is clear that having a summertime hit could set you for life.
So to “Summerise” what makes a good summer hit? It is not necessary to have the obvious words “Sun or Summer” in the song but, it helps, but to have an upbeat sound and to release it for the summer, so that it’s played extensively throughout the summer of it’s release, will mean that it has a lasting legacy for the summers to come.
Enjoy your summer!
Keith Toop
This is one of my favourites! (Jon)
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