Summer is just around the corner, and all across the country, people will soon be cracking drinks on rooftops or on boats on a lake, music blaring in the background. These days, most summer soundtracks are pop albums by the likes of icons Charli XCX or Taylor Swift, but the music of the season is not at all confined to just one genre.
Though in recent years, pop has been the primary genre blasting through the speakers in the summertime, any upbeat, feel-good track is a surefire hit to queue up when you’re in control of the music, and it’s hot outside. I, for one, find classic rock to be a treasure trove of a genre when thinking about what to play on a 90-degree day, ice-cold drink in hand. These 12 classic rock songs should play nicely next to Brat and are the perfect way to diversify your summer playlist.
12 “American Girl”
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (1976)
Despite its release being over 40 years earlier, this song reminds me of summers spent on my college campus playing cornhole in the front yard. There’s just something about Tom Petty’s vocals paired with Mike Campbell’s iconic guitar riff that just screams summer in your 20s. Though it was released in February, Petty and the Heartbreakers actually recorded the song on the Fourth of July, and when listening to “American Girl,” one can tell as much.
The lyrics are all about the promise of being young and wanting the most out of life.
The song is in a major key, it’s upbeat, and its overall sound has a youthful sense of urgency. The lyrics are all about the promise of being young and wanting the most out of life:
Well, she was an American girl
Raised on promises
She couldn’t help thinkin’ that there
Was a little more to life
Somewhere else
After all it was a great big world
With lots of places to run to
Petty’s voice is full of hope, and the simple joy of singing on a beautiful July day when the track was recorded. If ever there were a song that I could play on repeat for hours on a boat on a lake in Michigan, this is it.
11 “Boys of Summer”
Don Henley (1984)
Any track with the word “summer” in its title seems a bit like low-hanging fruit for a summer soundtrack, but make no mistake, Don Henley nailed it with this song, even if it is glaringly obvious. Every word of “The Boys Of Summer” just oozes warm weather nostalgia. If I were to categorize this song with a specific feeling, it would be the first day in May or June when, if you drive a convertible, you simply must put the top down and let the wind flow through your hair—and with his notable heartthrob hair, I’m sure Henley would agree.
The lead single on his second solo album, Henley’s summer hit peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100. Funny enough, Mike Campbell of The Heartbreakers actually wrote “The Boys Of Summer” for Tom Petty, but when Petty turned it down, legendary producer Jimmy Iovine brought it to Henley, who, thankfully, recorded what would become one of the biggest hits of his solo career (via Guitarist).
10 “Authority Song”
John Cougar Mellencamp (1983)
The twangy guitar riff that kicks off the fifth and final single of John Mellencamp’s wildly successful album, Uh-huh, is one that feels like it should be played through the speakers of a pickup truck at full volume in the middle of a rural campground. As the title so plainly lays out, this is a song that wrestles with authority, but not in the typical angsty sense that so many anti-establishment songs embody.
This is a song that exudes so much of what makes John Mellencamp great: good ol’ American rock ‘n’ roll.
Mellencamp sings a catchy chorus, with lyrics that, when he sings them, don’t sound nearly as defeatist as they are: “I fight authority, authority always wins.” As the chorus progresses, he goes on to sing, “I’ve been doin’ it since I was a young kid / And I come out grinnin’,” turning the defeat of the previous line on its head and keeping with the feel-good nature of the song. This is a song that exudes so much of what makes John Mellencamp great: good ol’ American rock ‘n’ roll.
9 “Vacation”
The Go-Go’s (1982)
The lead single and title track from The Go-Go’s second studio album, there isn’t really a song in music history that beats the upbeat, whimsical joy showcased in “Vacation.” It was the girl group’s second song to chart in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number eight in August 1982, just one month after its release. As such, one can imagine that this was the song of the summer that year.
When the track was released in 1982, it was about a year into MTV’s tenure and the rise of the music video. The music video for “Vacation,” along with its strategic summer release, propelled the song into the broader discourse of what it means to be a “summer song.” The music video shows the band water-skiing on a lake in the middle of summer, as Belinda Carlisle sings the lyrics that run through our minds all year long as we wait for summer vacation to come: “Vacation, all I ever wanted / Vacation, had to get away.”
8 “Shattered”
The Rolling Stones (1978)
“Shattered” was the fourth single released in the U.S. from The Rolling Stones’ fourteenth studio album, Some Girls. The hypnotic, borderline monotone beat created by the drums, bass, and guitar allows Mick Jagger to go crazy on the vocals, making this song an absolute trip. It’s his jumbled roller-coaster of vocal chaos, into the rhythmic repetition of the song’s title and back again that makes this song perfect for a warm summer night.
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The song itself is an ode, if you can call it that, to New York City, with the opening lyrics exemplifying that same feeling of youthfulness that seems synonymous with summer itself: “Uh huh shattered, uh huh shattered / Love and hope and sex and dreams / Are still surviving on the street.” Nothing says summer like love and hope—and sex and dreams, according to Mick Jagger—and the Rolling Stones’ fast-paced, high energy 1978 hit really drives that point home.
7 “Summer of ’69”
Bryan Adams (1985)
Another track with the word “summer” staring you in the face in its title, it’s quite literally impossible to leave “Summer Of ’69” off of a list of classic rock songs about summer. Released 16 years after the song’s namesake summer, Bryan Adams transports us back in time to the warm weather months of our teenage years. The song peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100 and is still making waves today; Adams appeared as a guest in Toronto in August 2018 to perform the hit with Taylor Swift on her Reputation Tour (via Billboard).
Adams reminisces in his lyrics about a summer when he was still in school, playing music and simply being young:
Oh, when I look back now
That summer seemed to last forever
And if I had the choice
Yeah, I’d always wanna be there
Those were the best days of my life
He gives high praise to that fateful summer, then blinks back to his life now, wondering where it all went awry and wishing he could have actually made that summer last forever. It’s a song that resonates deeply, as we’ve all had a summer like that, which we fondly refer to as “the best days of our life.”
6 “Shake It Up”
The Cars (1981)
The Cars released their fourth studio album, Shake It Up, in 1981, and its lead single and title track became one of the band’s greatest hits, peaking at number four on the Billboard Hot 100. The uptempo dance-rock hit is chock-full of synthesizers and Ric Ocasek’s distinct, rather theatrical vocals. Their previous album, Panorama, was a bit more experimental relative to the sound the band had cultivated thus far, and Shake It Up, Ocasek explained, was “The big return to pop.” (via Rolling Stone)
The lyrics are a combination of fun and silly, yet inspirational—perfect for an outdoor summer dance party. Ocasek wails, “Uh well, dance all night play all day / Don’t let nothin’ get in the way,” and with the fast and steady drum beat in the background and the aforementioned synthesizers, this is a song that just makes you want to sweat, in the best possible way.
5 “Any Way You Want It”
Journey (1980)
Journey is a band with any number of upbeat feel-good tunes to choose from for your summer playlist, but “Any Way You Want It” is certainly among their greatest. The lead single from their 1980 album, the track peaked at number 23 on the Billboard Hot 100 upon its release, but continued making contributions to popular culture for decades. The song has appeared in many films and TV shows, from Caddyshack, the same year it was released, to a season 6 episode of Better Call Saul in 2022.
The vocal harmonies created by four of the five band members at the time evoke a warm feeling that is similar to that of summer itself.
The upbeat love song features Steve Perry’s vocals cooing, “She loves to laugh / She loves to sing / She does everything.” The track has a bit of an underlying dance beat in the background, with some seriously killer guitar riffs courtesy of Neal Schon. The song has become a critical piece of many of Journey’s live set lists, and the vocal harmonies created by four of the five band members at the time evoke a warm feeling that is similar to that of summer itself.
4 “Hollywood Nights”
Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band (1978)
“Hollywood Nights” was the second single from Bob Seger’s much-anticipated album, Stranger In Town, which came out two years after the release of Night Moves and Live Bullet, both of which went platinum and really launched him into national stardom. In an interview with Louder Sound, Seger said “Hollywood Nights” was the closest a song came to coming to him in a dream: “I usually have a guitar or a keyboard nearby. It’s very seldom that I’m driving in a car and something rolls into my head, but that song did.”
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For an artist so deeply tied to his hometown of Detroit, MI, it does seem a bit odd that Seger’s greatest hit for driving with the top down on a warm summer night would be about Hollywood rather than the Motor City. However, “Hollywood Nights” is a song about having achieved one’s dream, making it out to Hollywood to live a life of music and fame and appreciating the little moments that remind us of why we did it in the first place.
3 “Young Americans”
David Bowie (1975)
The title track and lead single from David Bowie’s 1975 album, “Young Americans” incorporates an eclectic musical ensemble that includes a saxophone, congas, and a choral-sounding group of background vocalists. The song, surprisingly, did not break the top 25 of the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 28, though it is widely regarded as one of Bowie’s greatest hits and among the most influential tracks of his career.
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The saxophone plays a key role in keeping with the overall dance-y, simply fun vibe of this track. While Bowie was by no means an artist who remained within the confines of just one genre, “Young Americans” took on a more R&B, jazz sort of sound than anything he had done before. The lyrics are right on the nose, all about what it means to be young, and the prolonged “All night / She wants a young American” is the very essence of young love in the summertime.
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