“Summer in the City” By The Lovin’ Spoonful Still Has The Best Rhythm

Don’t you know it’s a pity the days can’t be like the nights in the summer, in the city? In an era of breezy, lighthearted beach tunes, 1966’s “Summer in the City” by the Lovin’ Spoonful gave us a fresh take on summer by mourning the oppressive day and celebrating the cool, hip energy of nightlife, and they did it with a jam that got us ready to party all night long.

No surprise, it took a fresh mind to work wonders on this unique hit – unique both for its pretty different way of looking at those warm summer days we usually craved so badly, and unique for the band, which usually stuck to exactly the kind of lighter tune we expect of a Fourth of July release. That’s right, this moody, rhythmic city night anthem was released on America’s birthday, too.

“Summer in the City” was different from anything we’d heard from the radio and the Lovin’ Spoonful

For this moody departure from their usual work, the Lovin’ Spoonful actually got this song from an outside source – sort of. John Sebastian is the band’s usual lyricist, but this beat came from a song composed by his teenage brother Mark – at the time of writing it, Mark was all of 14 years of age.

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Mark already knew how to draw from the good stuff for some songwriting inspiration; his original version of “Summer in the City” was written in the soulful style of Sam Cooke, who in 2015 made it to Billboard‘s list of the 35 greatest R&B artists of all time.

The Lovin’ Spoonful did give “Summer in the City” a significant makeover, significantly expanding on the foundation Mark laid down and outright changing much of the original tone with its bossa-nova sound. The rhythm is actually pretty intricate stuff, and music buffs will know just how much is going on with the shifting scales, octaves, and modes. But “Summer in the City” never loses the listener in a bad way; yes, we’re taken along a rhythmic journey, but it adds wholly to the experience in a way a song like this needs.

The song was exactly what the band and listeners needed

Bass guitarist Steve Boone actually admitted to being pretty thrilled that “Summer in the City” so perfectly proved that the Lovin’ Spoonful was capable of just about anything, not just the soft, simple feel-good stuff. That was only possible if people were listening, and they certainly were. Proof? Author Jon Savage, the music journalist known for his quintessential history of the Sex Pistols and punk music, declared “Summer in the City” as the definitive “American song of the summer.”

The numbers back up this lofty title too. In discordance with the song’s own hectic pace, the track’s popularity enjoyed a very steady sprint to the top. By July 16, Billboard declared it a breakout single across the entire country, and nobody had to be a city slicker wheezing at a bus stop with a neck caked in sweat to have their heart change its beat to match “Summer in the City.”