Reader participation: Summer songs

Some songs just say “summer.”

We’re asking readers to share the song you most identify with this season, along with a brief (200 words or fewer) explanation of why.

A couple of my co-workers started singing Beach Boys songs after Brian Wilson died earlier this month, and maybe it’s the band’s name, but those are summer songs, right?

Drawing from more recent hits, another co-worker said Chappel Roan’s megahit from earlier this year, “Pink Pony Club,” evokes summer for him — maybe because it’s referencing L.A., which always seems summery.

Co-worker Jeanne M. DePaul shares this contender for most summer song of all time: “Beach Baby” by the one-hit wonders The First Class “was a massive hit the summer I was 12 … perfect for total teeny-bopper joy.”

She also offered The Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Summer in the City,” Martha and the Vandellas’ “Dancing in the Streets” and “Summertime,” written by George Gershwin for the 1935 opera “Porgy and Bess” and famously recorded by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong in 1957.

A 20-something co-worker introduced me to Greta Van Fleet’s “Highway Tune”: “This is something that you’d roll down your windows and just cruise,” he said.

I’m listening to Don Henley’s “The Boys of Summer” as I write this, and the nostalgia is heavy. It sounds like summer to me, though it’s not in the fun and beachy category. Was it always this sad? Some songs hit different after a few decades of life lived.

But, bubble-gum pop or deep emotional dive, certain songs always are for summer, no matter what season of life we’re in.

So tell us: What song conjures summer for you — and why?

Submit your quintessential summer song by July 18 to arts@inland360.com or mail it to Inland 360, P.O. Box 957, Lewiston, ID 83501.

Stone (she/her) has Willie Nelson, King Princess and Waxahatchee on her summer playlist. She can be reached at mstone@inland360.com.