Jukebox Fun

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This mix is in a way a tribute to the so called ‘beach music’ of the late fifties, sixties and early seventies. This type of uplifting soul ruled the jukeboxes at the beaches of both Carolinas in the US. It’s more or less the same kind of music as ‘northern soul’ in the UK, although beach music goes back to the doo wop of the fifties and has some rock ‘n’ roll traces as well. It vanished in the mid seventies when disco music, played in discotheques, became the most popular kind of dance music and wiped out (to quote the Surfaris) beach music. Enjoy the handclapping, the raw saxophones and the excitement of being young!

It’s not typical beach music, but ‘Summer wine’ written and sung by Lee Hazlewood (in a duet with Nancy Sinatra) is an outstanding summer song. It describes a summer love as some kind of a drug (‘my head felt twice its size’) in a very poetical way. It seems to be sung by an old villain and an innocent girl. It’s the well-known theme of Little Red Riding Hood (the wolf and the maiden). Lee Hazlewood produced the Duane Eddy track as well. Hazlewood died on this day exactly three years ago, after releasing his final album 'Cake or death' in 2006. To honor his memory I put in two tracks about cake too.

Picture by Electroluminescence

Tracklist:

The Durutti Column – Sketches For Summer (1981)
Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons – Sun Country (1972)
Seals & Crofts – Summer Breeze (1972)
Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood – Summer Wine (1966)
Graham Gouldman – Sunburn (1979)
Duane Eddy – Rebel Rouser (1958)
Del Vikings – Come Go With Me (1957)
The Esquires – And Get Away (1967)
The Drifters – Under The Boardwalk (1964)
Marv Johnson – Save My Love For A Rainy Day (‘60s)
Wes Montgomery – California Dreamin’ (1966)
Sven Hammond Soul – Fat Cakes (2010)
The Barracudas – Summer Fun (1980)
Eddie Cochran – Summertime Blues (1959)
The Surfaris – Wipe Out (1963)
The Brothers Four – The Green Leaves Of Summer (1960)
The Main Ingredient – Work To Do (1973)
James Taylor Quartet – Function At The Junction (2007)
The World Column – So Is The Sun (1969)
Average White Band – Cut The Cake (1975)
Bottom & Company – Here For The Party (1975)
Michael Jackson – Ain’t No Sunshine (1972)



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