"In the Summertime" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Single by Mungo Jerry | ||||
from the album Electronically Tested | ||||
B-side | "Mighty Man" | |||
Released | 1970 | |||
Studio | Pye, London | |||
Genre | Skiffle [1] [2] | |||
Length | 3:30 | |||
Label | Dawn | |||
Songwriter(s) | Ray Dorset | |||
Producer(s) | Barry Murray | |||
Mungo Jerry singles chronology | ||||
|
"In the Summertime" is the debut single by British rock band Mungo Jerry, released in 1970. [3] It reached number one in charts around the world, including seven weeks on the UK Singles Chart, two weeks at number one on the Canadian charts, and number three on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in the US. It became one of the best-selling singles of all-time, eventually selling 30 million copies. [4] [5] [6] Written and composed by the band's lead singer, Ray Dorset, while working in a lab for Timex, the lyrics of the song celebrate the carefree days of summer. The track was included on the second album by the band, Electronically Tested , issued in March 1971.
Dorset has said that the song only took 10 minutes to write, which he did using a second-hand Fender Stratocaster, while he was taking time off from his regular job, working in a lab for Timex. [7]
The song was recorded in Pye Studio 1 with Barry Murray producing. [8] Initially it was only two minutes long; to make it longer, Murray played the recording twice, slightly remixing the second half, and put the sound of a motorcycle in the middle. [8] In an interview with Gary James, Dorset explained that they couldn't find a recording of a motorcycle, but that "Howard Barrow, the engineer had an old, well, it wasn't old then, a Triumph sports car, which he drove past the studio while Barry Marrit [sic] was holding the microphone. So, he got the stereo effects from left to right or right to left, whatever. And that was it." [9]
The initial UK release was on Dawn Records, a new label launched by Pye. It was unusual in that it was a maxi single, playing at 331⁄3 rpm, whereas singles generally played at 45 rpm. It included an additional song also written and composed by Dorset, "Mighty Man," on the A-side, and a much longer track, the Woody Guthrie song "Dust Pneumonia Blues," on the B-side. As the record was sold in a picture sleeve, also not standard at the time, and sold at only a few pence more than the normal 45 rpm two-track single, it was considered value for money. A small quantity of 45 rpm discs on the Pye record label, with "Mighty Man" on the B-side, and without a picture sleeve, were pressed for use in jukeboxes. These are now rare collector's items.
In 2012, Dorset sued his former management company Associated Music International, run by his former friend and business manager Eliot Cohen, claiming over £2 million in royalties from the song that he believed had been withheld from him. [10]
Credits adapted from the single liner notes for "In the Summertime". [11]
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
|
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Australia (ARIA) [45] | Gold | 50,000 [45] |
Denmark | — | 55,000 [46] |
France | — | 1,110,000 [47] |
Germany (BVMI) [48] | Gold | 500,000^ |
Norway | — | 20,000 [46] |
Sweden | — | 100,000 [49] |
United Kingdom Original release | — | 800,000 [50] |
United Kingdom (BPI) [51] 2005 release | Gold | 400,000‡ |
United States (RIAA) [52] | Gold | 1,000,000^ |
Summaries | ||
Scandinavia | — | 175,000 [46] |
Worldwide | — | 30,000,000 [4] [5] [6] |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
"In the Summertime" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Single by the Mixtures | ||||
from the album In the Summertime | ||||
B-side | "Where You Are" | |||
Released | 1970 | |||
Length | 2:37 | |||
Label | Fable | |||
Songwriter(s) | Ray Dorset | |||
Producer(s) | June Productions Of Australia Pty. Ltd. | |||
The Mixtures singles chronology | ||||
|
In 1970, Australian rock band the Mixtures covered and released the song. The song replaced Mungo Jerry's version at number one on the Australian chart, where it remained at number one for six weeks. It was the biggest-selling single by an Australian artist in Australia in 1970 and number three overall.
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
|
"In the Summertime" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Single by Shaggy featuring Rayvon | ||||
from the album Boombastic and Flipper Soundtrack | ||||
A-side | "Boombastic" (US only) | |||
B-side |
| |||
Released | 26 June 1995 (UK) | |||
Genre | Reggae [53] | |||
Length | 3:46 | |||
Label | Virgin | |||
Songwriter(s) | Ray Dorset | |||
Producer(s) |
| |||
Shaggy singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"In the Summertime" ('96 Version) | ||||
In 1995, Jamaican-American reggae musician Shaggy covered the song, and released it as the lead single from his third studio album, Boombastic (1995). [54] Aside from the addition of rap lyrics, Shaggy's version also substitutes other lyrics for the song's original line "have a drink, have a drive." Shaggy also performed the song on an episode of Baywatch . [55] A year after its release, the song was re-recorded and released specifically for the film Flipper under the title "In the Summertime" ('96 version).
Roger Morton from NME felt that Shaggy here has covered "In the Summertime" "in fine jagga-jug band/who gives a shit style." [56] Al Weisel from Rolling Stone described it as "a bouncy, infectious remake of the 1970 Mungo Jerry hit, [that] alternates a soulful chorus with a rapid-fire rap a la Chaka Demus and Pliers' "Murder She Wrote"." [57]
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
|
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
New Zealand (RMNZ) [83] | Gold | 5,000* |
United Kingdom (BPI) [84] | Silver | 200,000‡ |
* Sales figures based on certification alone. |
Region | Version | Date | Format(s) | Label(s) | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
United States | with "Boombastic" | 1995 |
| Virgin | |
United Kingdom | Solo | 26 June 1995 |
| [85] | |
Japan | 5 July 1995 | CD | [86] |
The song's lyric "have a drink, have a drive, go out and see what you can find" led to its use in a UK advert for the campaign Drinking and Driving Wrecks Lives. It featured the first verse against people enjoying drinks in a pub during summer, then stopped to show a fatal car accident caused by drink driving. [87] [88] "In the Summertime" has been featured in many feature-length films including 29th Street , Twin Town , The Substitute , Drowning Mona , Mr. Deeds , Stolen Summer , Anita and Me , Wedding Crashers , Wild About Harry , Despicable Me 2 , and Dog Days , and X .
Mungo Jerry are a British rock band formed by Ray Dorset in Ashford, Middlesex, in 1970. Experiencing their greatest success in the early 1970s, with a changing line-up always fronted by Dorset, the group's biggest hit was "In the Summertime". They had nine charting singles in the UK, including two number ones, five top-20 hits in South Africa, and four in the Top 100 in Canada.
"Reach Out I'll Be There" (also formatted as "Reach Out (I'll Be There)") is a song recorded by American vocal quartet Four Tops from their fourth studio album, Reach Out (1967). Written and produced by Motown's main production team, Holland–Dozier–Holland, the song is one of the most widely-known Motown hits of the 1960s and is today considered the Four Tops' signature song.
"Venus" is a song by Dutch rock band Shocking Blue, released as a single in the Netherlands in the summer of 1969. Written by Robbie van Leeuwen, the song topped the charts in nine countries.
"Exhale (Shoop Shoop)" is a song by American singer Whitney Houston, featured on the soundtrack for the film Waiting to Exhale. It was released as the lead single from the soundtrack on November 6, 1995, by Arista Records. The song was written and produced by Babyface. A mid-tempo R&B and soul ballad, composed in the key of D-flat major, the song's lyrics speak about growing up and learning to let go. The song garnered mostly positive reviews from critics, many of whom noted Houston's vocal maturity in the song.
"Living in America" is a 1985 song composed by Dan Hartman and Charlie Midnight and performed by James Brown. It was released as a single in 1985 and reached number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song entered the Billboard Top 40 on January 11, 1986, and remained on the chart for 11 weeks. It also became a top five hit in the United Kingdom, peaking at number 5 on the UK Singles Chart; it was his only top 10 single in the UK. It was his first Top 40 hit in ten years on the US pop charts, and it would also be his last. In 1987, it was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song and won Brown a Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance.
"Angel" is a song by Jamaican reggae artist Shaggy featuring additional vocals from Barbadian singer Rayvon. Sampling the 1973 song "The Joker" by American rock band Steve Miller Band and interpolating the 1967 song "Angel of the Morning" written by Chip Taylor, it was released to radio on 9 January 2001 as the follow-up to Shaggy's international number-one hit, "It Wasn't Me". "Angel" also proved to be successful, reaching number one in 12 countries, including Australia, Germany, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
"All for Love" is a song written by Bryan Adams, Robert John "Mutt" Lange, and Michael Kamen for the soundtrack The Three Musketeers: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. It is performed by Adams, Rod Stewart, and Sting. The power ballad was released as a CD single in the United States on November 16, 1993, by A&M and Hollywood. It was a worldwide hit, reaching number one across Europe, in Australia and in North America.
"Take a Chance on Me" is a song by Swedish pop group ABBA, released in January 1978 as the second single from their fifth studio album, ABBA: The Album (1977). Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad share the lead vocals on the verses and choruses, with Fältskog singing two bridge sections solo. The song reached the top ten in both the UK and US, and was notably covered by the British band Erasure in 1992.
"Ring My Bell" is a 1979 disco song written by Frederick Knight. The song was originally written for eleven-year-old Stacy Lattisaw as a teenybopper song about children talking on the telephone. When Lattisaw signed with a different label, American singer and musician Anita Ward was asked to sing it instead, and it became her only major hit.
"The Joker" is a song by American rock band Steve Miller Band from their eighth studio album, The Joker (1973). Released as a single in October 1973, the song topped the US Billboard Hot 100 in early 1974 and reached the top 20 in Australia, Canada, and the Netherlands.
"Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band" is a song recorded by Meco, taken from the album Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk. It hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on October 1, 1977, holding on to the spot for two weeks and peaked at no. 7 on the UK Singles Chart, remaining in the charts for nine weeks. The single was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, having sold a million units.
"Maneater" is a song by American duo Hall & Oates, featured on their eleventh studio album, H2O (1982). It reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on December 18, 1982. It remained in the top spot for four weeks, longer than any of the duo's five other number-one hits, including "Kiss on My List", which remained in the top spot for three weeks.
"Hungry Eyes" is a song performed by American musician Eric Carmen, a former member of the band Raspberries, and was featured in the film Dirty Dancing (1987). The song was recorded at Beachwood Studios in Beachwood, Ohio in 1987. "Hungry Eyes" peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and No. 3 on the Cash Box Top 100 in 1988. The power ballad was not released commercially in the UK, but it managed to peak at No. 82 in January 1988, having charted purely on import sales.
"Feels Like I'm in Love" is a song written and recorded by Ray Dorset with his band Mungo Jerry. It was a number-one hit on the UK Singles Chart for two weeks in September 1980 for Scottish singer Kelly Marie.
"Don't Leave Me This Way" is a song written by Kenneth Gamble, Leon Huff and Cary Gilbert. It was originally released in 1975 by Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes featuring Teddy Pendergrass, an act signed to Gamble & Huff's Philadelphia International label. "Don't Leave Me This Way" was subsequently covered by American singer Thelma Houston in 1976 and British duo the Communards in 1986, with both versions achieving commercial success.
Boombastic is the third studio album released by Jamaican artist Shaggy. The album was released on July 11, 1995.
"Another Day" is a song by Italian Eurodance project Whigfield, fronted by Danish-born Sannie Charlotte Carlson. It was released in August 1994 by X-Energy, ZYX Music and Systematic as the second single from her debut album, Whigfield (1995). Written by producers Larry Pignagnoli and Davide Riva, with Annerley Gordon and Ray Dorset, the song was the follow-up single to Whigfield's 1994 hit single, "Saturday Night", and peaked at number seven in the United KIngdom. "Another Day" also became a top-10 hit in Canada, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Spain, Switzerland and Zimbabwe. On the Eurochart Hot 100, it reached number nine.
"Oh, Pretty Woman", or simply "Pretty Woman", is a song recorded by Roy Orbison and written by Orbison and Bill Dees. It was released as a single in August 1964 on Monument Records and spent three weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 from September 26, 1964, making it the second and final single by Orbison to reach number one in the United States. It was also Orbison's third single to top the UK Singles Chart, where it spent three weeks at number one.
"Give Me the Night" is a song recorded by American jazz and R&B musician George Benson, which he released from his 1980 studio album of the same title. It was written by Heatwave's keyboard player Rod Temperton and produced by Quincy Jones. Patti Austin provides the backing and scat vocals that are heard throughout, and one of Benson's fellow jazz guitarists, Lee Ritenour, also performs on the track.
"Alright, Alright, Alright" is a popular song and hit single by the British group Mungo Jerry, first released in 1973.
{{cite AV media notes}}
: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)British sales were around 800,000