Summer Madness (instrumental)

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"Summer Madness"
Summer madness by kool and the gang US single side 2.png
Side two of US single "Spirit of the Boogie"
Single by Kool & The Gang
from the album Light of Worlds
A-side "Spirit of the Boogie" (Nor. Am.)
ReleasedSeptember 1974
Recorded1974
Genre
Length4:16
Label De-Lite
Songwriter(s) Kool & the Gang, Alton Taylor
Kool & The Gang singles chronology
"Spirit of the Boogie"
(1975)
"Summer Madness"
(1974)
"Caribbean Festival"
(1975)

"Summer Madness" is an instrumental tune that was released in 1974 by Kool & the Gang on their album Light of Worlds . It reached number 35 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 36 on the Hot Soul Singles charts. [3] It has subsequently become one of the most sampled R&B compositions of all time. In the early summer of 1996, Epic Records, a division of Sony Music, reissued and re-released the song as a CD and cassette single. [4] [5] As of 2018, over 145 recordings had sampled it. [5]

Contents

Composition

The song's most recognizable aural signature is the 4-octave ascent from F3 to F7 on an ARP 2600 played by Ronald Bell. [6]

Uses

"Summer Madness" has been used in various media:

Charts

Chart (1975)Peak
position
US Billboard Hot 100 [10] 35
US Cashbox Top 100 [11] 27
US Record World Singles Chart [12] 34

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References

  1. Gorton, TJ (July 30, 2018). "BeatCaffeine's 100 Best Jazz-Funk Songs". BeatCaffeine. Archived from the original on August 25, 2018. Retrieved September 19, 2021.
  2. 1 2 Pitchfork Staff (August 22, 2016). "The 200 Best Songs of the 1970s". Pitchfork . Retrieved October 13, 2022. It's eight minutes of breezy instrumental synth-soul has been stretched, chopped, and looped countless times.
  3. "Breaks With Tradition: Kool & The Gang's "Summer Madness"". September 17, 2018.
  4. "Summer Madness by Kool & the Gang – Songfacts". www.songfacts.com.
  5. 1 2 "Five Hip Hop Tracks That Sampled Kool & The Gang's Summer Madness". future-classic-music.
  6. Cox, Arnie.  Music and Embodied Cognition: Listening, Moving, Feeling, and Thinking . United States, Indiana University Press, 2016. 55.
  7. "Kool and the Gang – History". Kool and the Gang Official Site. Red Light Management. Archived from the original on December 9, 2015. Retrieved December 9, 2015.
  8. "The 25 Best Aaliyah Songs". Complex. August 27, 2021. Retrieved July 19, 2022.
  9. "Various – Grand Theft Auto Vice City O.S.T - Volume 6 : Fever 105". Discogs.
  10. "Kool & the Gang: Hot 100". Billboard.
  11. "Cash Box Chart Entries 1970-1979" (PDF). popmusichistory. Retrieved October 5, 2023.
  12. "Record World Singles Chart: July 5, 1975" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on September 22, 2023. Retrieved October 5, 2023.