♫ In The Summertime ♫ (Redux)

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, History, music

Okay, yeah, so I seem to play this one every summer … and this summer is no exception.  Why?  Because I like the song!!!  Do I really need any other justification?  I like the music, but partly I like the fun they seem to be having producing the music!  Now that summer is here in full force, look for more summer-themed songs to come out of Filosofa’s Mind!

This song was written by Ray Dorset, who was the lead singer and guitarist for the group Mungo Jerry.  Now, until I first posted this song a few years ago, I thought Mungo Jerry was a solo artist, the one who turns out to be Dorset.

The band was known as Memphis Leather and The Good Earth before getting a record deal and changing their name to Mungo Jerry (after the character Mungojerrie from the T. S. Eliot book Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats – later the basis for the Broadway play Cats).

Dorset penned the song in 1968 when he was working for Timex in the UK – his band was just getting started and music was more of a hobby at the time. Dorset says that the famous melody just popped into his head one day, and the next day he wrote the lyrics very quickly.

“It’s got no chorus; all it’s got is a melody that goes over and over again with a set of lyrics that conjure up a celebration of life,” he said. “Especially if you’re a young person: it’s a great day, you’ve managed to get a car – preferably with the top off – you’re cruising around, and if you’re a guy you’re picking up girls.”

Barry Murray, a producer at Pye Records, was a friend of Ray Dorset’s and signed the group to the label’s more adventurous imprint, Dawn Records, which released In The Summertime as their first single. The song took off, going to #1 in their native UK as well as most EU nations, and making #3 in the U.S. The UK fortunes of the song were aided by the group’s appearance at the Hollywood Music Festival in Staffordshire England on May 23, 1970, shortly after the song was released. Playing on low on a bill with the Grateful Dead, Black Sabbath, Free and Traffic, the song got the attention of the 35,000 or so fans in attendance, giving it a huge lift.

Released in 1970, it reached #1 in charts around the world, including seven weeks on the UK Singles Chart, two weeks on one of the Canadian charts, and #3 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.

In the Summertime
Mungo Jerry

Chh chh-chh, uh, chh chh-chh, uh
Chh chh-chh, uh, chh chh-chh, uh
Chh chh-chh, uh, chh chh-chh, uh
Chh chh-chh, uh, chh chh-chh, uh
Chh chh-chh, uh, chh chh-chh, uh
Chh chh-chh, uh, chh chh-chh

In the summertime when the weather is hot
You can stretch right up and touch the sky
When the weather’s fine
You got women, you got women on your mind
Have a drink, have a drive
Go out and see what you can find

If her daddy’s rich take her out for a meal
If her daddy’s poor just do what you feel
Speed along the lane
Do a turn or return the twenty-five
When the sun goes down
You can make it, make it good and really fine

We’re not bad people
We’re not dirty, we’re not mean
We love everybody but we do as we please
When the weather’s fine
We go fishin’ or go swimmin’ in the sea
We’re always happy
Life’s for livin’ yeah, that’s our philosophy

Sing along with us
Dee dee dee-dee dee
Dah dah dah-dah dah
Yeah we’re hap-happy
Dah dah-dah
Dee-dah-do dee-dah-do dah-do-dah
Dah-do-dah-dah-dah
Dah-dah-dah do-dah-dah

Alright ah

Chh chh-chh, uh, chh chh-chh, uh
Chh chh-chh, uh, chh chh-chh, uh
Chh chh-chh, uh, chh chh-chh, uh
Chh chh-chh, uh, chh chh-chh, uh
Chh chh-chh, uh, chh chh-chh, uh
Chh chh-chh, uh, chh chh-chh

When the winter’s here, yeah it’s party time
Bring your bottle, wear your bright clothes
It’ll soon be summertime
And we’ll sing again
We’ll go drivin’ or maybe we’ll settle down
If she’s rich, if she’s nice
Bring your friends and we’ll all go into town

Chh chh-chh, uh, chh chh-chh, uh
Chh chh-chh, uh, chh chh-chh, uh
Chh chh-chh, uh, chh chh-chh, uh
Chh chh-chh, uh, chh chh-chh, uh
Chh chh-chh, uh, chh chh-chh, uh
Chh chh-chh, uh, chh chh-chh

In the summertime when the weather is hot
You can stretch right up and touch the sky
When the weather’s fine
You got women, you got women on your mind
Have a drink, have a drive
Go out and see what you can find

If her daddy’s rich take her out for a meal
If her daddy’s poor just do what you feel
Speed along the lane
Do a turn or return the twenty-five
When the sun goes down
You can make it, make it good and really fine

We’re not bad people
We’re not dirty, we’re not mean
We love everybody but we do as we please
When the weather’s fine
We go fishin’ or go swimmin’ in the sea
We’re always happy
Life’s for livin’ yeah, that’s our philosophy

Sing along with us
Dee dee dee-dee dee
Dah dah dah-dah dah
Yeah we’re hap-happy
Dah dah-dah
Dee-dah-do dee-dah-do dah-do-dah
Dah-do-dah-dah-dah

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Ray Dorset
Summertime Holiday lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group, Songtrust Ave, BMG Rights Management

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52 thoughts on “♫ In The Summertime ♫ (Redux)”

  1. The pill set femininity free scaring society witless. Thank Josaphat that I hit the ground at the perfect time. I don’t think the attempts to stuff that genie back in the bottle have benefited society in anyway. Parents will always be destined to live in fear, that does not give them rights to lock up their daughters and emasculate their sons. I have been told that some women actually enjoy sex and don’t regard dinner as a commercial interaction.

    Liked by 1 person

    • You do have a way with words, Richard! But yes, I agree with all you say. The pill was truly a lifesaver for so many, and the attempts to stuff the genie back into the bottle are pathetic, ludicrous, and in my view criminal! But then, I am a woman, so … what do I know? Oh, and yes, I can confirm what you have heard that some women actually enjoy sex and do not view it as an opportunity to spit out another baby in 9 months, nor as a ‘duty’ to her man. Dinner as a commercial interaction? Never heard that one before … I always think of dinner as a) a chance to fill the belly and sate the taste buds, and b) an opportunity for some good conversation. Not necessarily in that order.

      Liked by 1 person

      • “Can we talk” is a feminine thing. Women have never appreciated how hard it is to save the world in the 15 min allotment the male mind is granted after satiating his primary driver.
        I think I might have mentioned before that magic is misdirection. I hope the dinner and conversation led to real magic Happiness.

        Liked by 2 people

  3. As has been pointed out, some lyrics in this song can be problematic. That being said, I was young when it was on the radio so that was over my head, it was a great summer for me, and it was just a fun song that I still love for the fun it brought. Thanks!

    Liked by 2 people

    • Indeed so! I am nearly deaf, so lyrics rarely matter to me, for I cannot hear them. It’s only since I started doing these music posts that I actually find out what the lyrics are … in the past, I just made up my own! I like or dislike a song, generally, for the sound, the music, and not based on the lyrics. I agree that some of the lyrics are classist and misogynistic, and I don’t like that … but overall, I still like the song because it’s got a happy beat to it and the band seems to be having such great fun.

      Liked by 2 people

        • I knew of the school for the deaf here, but had no idea they could teach them to be piano tuners!!! When I was about 6 years old, there was a woman in our neighborhood who gave piano lessons (for a fee, of course). My mother, who refused to believe that her only child was actually almost deaf, enrolled me to learn piano from this woman. After the second lesson, the woman told my mother she was wasting her money, that I was tone deaf, and never to bring me back!

          Liked by 1 person

          • I might have got it wrong after some thought. It is likely the piano tuners come from the school for the blind just down the hill from Eden Park. I think the school for the deaf is in Sharonville next to the home for unwed mothers. Sorry for the misdirection.

            Liked by 1 person

  4. Class and misogyny that is revealed in some of the lyrics of this song leave a unpleasant taste in my mouth – particularly “If her daddy’s rich take her out for a meal If her daddy’s poor just do what you feel”. Sorry, it’s not a song that I can enjoy

    Liked by 3 people

    • Being near deaf, I rarely understand the words to a song, so I either like or dislike simply based on the composition, the melody. Then, when I do these posts, I learn the lyrics, but ofttimes don’t look at them that closely. You and another reader, rawgod, often point out the flaws that I have overlooked, and in this case you’re right … that is rather a misogynistic, classist statement to make. Sorry you didn’t enjoy the song, but I do understand why.

      Liked by 1 person

  5. Simple, unpretentious fun, and the band were having a whale of a time. I spent most of that summer’s evenings at the youth centre with friends from school and the motor scooter club. A great time with so many happy memories. This was the soundtrack to that, though it was pushed hard by Free’s All Right Now, which spent five weeks at #2 that year, four of them behind this. I don’t know if it was a hit over there but the follow up, Baby Jump, also made #1 here.

    Liked by 3 people

    • I’m really glad you liked this one! A motor scooter club, eh? Awesome! I had never heard of ‘Baby Jump’, but a quick search leads me to believe that it never charted much of anywhere outside the UK and Ireland.

      Liked by 2 people

      • It is a song for a time, for me. So much going on for me, and the youth centre and the scooter were my escape. It doesn’t surprise me that Baby Jump didn’t make it anywhere else, and I doubt any of their others did too!

        Liked by 2 people

          • I looked them up on Wiki and this was their only US hit. I wasn’t all that keen on Baby Jump anyway, but they had another couple of big hits here with Lady Rose and Alright, Alright, Alright, both of which I enjoyed. They also had a non-hit single of a track on their first album, Peace In The Country, which is all about the after effects of the nuclear bomb having been dropped, set to a jaunty jugband tune. Unique, I think!

            Liked by 1 person

  7. LOL ~ You had to be there

    This is another one that got so overplayed that 1) it took a really long time for me to again appreciate it and 2) along all the rest I don’t necessarily need to hear it to listen to it ~ or listen to hear ~ swimming around the back of my head

    I do hope it planted an earbug …

    Liked by 4 people

  11. Guess what Jill?
    A song which pushed every wrong button for me.
    I’ll stop there. ‘Cause there must be lots of folk who like this one and they don’t want me to spoil their reading and listening with a class rant.
    Sorry ’bout that.
    To make up for it…
    🌸💮🌻🌼🌷
    And a cute.
    🐰

    Liked by 4 people

    • Wow! EVERY wrong button? I’m sorry! I am curious about what those buttons are, so if you feel inclined to let me know, I’m sure it won’t spoil the song for those who liked it. Perhaps I’ve missed something. Awwwwww … thank you so much for the flowers and the cute bunny! You do know the way to my heart!

      Liked by 2 people

      • Missed something?…..naaah, just me.
        The song butts up against my grim, censorious side. I have a whole list of songs like that, but keep them under wraps not wanting to upset folk who like the said songs. After all I get niggled when someone calls out a favourite of mine, so it’s not fayre(sic) to inflict that on others.
        Thus the whole topic is ‘REDACTED’

        Now ‘Alright, Alright, Alright’ (adapted from the French singer-songwriter Jacques Dutronic’s ‘Et moi, et moi, et moi’)…..I love (both!)

        Liked by 3 people

  12. I can tell you a story about this record. At the time, my dad was the sales manager for Pye Records in the UK. He brought me home a demo disc of this song. I was 16 at the time, and the company wanted to know if it would appeal to the youth market. I played it half a dozen times, and told my dad. “It’s different, it could get a lot of radio play, maybe even make number one”.
    He went back and told his bosses, and they decided to release the record.
    The rest is history! The record is still used on commercials in the UK, and always played by radio stations in the UK during the summer. Unfortunately, nobody told Ray about my seal of approval, so I got no royalties! I still have that demo disc in a box in the loft.
    Best wishes, Pete.

    Liked by 4 people

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