Is Taylor Swift cheating in the Song of the Summer race? Probably. Is that OK? Probably. Does her hacking of the Song of the Summer “rules” open the field to a flood of awesome potential contenders? Absolutely.
Some background: Morgan Wallen’s thoroughly mediocre “Last Night” looks like a lock for the title (three months at No. 1). But Swift is mounting a furious, late-entry challenge with “Cruel Summer.” The twist is “Cruel Summer” originally came out on Swift’s 2019 LP “Lover” and was only released as a single last month.
Of course, last summer Kate Bush nearly took the title with a four-decades old song (see the resistance of “Running Up That Hill”). So this summer, let’s let Swift and her four-year-old song give “Last Night” some much needed competition. But if “Cruel Summer” gets a shot at the title, so do a whole bunch of other underappreciated jams and lost gems from years past. Which ones? Glad you asked.
“Emotion,” Carly Rae Jepsen, 2015 – Jepsen is the most under-appreciated pop artist of the past decade (century?). “Emotion” is a delicious fluff ball of cotton candy yum that marries Jepsen’s girl-next-door aesthetic with intricate production that winks at Berlin, Belinda Carlisle and Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis masterpieces.
“Forever,” Haim, 2013 – Sorry, Jepsen is tied for the most under-appreciated pop artist of the past decade. Haim deserves the honorific beside Jepsen. Carefully triangulating Fleetwood Mac’s “Tango in the Night,” Wilson Phillips “Hold On,” and St. Vincent at her most catchy, the Haim sisters constructed a towering-yet-breeze groove.
“Stick Up Kids,” Bad Rabbits, 2009 – It’s the rare band that can mix pop, rock and funk in equal parts. Boston’s Bad Rabbits pulled off the trick like nobody since the Time. Here’s to a Bad Rabbits renaissance.
“Dancing with Her Friends,” Sidewalk Driver, 2009 – Let me say it one more time for everyone in the cheap seats: Take a black 1977 Oldsmobile Cutlass S 442 with an orange racing stripe down the side and fill it with a disco ball, a bottle of cheap champagne, high heels, a Gibson SG, a James Brown bobblehead, a used tube of David Bowie’s eyeliner, a Beta copy of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and a whole mess of KISS and ABBA 8-tracks. Now crush the car into a pop song and you have “Dancing with Her Friends.”
“I’m Your Baby Tonight,” Whitney Houston, 1990 – When does the Whitney revival begin? Right now? Great. The obvious candidates are “How Will I Know,” “So Emotional” and “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me).” But try on this new jack swing thump and tell me it’s not perfect for 2023.
“Automatic,” The Pointer Sisters, 1983 – This song isn’t even in the Pointer Sisters’ Top 5 streaming songs! Madness!! That’s it. That’s the whole pitch.
