The Lovin' Spoonful: Summer In The City (live 2010, Long Island)

Manorhaven Beach Park, Port Washington, Town of North Hempstead, Long Island, New York. 23 July 2010. "Summer in the City" is a 1966 hit single by The Lovin' Spoonful, written by Mark Sebastian (brother of John Sebastian) and Steve Boone. It came from their album, Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful. It reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on August 13. The song featured a series of car horns, during the instrumental bridge, starting with a Volkswagen Beetle horn, and ending up with a jackhammer sound, in order to give the impressions of the sounds of the summer in the city. The song is ranked number 393 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The signature keyboard part is played on a Hohner Pianet, and the organ is a Vox Continental.
When at Blair Academy, Mark Sebastian submitted the lyrics as a poem for the literary magazine. That poem, entitled "Summer In the City," had the refrain "but at night it's a different world, go out and find a girl, come on, come on and dance all night, despite the heat it'll be alright, and babe don't you know it's a pity, the days can't be like the night, in the summer in the city." His older brother John changed the slower verses to a more upbeat model, keeping the title and the refrain. Mark's part remains as he wrote it, words and music. Bassist Steve Boone added the instrumental coda in the middle.
"Summer In The City" replaced The Troggs' "Wild Thing" in the Billboard Number One slot; "Wild Thing" spent two weeks in the Number One slot. "Summer In The City" was the Number One song for three weeks in the late Summer of 1966 before it was finally dethroned by Donovan's "Sunshine Superman," which spent one week atop the charts before it was dethroned by The Supremes' "You Can't Hurry Love."

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[adnelga]

wins you over, doesn't it?

[Rach84]

ahhh how could I have missed them? I live closeby. My mom was friends with them before they became famous. she would have loved to have seen them if I had known.

[555bean555]

ahhh these guys were my first concert, along with Rick Derringer who opened up