Best Summer Songs
Summer songs share a production signature: bright top end, uncrowded low end, and a tempo relaxed enough to work at low volume outdoors. "Summertime", "Good as Hell" and "Island in the Sun" are the reference points across three different kinds of summer.
Songs that sound enormous indoors often disappear outside, where there are no walls to reflect them. The tracks here are chosen partly for surviving that.
- 01
DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince — Summertime
1991
The most literal answer and still the best one. The Kool & the Gang sample is exactly the tempo of a slow warm evening.
- 02
Weezer — Island in the Sun
2001
The "hip hip" refrain requires no knowledge of the song to join in. Ideal for a garden where half the people are not paying attention.
- 03
Lizzo — Good as Hell
2016
Front-loaded energy that works at barbecue volume. Most upbeat songs need loudness to land; this one does not.
- 04
Beach Boys — Wouldn't It Be Nice
1966
The origin point for the entire genre. The layered harmonies still sound like sunlight, which is a strange and specific achievement.
- 05
Calvin Harris — Feels
2017
Engineered specifically for summer radio and unashamed about it. The Pharrell hook is the reason it outlasted its season.
- 06
Bob Marley — Three Little Birds
1977
The default garden-party track worldwide. Works at any volume, offends nobody, and improves any temperature above 20°C.
- 07
Childish Gambino — Feels Like Summer
2018
The melancholy one. Summer ending rather than starting, which is a mood the genre usually ignores.
- 08
Kali Uchis — After the Storm
2018
Warm, unhurried and slightly retro. Better for the late-afternoon stretch than for peak sun.
- 09
Sublime — Santeria
1996
The specific sound of a beach at the end of the day. Deeply Californian and it travels anyway.
- 10
Dua Lipa — Levitating
2020
Disco-pop built for outdoor speakers — the mix is bright enough to survive open air, where denser records turn to mush.
- 11
The Lovin' Spoonful — Summer in the City
1966
The counter-programme. Summer as heat and irritation rather than pleasure, complete with car horns in the mix.
- 12
Frank Ocean — Pink + White
2016
Beyoncé on backing vocals and a Pharrell arrangement. The most beautiful thing on this list by some distance.
- 13
Tame Impala — The Less I Know the Better
2015
That bassline. Works at any hour of a summer day, which very little else does.
- 14
Mungo Jerry — In the Summertime
1970
Absurd, shuffling and impossible to dislike. The song most likely to make people over 50 join in at a barbecue.
- 15
Chance the Rapper — Cocoa Butter Kisses
2013
Specifically a city-summer song — the sound of a long evening on a stoop rather than a beach.
Settle it properly
Lists are one person's opinion. Put the same question to your friends instead — everyone submits their answer to
"Best Summer Anthem"
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Start the BattleWhy summer songs sound the way they do
Outdoor listening has no reflective surfaces, so bass disperses and detail vanishes. Records that sound huge in a room can sound thin in a garden. The tracks that survive are mixed bright, with energy in the upper mids where the human ear is most sensitive.
That is why so many summer classics are horn-led or built on clean electric guitar and layered vocals. Those frequencies carry outdoors. Sub-heavy modern production frequently does not, which is why a trap record that shakes a car can sound weedy at a barbecue.
Tempo also drops. Most of this list sits between 90 and 115 BPM — fast enough to be upbeat, slow enough to be background while people talk.
The three kinds of summer song
Beach and holiday: unhurried, warm, slightly hazy. "Santeria", "After the Storm", "Three Little Birds". Built for doing nothing in particular.
Barbecue and garden party: upbeat, familiar, works at conversational volume. "Good as Hell", "Island in the Sun", "In the Summertime". These need to survive being talked over.
City summer: hotter, more restless, slightly melancholy. "Summer in the City", "Cocoa Butter Kisses", "Feels Like Summer". Summer as something you are enduring as much as enjoying, which is the more honest version for most people.
Questions
What is the greatest summer song of all time?
"Summertime" by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince (1991) is the most-cited modern answer, with "Wouldn't It Be Nice" by The Beach Boys (1966) as the origin point. Both work because they evoke a specific pace rather than just a season.
What makes a song feel like summer?
Bright production with energy in the upper mids, an uncrowded low end, and a tempo around 90–115 BPM. Those choices survive outdoor listening, where bass disperses and detail is lost — which is why summer classics tend to be horn- or guitar-led.
What is a song of the summer?
The track that dominates a particular summer through radio and streaming. It is a chart phenomenon rather than a genre — songs of the summer are usually forgotten within two years, while genuine summer classics work every year.
More lists like this
This list came from our Holidays & Seasons prompts. Browse all song lists or the full prompt library.
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