Which song dominated the summer of 1962?
It’s true that the music we listen to changes depending on the season. The names of The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Joni Mitchell may as well read as spring, summer, autumn, and winter, depending on who you ask.
This isn’t just a random theory that I’ve written here for the sake of it; there has been genuine research into how much our listening habits change depending on what time of the year we find ourselves in. Professor Terry Pettijohn from Coastal Carolina University found that what people listen to depends on their mood. Given that our mood is so directly impacted by the weather, these two musical factors go hand in hand.
“We developed the hypothesis that when times are more difficult and threatening, we prefer individuals and themes of media that are more meaningful and helpful for those times,” he said, “When times are better, we prefer things that are less meaningful and more about just kind of going with the flow and being happy and partying.”
Sure, summer comes with its issues, like an increase in creepy crawlies and sweat stains on your favourite T-shirt, but for the most part, people much prefer the warmer months to the colder, as they get to go outside more, enjoy the sunshine, sit out with friends and enjoy longer days. Accompanying all that is music that helps elevate that feeling of joy.
As such, when people refer to the ‘song of the summer’, that is, a song that has proven to be incredibly popular throughout the summer months, they don’t just mean a track that’s topped the charts, but also something that has acted as the backdrop for genuine joy. The songs that we play during these warmer months are those we will eventually look back on and remember some of the good days that they accompanied.
You can really get a glimpse of what the world was like, and what the feeling during a certain time was, depending on what the song of the summer is. Perhaps one of the decades associated with joy the most is the 1960s, as while there was a great deal of political unrest towards the backend of these ten years, before that, you had a lot of great music, the Summer of Love, Woodstock, and generally just a feeling of change.
So, how did such a defining decade sound at the very beginning? As the music that would rise to the top throughout the ‘60s was beginning to establish itself, a few different artists and styles began to poke their heads above the water, and the song of the summer in 1962 didn’t just backdrop joy, but it was also a precursor to change.
So, what was the song of the summer in 1962?
While there were a lot of good songs that came out in the summer of 1962, the one that stayed at the top of the charts for the longest was Bobby Vinton’s offering with ‘Roses Are Red (My Love)’.
It was written by Paul Evans, who had previously had some novelty hits, but decided to take time out of his day in a bid to write something which would well and truly resonate with the public. The whole thing came together in about three minutes, with the help of a lyricist, but he knew the song had real potential the moment words were laid on melody, and wouldn’t you know it, he was right.
“Sometimes you write a song, and you write it for months, until you say to yourself, ‘I’ve got the world’s first perfect song’, and nobody likes it. I was at a recording session doing some of my own material…and Al Byron, the lyricist in this case, came into the session and said he’d like to show me a lyric,” recalled Evans, “So as a total joke, I said to the musicians, ‘OK, guys, take a five, I’m going to write a hit song now, ha ha ha ha ha’.”
Once Byron handed him the lyrics, Evans did not change a word and started writing the melody on the piano, adding, “I wrote it in three minutes. I wrote the melody just as you hear it. I turned around laughing, I thought this was funny to write a song in three minutes. Al looked at me and said, ‘That’s very good. It’s exactly what I had in mind’.”
