For those wondering (both of you), it has dawned on me that this week's tune might have been a bit better featured when it was actually...summertime? But after enjoying listening to it this week, I don't really think it much matters. It's a great tune--winter, spring, summer, or fall....
Mungo Jerry (named for the poem "Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer" by T.S. Eliot, from his collection Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats) formed in England in 1969, and are still recording and touring to the present day. Ray Dorset has been joined by twenty-three other musicians over the last fifty-two years to keep Mungo Jerry performing, as they last released an album in 2019. While they're only remembered in the U.S. for their one hit, they had a number of successful singles in their native U.K. and Europe over the course of their music making. For their career, Mungo Jerry has released nineteen studio albums (only their first two LPs charted in their native U.K. and only their first album in the U.S.), one live album, and eighteen compilation albums (the joys of having a massive hit single). They've also released sixteen singles, and have had five top five hits on the U.K. singles charts and one in the U.S. In a first for Friday Night Jukebox, Mungo Jerry is the initial band featured to be known for playing skiffle, a genre of folk music.
"In the Summertime" was originally released as a maxi-single (very rare for its time) in 1970, and after it became a hit was put on their second LP, Electronically Tested (so named for a claim on packages of Durex condoms). The single would hit #1 on virtually every country's top singles chart (so many cool kids around the world) except for the United States where it reached #3 (with a bullet). The album was one of their two that charted in the U.K. (#14), but did not hit the LP chart in America.
Fun Fact: Since its release, "In the Summertime" has sold over thirty million copies, making it the third best selling single ever (though the sales number is disputed). That's...pretty goddamn amazing when you think about it.
While there have been scores of songs written about the joys of summer, for my money "In the Summertime" is the one that actually captures the joy of summer the best. From its beginning to its end, the lyrics, the instruments, and the vocals all ooze with the giddiness that the warmth and fun of summer brings after the month of snowy and/or rainy weather that preceded it. Swimming in the ocean, driving around in the warm air, fishing, enjoying the company of women--Mungo Jerry leads everyone on a summer outing that's sure to please. It's hard to believe it's been fifty years since I first heard this on the radio and bopped around Lake Comanche on our annual summer camping trip--but it has been and it still makes me both bop around and smile, smile, smile whenever I hear it.
Lyric Sheet: "When the weather's fine/We go fishing or go swimming in the sea/We're always happy/Life's for living, yeah, that's our philosophy..."
I don't often comment on the videos, but whatever you do as you're watching this one take note of a) how much fun the band is having, and b) the banjo player who's also playing the jug, which is just about as close to perfection as a pop song can get. Enjoy:
The Republican Party Is Now a Fascist Cult Just Like Nazi Germany
Peace,
emaycee
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