Summer Nights

Soft moonlight, the windless air, the day’s heat still going strong past midnight — there’s something truly special about summer nights, which is why they’ve served as inspiration for so many songwriters. Here, we begin with perhaps the most famous of all summer-night nostalgia tracks, as John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John embrace the hormone–filled ambiance of the sock hop in “Summer Nights” from Grease. You can practically hear the crickets and frogs providing the backdrop to R.E.M.’s “Nightswimming,” Billy Idol goes urban with the lusty, steamy “Hot in the City,” and the Church directs our gaze upwards with their new- wave classic, “Under the Milky Way.”

Miles Davis, Ron Sexsmith, and the Beach Boys keep it balmy, through to Next Steps.

The mercury shows no sign of dipping here, and neither does the heat of passion, as the Keith Jarrett Trio’s “Summer Night” evokes the flavor of an after-hours tryst, while the Afghan Whigs’ spirited “Summer’s Kiss” captures the bittersweet taste of a love that’s destined to die with the turning of the leaves. Meanwhile, Fountains of Wayne sing a sad song of love left behind, “It Must Be Summer,” Ron Sexsmith takes us for spin on his Ferris wheel of melody on “Summer Blowin’ Town,” Miles Davis meanders with us along sleepless sidewalks on “Summer Night,” and the Beach Boys serenade us on the sand after midnight with “The Surfer Moon.”

Dream under the stars with Trespassers William, in Deep Cuts.

That great, yawning expanse of America between the Rockies and the Appalachians gets its due in song here, as Hacklebarney folkie Greg Brown distills an easy-rolling charm from “Summer Evening,” describing nights when “the corn’s set high and there’s more lightnin’ bugs than stars in the sky.” Classically trained Christine Brown (no relation) uses her piano skills impressionistically (and impressively) in “Summer Nights,” Trespassers William turn from shoegazing to stargazing in the dreamily evocative “Different Stars,” and Meat Loaf dials up the heat of love with “You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night).”

As wonderful as summer days are, it’s the nights that really bring the magic out: moonlit evenings, stolen kisses, waves rolling into shore, the jasmine-scented breeze wafting along at the edge of perception . . . Even the more prosaic evenings spent in the city have a certain charm, as you feel the heat radiating off buildings and hear the sounds of traffic and the clatter of patio parties. Summer nights have a special mystique, a signifying sound, and we’ve captured it here for your listening pleasure — so crack a cold one and embrace the evening with Weezer (“Island in the Sun”), Justin Timberlake (“Summer Love”), Ray Charles (“Night Time Is the Right Time”), Van Halen (“Summer Nights”), and a host of like-minded artists who relish those unforgettable nights that follow the longest days.