Summer Songs 2

Summer's the time for "roll down your window and crank it up" music, and we've got it by the ton. The B-52's provide the destination for a little osculation with their "Love Shack." Former American Idol winner Fantasia belts out Gershwin's "Summertime" from Porgy and Bess with gusto, while Bob Marley's "Stir It Up" is the epitome of Jamaican groovitude. And Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett travel in tandem toward Margaritaville in "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere."

Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl" sounds remarkably modern for a tune that name-checks a "transistor radio." Sheryl Crow totally captures the "sun-fun-stay-play" ethic of Los Angeles in her "All I Wanna Do." NASCAR-friendly folks will surely dig Rascal Flatts' "Fast Cars and Freedom" as well as Kenny Chesney's "Summertime," which is positively not the Gershwin tune found elsewhere in these Essentials.

It was only a matter of time before the classic samba tunes got appropriated by the hip-hop community, and Sergio Mendes & the Black Eyed Peas bring a new energy to Jorge Ben Jor's classic "Mas Que Nada." The Ramones' update of the Rivieras' "California Sun" similarly imbues the track with renewed vigor (and a bottom end the original didn't have). And you can actually feel the sun on your skin while listening to Stevie Wonder's "Sir Duke" from Songs in the Key of Life.

Just as we try to cram a whole year's worth of fun into summertime and it never quite fits, so it was when we were working out our first Essentials list of Summer Songs. It's no big surprise that pop stars and hip-hoppers and heshers and head cases all love to sing the praises of summer's wonders, and there were far too many worthy candidates for us to stop at just one list. So here's a second dip into the great big pool of summertime musical goodness. Don't forget to put on a little sunblock every now and then.