The Nights Beat This Summer on a Pontoon Chasing The Sun on the Riverbank because it’s Summertime!

Did you notice? June has arrived! We’ve been enjoying beautiful sunny and warm days – I know, you doubters out there think I’m telling tall tales being that it always rains in Seattle, right? It does, but only when tourists come to town. It’s like magic.

Speaking of magic – this week’s theme for Monday’s Music Moves Me is “Songs about summer or that remind you of summer”, since the first official day of summer is coming right up! I love Summer Songs.  They’re fun.  Just like Summer.  And I really shouldn’t be capitalizing ‘summer’, but whatever.  I think of it like putting a crown on it.  I know, I’m an odd one at times.

Let’s get to it, shall we?  I found so many I wanted to share, then decided to narrow it down to these few… six.  Trust me, you’ll enjoy them as much as I do.

Let’s start off with a Swedish superstar who’s back with another hot tune for 2015 – if the song isn’t enough to get your blood pumping, the video features a “professional life liver”, which is guaranteed to get you up off that sofa and out enjoying the summer!

Give a listen to Avicii with “The Nights”:

Next up is one of my favorite artists who literally wrote this song at one o’clock in the morning. It’s a song that is meant to look at one of those love affairs that happens over the course of a summer. Where a guy and a girl fall in love and realize that this is going to be the best summer of their lives.

Fun Fact: There is some unique work with steel guitar on the song. Paisley explained that in one instance it was manipulated, “to where it sounds a little bit like a turntable. That stutter-step loop that happens in the beginning, that’s actually a steel guitar.”

Here’s my boy, Brad Paisley, with “Beat This Summer”:

Next up is the very first single from this quartet that I’d ever heard from them, which made me a fan of theirs instantly. It’s one of the few songs even Princess Nagger encourages me to crank up so we can sing along.

The quartet fell in love with the song the first time they heard it, too – they could hear themselves singing it and could feel the fun energy behind it. It’s fun and sexy and summertime. At first they weren’t sure if they should record it, but I bet they’re glad they did since it turned out to be their first #1 hit.

They had been nominated for at least one CMA Award at six consecutive ceremonies since their first nomination in 2006, but walked away empty-handed each time. They finally picked up Single of the Year for this song as well as Vocal Group of the Year.

They’re living proof that if you work really really hard and chase your dreams, all the good stuff happens and it follows you.

Give a listen to Little Big Town with “Pontoon”:

Also? If you’ve never had the opportunity to party on a pontoon boat, you’re really missing out. Wonder if I could talk the hubby into getting a pontoon boat now that we’re an easy drive to many bodies of water?

Next up is a song that was the fourth US single by this UK boy band from their debut self-titled EP from 2012. The song is basically about the party that keeps on going. It’s also the theme song for the 2012 Hollywood movie Ice Age 4: Continental Drift.

The song’s lyrics about chasing drinks can also be interpreted as a family-friendly anthem about chasing dreams. This enabled the group to film two videos, the first about partying with vampires, the second, which finds them performing on some icebergs.

One of the members of the group explained it this way:

“I think this song, it can mean many things. To some people, it is partying all night and chasing the sun the next morning. That’s what that [first] video’s about; the girls, the teeth are there, the vampires. So we’re all there partying away. And that’s one aspect of the song. Another aspect of the song is chasing your dreams, the unattainable acorn in the distance.”

Without further ado, here’s The Wanted with “Chasing The Sun”:

Next up is another one from my favorite dude who wrote this good-time summer jam with his frequent songwriting partner Kelley Lovelace and first performed it during Nashville’s annual Country Radio Seminar convention in early 2014.

“We got an inner tube / We got a trailer hitch / We’re near the river and far from rich / But we have got each other and gas in the tank / We’re laughing all the way to the river bank.”

The song was inspired by growing up 500 yards from the Ohio River, where the artist’s best memories are with his grandfather on that body of water, and his dad and learning to ski. He described it as being “kind of like a back-to-basics song, which is really an inner tube and a boat and you’ve got a theme park.”

The song’s music video is a party on the river with the artist and Twiggy the Water Skiing Squirrel. 

Here’s my boy (again), Brad Paisley with “River Bank”:

And finally – last but not least – is a song that was the third single from this artist’s 2005 album, about various different activities that take place in the summer. The writer commented that summertime was always the start of the year for him, and it still is. He looks at his year starting not in January, but in June when school is letting out.

The artist said that summer means a lot of things – for him, summertime has meant listening to road cases roll out of semi trucks and listening to fans in the lawn. It’s meant suntan oil, it’s meant playing basketball out in the parking lot with the band and the crew, and it’s meant being able to reconnect with a lot of people out there that live with their music.

He feels that when people hear this song, they’re going to have their own pictures and their own paintings coming into their mind about what this song means to them.

Give a listen to Kenny Chesney with “Summertime”:

What’s your favorite summer song?  What’s your favorite part of summer? Enjoy your Monday – bring on summer!

Now on to the particulars of Monday’s Music Move’s Me:

I have the supreme honor and privilege of being a co-host with the inimitable Xmas Dolly and our musical cohorts, Callie from JAmericanSpice, and Naila Moon from Just the Stuff Ya Know.

Want to join in the fun? It’s easy – just find a tune that rocks your boat, post it and link up – don’t forget to grab Xmas Dolly…er, um, I mean her button…over at her place here. Check out Xmas Dolly’s sidebar for the random themes we sport each week – and you can always ask for a specific theme of music you like, too. Check out the other music lovahs and let’s jam!