30. Surfin’ Safari – The Beach Boys – 1962
29. Summertime – Billy Stewart – 1966
28. Wipeout – Fat Boys and the Beach Boys – 1987
27. Cruel Summer – Bananarama – 1983
26. Summertime Blues – Eddie Cochran – 1958
25. A Summer Song - Chad & Jeremy – 1964
24. Suddenly Last Summer – The Motels - 1983
23. Surfer Girl – The Beach Boys – 1963
22. Summer Breeze – Seals & Crofts – 1972
21. School’s Out – Alice Cooper – 1972
20. Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days Of Summer – Nat King Cole – 1963
19. Summer Love – Justin Timberlake – 2007
18. California Gurls – Katy Perry feat. Snoop Dogg - 2010
17. Saturday In The Park – Chicago – 1972
16. Summer Girls – LFO – 1999
15. California Girls – The Beach Boys – 1965
14. Summer – War – 1976
13. Under The Boardwalk – The Drifters – 1964
12. Summer Of ‘69 – Bryan Adams – 1985
11. In The Summertime – Mungo Jerry – 1970
10. The Boys Of Summer – Don Henley – 1984
9. Summer Nights – John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John – 1978
8. Surfin’ U.S.A. – The Beach Boys -1963
7. Hot Fun In The Summertime – Sly & The Family Stone – 1969
6. Summertime – DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince – 1991
5. Endless Summer Nights – Richard Marx – 1988
4. Surf City – Jan & Dean – 1963
3. Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini – Bryan Hyland – 1960
2. Wipe Out – The Surfaris -1962
1. Summer In The City – The Lovin’ Spoonful – 1966

There certainly are a variety of summer hits on that list to surely take someone back or create new memories for. Hope everyone is enjoying the summer!

The Beach Boys

Even today, they have the area of the cemetery he’s buried in shut down and blocked off to all except members of the deceased families.  It’s just unreal how much support MJ had.  Let’s take a look at what the WashingtonPost.com has to offer on his death and his anniversary:

Hundreds and maybe thousands will gather in Gary, Ind., the Jackson family hometown, to witness the unveiling of a statue to honor the pop icon; his mother Katherine is expected to attend. In Los Angeles fans will gather at Forest Lawn Memorial Park where the King of Pop is entombed. And in Detroit, where it all started, Motown announces today the opening of an exhibit, which will feature photographs from concert performances, television appearances, international tours and the TV cartoon series featuring the Jackson 5.

It’s amazing the trek people will make to show their respect for the later icon.  It’s even more amazing that after time it seems people have let go of the fact that he was simply crazy and have no begun to embrace all that he actually did do right in this world.

Also, not just the regular folk are mourning.  Celebrities are still talking, and still expressing their feelings for Michael.  As noted here from CBS.com:

“I think one of the coolest things he told me was never limit yourself; the fact that if people can whistle your songs — then they can understand it all over the world,” said LL Cool J. “No matter what you want to say about him, his career always mattered. You don’t sell out a hundred shows in England and all over Europe because you are not relevant.”

Christina Aguilera said, “”I remember going to my high school talent show singing ‘The Way You Make Me Feel’ and being a huge fan of his album ‘Bad.’ I know all my dancers wouldn’t be behind me dancing if it weren’t for that.”

“For a generation of people, they grew up with his ascension to stardom, people were affected by him when he was a child and they were affected by him as an adult and so we all kind of grew up with him,” said director John Singleton.

“Everybody wanted to be like Michael Jackson. He’s just that perfect,” said Jennifer Lopez.

Aubrey O’Day observed, “He brought something nobody else did.”

“There will never be another Michael Jackson,” said Paris Hilton.

“What we didn’t lose is his legacy and that incredible catalogue and body of work. We didn’t lose any of that. At the press of button, we can still experience the magic,” said LL Cool J. “We may have lost the man, but we didn’t lose the legacy. The legacy is actually bigger than that one human being. That legacy touched millions.”

All in all it’s just amazing the love he will forever have over so many people.

Michael Jackson

It’s an annual tradition with “American Idol”: the finalists are named, a winner is chosen, the public expresses its outrage and questions the fidelity of the voting process, and then the top two performers are signed to record labels. Both Lee DeWyze, who won the show’s ninth season on Wednesday night, and Crystal Bowersox, who came in second (but first in our hearts) are signed to 19 Recordings Limited, the label founded by the “Idol” creator, Simon Fuller. Billboard.com reported that Mr. DeWyze would release his first post-”Idol” album on RCA Records, which also put out albums by the “Idol” contestants Chris Daughtry and Adam Lambert, while Ms. Bowersox will release hers on Jive Records, which is also home to the “Idol” alumni Jordin Sparks, Kris Allen and Allison Iraheta. No release date was given for either album, though Mr. Allen and Mr. Lambert, last year’s “Idol” winner and runner-up, put out their records in November. The debut singles of Mr. DeWyze (a cover of U2’s “Beautiful Day”) and Ms. Bowersox (a cover of Patty Griffin’s “Up to the Mountain”) have been released, though download results for those tracks weren’t immediately available.

AP: How hands on where you with the project?

Jagger: The film was my baby because I thought it was the best kind of thing to do — evoking a period, to make a film about the making of the record. Normally, these kinds of films are corny and they are painted by numbers. … What I wanted to do is I want the viewer to feel like they are really in the period, like they are really stuck in the period. I think in the end we achieved that.

AP: “Exile on Main Street” is considered to be one of the best rock albums of all time. Why add extra tracks and mess with what some think is perfection?

Richards: We had guys searching around in the can, and all of this other stuff came out. We realized we would have finished if we had the time. We were going to put out 18 tracks on “Exile,” so we couldn’t force the record company to put out anymore at gunpoint. They either got left behind because they were not quite finished, so we finished them after 40 years.

Jagger: Four of them are alternate takes of the ones that are already on there. The most hard work for me was finding the six new tracks and finishing them because they were not finished. The were raw and had never been touched whereas the tracks that were out on “Exile,” we took them to L.A. We did vocals. We put other things on them and mixed them. These had not gone through that process. I had to take that 40 years later and do the process. It was fun because after a while, I just said, “If this was done yesterday, what would you do now?” Don’t treat it like it is 40 years ago, the process of it.

AP: Does it trip you out that you are still doing this nearly 40 years later?

Richards: It is weird you go check out what you have done in the past. You try it. You don’t want to go there.

Jagger: It is weird really. When you do these kinds of things, especially when you are younger, you don’t really think of them as a piece for prosperity. You are just doing it for that year because next year there will be another record, so, you don’t really think at the time, “This will hold up, or I’m so proud of it. This will be something I will be looking back on in 40 years.” You don’t think of it. I don’t think people in rock music, especially at that time ever thought like that.

AP: There are so many myths about the time you spent making this album. Was it all sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll?

Jagger: It was very familial because we hadn’t had a lot of children around before. We were just starting to have children. I didn’t have any children at that point, but we started to have children around. Keith had his first son, and some of the other people around us, not necessarily the band, but people who were working on the record, so it is always good to have a few children. If you have one, it is not much fun for that child. It is nice to have a gang. That was really nice. Of course, there was sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll, but there was also a good family atmosphere.

Richards: I have been thinking about that. We were on a schedule where I had to write two songs a day, every afternoon. Then I had to get it down to the basement and get it to the guys to play who would hopefully come back with two tracks in the morning. I couldn’t find any time to do porridge (drugs). There were parties going on, but no more than anywhere else. The baby went to bed at the right time. It was the south of France in the summer. There were a lot of people drifting in and out.

AP: Do you think the Stones have another iconic album in them?

Jagger: Well, you always hope so. You are always proud of the new things you do. You always think, “What I wrote last week is just as good as anything on ‘Exile on Main Street.’” That is what I think. The thing about records like “Exile” is that they require a big pattern, like an old English table. It requires some time.

AP: Knowing what you now know, what advice would you give to the young you of 40 years ago?

Richards: Don’t do this at home.

The Rolling Stones, all grown up.

He’s stated as saying he has tons of new music.  He just doesn’t have the ability to corroborate with anyone right now to get it out.  As you can see from the AP article below, he’s got more on his plate than the average person.

AP: There had been talk about bringing “The Wall” to Broadway. Is that still going to happen?

Waters: That’s still very much in the cards. I have been working on and off for the last year or so with an English writer named Lee Hall, who has become greatly celebrated over here and in London, because he wrote “Billy Elliot,” which is one of the most successful musicals out there at the moment. … Lee’s become a close friend of mine, and I’m touching wood but we think we’ve finally found a director that we want to work with, so that’s another project that’s in the pipeline. We’re on the fourth or fifth version of the book, and trying to write some laughs into it. My one disappointment with the original rock ‘n’ roll show that we did, and to some extent with the movie as well, there weren’t just not many laughs in it. … Humor is a very important part of my life, so part of the reason for wanting to do a production on Broadway is to express the funny side of the characters.

AP: Green Day’s “American Idiot” is in the vein of “The Wall.” Do you plan to check out the Broadway play version?

Waters: It would be remiss of me not to check it out. I don’t know the work very well. I am not a very good audience. … My taste in music is very broad, but it’s not very much popular music that I listen to. But when I got this invitation, I did check out some bits of Green Day, and you know, there’s some very strong melodies in there.

AP: What were your inspirations for “The Wall“?

Waters: My early manhood was troubled by all kinds of feelings of inferiority, and inconsequence, I was that guy at parties who only ever dressed in black and stood in the corner and scowled at people. Very often those attempts by the young to be cool are just because they’re absolutely scared. I certainly was. The writing of “The Wall” was part of a process that I used to free myself from some of those neuroses, and some of those fears. Fear is a very pernicious element in many of our lives … (It) is in lots of ways similar to the fear that is engendered in nations and ideologies. … We build up these defenses and the fear that we establish about other, anybody that’s not us.

AP: What is your impression on the political divide in the United States?

Waters: The United states is very insular and parochial, and resists the idea of seeing yourselves they way others see you, the way you’re seem in Europe, and the resistance is enormous, I think, to taking a straight forward look at this stuff. … Obviously many, many American citizens are aware of these problems in society and how deeply important they are. … I remember my mother, who traveled here before the second World War, used to say to me, ‘Americans are so friendly, and so generous,” but she also said, “And so naive.” But I think there’s a huge well of wanting to do good and wanting to help, but it is subverted by the power of commerce.

AP: It’s always asked of you, so we will ask it again — any chance of another Pink Floyd reunion?

Waters: David (Gilmour) is completely disinterested in anything like that. After Live 8, I could have probably gone for doing some more stuff, but he’s not interested, so it is what it is.

It’s really disheartening to see that David Gilmour isn’t interested in doing anything else Pink Floyd related.  It’s probably the one band I’d love to see do a show, and I’d probably give anything to see them live.  I remember watching the Live 8 concert and being totally in awe of their music.

Regardless, his “The Wall 30th Anniversary” tour information can be found here: http://www.roger-waters.com/

Roger Waters