My Top 1000 Songs #519: That Summer Feeling

 [I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

While my heart will always belong to that first (and, essentially, only) Modern Lovers album, there's plenty to love in Jonathan Richman's nearly half-century of music. The wistful, naive aesthetic he's been delivering ever since he left his edgy Velvet Underground-indebted early days behind may be just a little too doe-eyed and childlike for some, but if I had to pick one song to illustrate its unique charms, I'd have to go with "That Summer Feeling." It first appeared on 1983's Jonathan Sings, one of my personal favorites, and it's lovely, an earnest ode to summertime nostalgia with a bit of a 50s doo-wop flair.

He re-recorded it for 1992's I, Jonathan, a longer version which doesn't quite grab me the same way (but since Sings is hard to track down, it may be the version better known to people). Either way, it's always a delightful listen, especially in the dog days of a frigid winter chill.

The remake:

Solo live 1983:

Superchunk's Mac McCaughan with Kelly Hogan: