Music changes everything. It helps us in stressful moments. It keeps us moving during a workout. It can motivate us for the game. Did you know it can also make you smarter and help with memory? Let’s play that music then! Music can help you make an entrance, right Jessica? It can help us relax. It can help you through your workday. Music says a lot about who we are, or what we might be experiencing at the moment. Couldn’t we even say that music is life? Jessica, Molly, and Ronnie think so and we want to provide some of our favorite music for your summer playlist. Jessica starts us off with an eclectic mix.
Here's to Dads! – Start of the Trail
Nothing beats a good road trip. There’s something about the adventure and seeing something new that is so exciting. My first car was a boat of a car, an ’86 Grand Prix almost as old as I was named Billy Bob. My favorite thing to do was to blast music and drive, anywhere, with the windows rolled down (unlike now they actually had to be rolled down). It was needed because the air only worked half the time, ha! I had a playlist on my 1st gen iPod called “Aw, I love that song.” Every time I heard a song and said, “Aw, I love that song,” it was added to the list.
Music has always been a big part of my life. My taste in music includes anything BUT country and heavy metal. I like a variety of music from Weird Al to John Coltrane. I grew up listening to 50s and 60s music, mainly because it was the one thing our entire family could agree on. Nothing beats Motown. It will forever be my go-to music! On our road trip out to the Dakotas and Wyoming two years ago, we spent a lot of time creating our road trip playlist. More than I care to admit. It still gets used whenever we are traveling beyond the city. For this post I took to that list and came up with my top 10 summer playlist (road trip) songs in no particular order.
Jessica’s Top 10 playlist songs
- The Way You Make Me Feel – Michael Jackson
- Mr. Jones – Counting Crows
- Twist and Shout – Beatles
- Geronimo – Sheppard
- Albuquerque – “Weird Al” Yankovic
- Give a Little – Hanson
- Build Me Up Buttercup – The Foundations (one of my favorite songs ever)
- Get Up Offa That Thing – James Brown
- Home – Marc Broussard
- Sweet Caroline – Neil Diamond (loved by all in our house of baseball fans)
You have no idea how hard it was to narrow the list down to ten. I concurred with the boys on this list because I couldn’t decide. Now Molly, I’m sure you have some great recommendations. I have Spotify up, ready to add more songs to our playlist.
My summer playlist is something I take seriously. I try to keep it to a max of 25 songs of what I feel will be the soundtrack to my summer. The biggest criteria is that they all have to be songs that I feel the need to belt out while I’m driving with all the windows open. If the songs don’t give me the instant sensation to sing along then, it will not make the list.
Below are the top 10 songs of my 2021 Summer Playlist:
I feel that I have a great mix of almost all of my favorite musical genres. I am missing an Irish Folk song in the top 10, but you bet your bottom dollar that Irish Rover and Ed Sheeran’s Galway Girl is on the list. Also, just for clarify, I Hope It Rains by Jana Kramer is not aimed towards any wedding that I am attending or standing up in. I just think the song is very catchy. Plus, I have encountered a few bridezillas in my service industry days in Door County, so this song is dedicated to those not-so-nice people I may encounter throughout the summer.
Wow, great songs Jessica and Molly. There are a couple I don’t recognize and I definitely need to check them out.
Music. There isn’t much time that passes where I am not listening to music. My family absolutely loves having some tunes playing on the Google Home or in the car. Depending on who is around, and what the activity is, will have its own playlist, of course. You would not know this, but I still like to drive with the windows down and bass bumping. The difference is I no longer drive that beautiful 1988 white Camaro with the two 12’s and amp in the back trunk well. I do miss that ride. Now I stick to factory speakers and adjusting the equalizer, lol. In the house though, I do have a nice subwoofer connected to my computer so I have been known to drop the bass when the fam isn’t around.
When working through different playlists I listen to, it was interesting to think what I would include on a summer playlist. Do I go family-oriented? Maybe a little more grown-up? Is it road warrior time? Or maybe sit on the porch with a sweet iced tea? Typically, I would turn on an artist or general decade playlist on Spotify and let it shuffle. You know, like “This is Queen” or “80s Hits”. So, to help guide my mood in selecting a playlist, I actually take us back to those summer days of the 90’s. For me, I was driving the Camaro around town with the windows down, sunglasses and tank top on with my ballcap backwards, and license plate rattling from the bass. Those were the days. Anyways, without further ado, here are 110 songs, about 7 hours and 30 minutes of nineties goodness presented by POPSUGARs 90’s Summer Jams playlist. Let’s go.
From Michael Jackson’s “The Way You Make Me Feel” to “Around the World” by Daft Punk, we had a little bit of everything in these playlists. We hope you enjoyed this collaborative post by our three authors, and we would love to also hear about your favorites. Do you have a playlist you could share? Drop it in the comments below, or consider commenting on the post on Facebook.
Be safe. Have fun. Enjoy your summer. And move your groove thing.
Start of the Trail 