Ah, summer. There are certain things that evoke that summer feeling—the smell of sunscreen, the roar of the ocean, the hot sun….. There are also a ton of songs that I love to listen to, especially in the summer, that remind me of the time of year when time slows down and it feels like the days last forever. Here is my playlist of favorite summertime songs from a recent road trip, along with accompanying stories.

• Beatles LOVE album—we’ve seen the Cirque du Soleil Beatles LOVE show in Las Vegas three times, always in the summer. I could seriously watch this show every day! This is one of my favorite summer albums.
• Beach Boys—basically any song by the Beach Boys
• Summertime—both the Gershwin song and the Will Smith song. In fact, the Will Smith “Summertime” is what inspired this post. I start listening to it at the beginning of every summer!
• Slow Ride, School’s Out for Summer, Summer Breeze—basically anything from the movie Dazed and Confused will remind me of summer, but these are my favorites.
• Margaritaville—a cliché, I know, but it works so well.
• Eye In the Sky—for years after the Home Warrior and I got married, we heard this Alan Parsons Project song every time we went to the beach, starting with our honeymoon. Now I hear it and think of summer.
• Anything disco—the soundtrack of years of family road trips during the summer was a “Best of” disco cassette tape that included classics like a Fifth of Beethoven, Fly Robin Fly, and The Hustle.
• Sublime—the whole album reminds me of summers during high school at the beach. Love it!

And while it didn’t make it on my road trip play list, “So You Think You Can Dance” is my favorite summer show and the theme song gets me ready for summer every time!

Readers, if you were making a summer road trip list, what songs or albums would be on there? What are your favorite summer songs for travel?