Early on in the summer of 2012, I annoyed some readers by giving a week in the Summer Song derby to “Brokenhearted” by Karmin. That song was the sort of second-tier turbo-pop that made great radio fodder but rarely got to power rotation. It wasn’t important enough to be the Song of the Summer, and I knew that all along. But for a week in early summer, it was certainly the unavoidable record.
I’m out of town this week in a major-market where the CHR is both rhythmic-leaning and recurrent-driven. I’ve heard “Something Just Like This” more than I’ve heard any of the summer song candidates, which prompted this larger commentary. I’ve even punched between stations and heard “Can’t Stop the Feeling” on both.
But I’ve also heard Drake’s “Passionfruit” a lot this week. Created and timed to recreate the magic of almost-2016 winner “One Dance,” “Passionfruit” ran its course quickly and had peaked by Memorial Day. Perhaps because I haven’t heard it much over the last month, it sounded great. And it’s okay for one’s perception of the Summer Song to be influenced by the song heard in one’s travels, right? (There is a week in summer 2012 that will always be linked to “I Follow Rivers” by Lykke Li for me.)
So the count is now:
Week 1 – DJ Khaled, “I’m The One”
Week 2 – Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee, “Despacito”
Week 3 – Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee, “Despacito”
Week 4 – Drake, “Passionfruit” (but probably DJ Khaled for you)
I’m enjoying your comments on Song of the Summer. Please keep them coming.
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tomgsinger 
donobrian
1. What station were you listening to? I’m intrigued by it!
2. Do you mean summer 2012?
3. I’m having a hard time accessing your summer song articles from years past. How can I find them?
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–Tom
And the winner is Despacito for me. I want I’m The One to go away frankly. Pull off a Hold it against me, if you will.
Despacito will be the song of the summer, it’s a monster and while it’s clearly peaked in Europe and Australia and Latin radio, it is still growing at top 40. By August it should have switched over to “Feels” or “Wild Thoughts”, maybe even 2u. I’m just glad that it looks like top 40 is about to give Portugal The Man the chance it deserves. That song will sound so good on top 40 radio. While I don’t think that Jonas Blue “Hey Mama” is a monster hit by no means, I think it should get a chance and is a pretty damn good sub-power record, we still do need a few of those in 2017 don’t we? 🙂 To round out a nice summer sound Childish Gambino, the new Julia Micheals “Uh huh”, the Bruno Guetta remix, and Post Malone.