Summer Tunes from the 1980s-1990s

Google the words "summer music" or "beach music" and the results you get might be surprising. There are all kinds of links to music by the Beach Boys or Jimmy Buffet, and to songs like "Under the Boardwalk" or "California Dreamin'," stuff you might expect to find in a Best-of-the-Best list...the oldies but goodies.

But what if you're interesting in something a bit more contemporary? What if you're a Generation X-er who grew up during a time when MTV still played music videos? No offense to older generations, but we didn't exactly live in a music void. Surely there were at least one or two songs about summer floating around on the airwaves between 1980-1990.

After a long trip down memory lane and a lot of searching on AOL's music website, where, by the way, you can actually watch the videos for some of these songs, I was able to generate a list of twelve songs to represent how summer was commemorated by the music artists of my generation.

"Cruel Summer" by Bananarama. This song was redone by Ace of Base, but I prefer the older version because it reminds me of Daniel LaRuso and Mr. Miyagi-the song was briefly featured on the first Karate Kid movie..."Wax on, wax off, Daniel-san."

"Vacation" by the Go-Gos. Remember this one? In the video the girls were all water-skiing in pink tu-tus and white tiaras, always on the verge of falling over. MTV must have aired this video at least a hundred thousand times, so when I think of summer, I think of Belinda Carlisle waving at everyone in her tu-tu....you go, Belinda!

"Summer of '69" by Bryan Adams. His 1999 re-make of the song for MTV Unplugged is pretty good, but if you want the real deal, it's on the So Far So Good album/CD. In the original video, changing from black-and-white to color for that last verse of the song was ultra-cool because it hadn't been done before.

"Hot Summer Nights" and "Hot in the City" by Billy Idol. Both of these songs can be found on Vital Idol album/CD. Let's face it, any list from the 1980s has to include Billy Idol- he is the spike-haired, lip-curled, leather wearing personification of everything 80s.