The 50 Coolest Summer Jams of All Time

These are the songs that rocked their radio sumer, or just evoke the hazy thrill of beaches, sweaty house parties, roller-disco bar mitzvahs, dazed guitar-freak blowouts, backstreet boomboxes, that gin-and-juice barbecue that went horribly wrong when everyone got naked to "Hot in Herre." It happens. We're not here to judge. We're just here for the summer jams. Rock, pop, hip-hop, disco, funk, soul, punk, crunk, metal – it's all fun in the sun. So let's twist again like we did last summer. And like we already know we will next summer.

Scroll through our playlist of 50 songs and listen to them on Spotify.

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  MUSIC 100 Greatest Debut Albums
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  MOVIES 'Great Gatsby' Is a Crushing Disappointment
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  TV Why You Should Watch 'Happy Endings'
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  POLITICS No Price Big Banks Can't Fix

Song Stories

“All Along the Watchtower”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 1968

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

More Song Stories entries »

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