This blogs song feature is one of those songs falls into a very large category for me. There are so many times when I hear a song that I certainly recognized having heard somewhere in my life before, be it lyrics or music. I can’t put my finger on it but I definitely know its something I am familiar with. I work at an amusement so I hear a TON of old songs from the 70s and 80s that are now used prolifically as samples in modern music or even covered entirely. So when they play something over the loudspeaker at the park that I am positive I have heard before, I quickly make a note to myself of the lyrics I can make out, and solve the mystery later at home. This is one that I have heard a lot, but could never nail down until recently. I heard this cover of “The Boys of Summer” by Don Henley, done by a very late 90’s sounding pop punk band called The Atari’s in my car recently, and knew it was familiar. This was reinforced at work when they played the original over the loudspeakers at the park and I googled the lyrics later that day. So here it is, after all that effort.
Now I am by no means a big fan of 80s music. I was raised in a household where the consensus was that the 80s were a very unfortunate time for popular music, and whether its due to that conditioning or not I generally agree. This song however is extremely catchy, I have to admit. And honestly, after hearing both versions, this and the orignal, this one seems a lot better in my personal opinion. This song is entirely dependent on its chorus which packs so much more energy delivered pop-punk style over electric guitars as the Ataris did. Also the verse backing on the original has that weird not exactly perfect electronic production quality that is a staple of a lot of 80s music. So I give credit to the original creator for a sonically pleasing composition, but in my personal opinion it sounds a lot better redone in this manner.
