"Summertime Girls" by Y&T

Song#:  2384
Date:  07/13/1985
Debut:  90
Peak:  55
Weeks:  10
Genre:  Hard Rock, Arena Rock



Pop Bits:  This Californian rock band mainly played cover tunes when they first formed around 1972. They soon developed their own sound and songs and got signed to London Records in a few years later. They recorded two LPs for London, but nothing much came from them. They switched to A&M and began recording for the label in 1981. Despite not selling many albums, the label stuck with the band and soon it started to pay off. Their third album for the label generated a Rock radio hit with the title track "Mean Streak" (#25) and they began to collect up more after that. Their biggest break came with this studio track that appeared on their first live album Open Fire. The song gained a lot of airplay and ended up getting to #16 on the Rock chart. It was also able to cross over to the Pop chart for a while where it nearly got inside the Top 50. The song would also appear on their next studio album, Down for the Count, but the album failed to really do anything. After that, the band moved over to Geffen for a couple of albums before calling it quits in 1991. Like many bands, they would later reunite and record more albums, but their charting days were behind them.

ReduxReview:  Oddly, this guy sounds like a cross between David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar. It's a shame this song didn't catch on more. It was popular in my area at the time and I thought it had a terrific hook and solid production. The track was a hot slab of windows open, cruising, radio-friendly rock and it really should have done a lot better on the chart.

ReduxRating:  7/10

Trivia:  When the band secured their first gig, they still didn't have a name. Apparently, when trying to think up a name one of the band members was playing a Beatles album and thought its title would be a good name. The album was Yesterday & Today and that became the band's name. Their first two albums for London were credited to Yesterday & Today, however when they signed with A&M, they decided to shorten it to simply Y&T as that is what fans would chant and call the band during their live shows.

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