"In The Summertime" by Mungo Jerry

"In The Summertime" by Mungo Jerry
The summer of 1970 was the summer of Mungo Jerry. Here's the story of one of the top-selling singles in history, told without a mention of singer Ray Dorsey's heroic sideburns. Please forgive the omission. 
A playlist with "In The Summertime" and 14 other songs by Mungo Jerry can be found here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5scEfev4KPILrFNhXhMeAC?si=efa33dc38fb44879 
You can also read The Best Song Ever (This Week) for free at bestsong.substack.com. Recommended if you like footnotes. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
The Shark Deck. Hello and welcometo the Best Song Ever this week,
A short deep dive into a songand what makes it feel just so special?
The best song ever this week thisweek is in the Summertime by Mungo
Jerry. I'm your host, ScottFrampton. If you've been with us before,

(00:35):
you'll know we won't be listening tothe song together here in the show
notes, please check out a linkto a playlist with in the Summertime and
fourteen Other Songs by Mungo Jerry.Yes, they had fourteen other songs and
I think they're worth a listen,So let's begin. Red Dorset could have
timed how long it took to writeone of the best selling singles in history

(00:56):
with the minute hand of his watch. He was, in fact taking a
break from his day job with TIMEXwhen he wrote In the Summertime in about
ten minutes, banging away on asecondhand stratocaster. His band didn't even have
its name at the time. Theyplayed their first gig as Mungo Jerry at
the May nineteen seventy Hollywood Music Festival, which drew thirty five thousand to a

(01:17):
pig farm near Staffordshire. England.The festival featured sets by Black Sabbath and
Traffic, as well as the firstUK appearance by The Grateful Dead, so
it may have come as a bitof a surprise on a band that had
recently adapted their name from the poemMungo Jerry and Rumple Teaser in ts Eliot's
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats tookthe stage and sat down. Mungo Jerry

(01:41):
had no drummer, percussion came fromDorset and banjo and jug player Paul King
stomping and heavy boots. Not longafter in the Summertime became one of the
fastest selling singles in UK history,and it went on to sell thirty million
copies internationally. It was released onthe eve of the Hollywood Music Festival,
with it then uncommon picture sleeve.It was also the first Maxi single,

(02:04):
a seven inch record played at thirtythree rpm so that it could hold an
additional song, offering more value forjust a few pence more. For this
single idea, the band had wantedDorset's Raucous Mighty Man, which was a
more representative song for their bluesy ragtimerock and roll sound, but their label's
in house producer and product manager,Barry Murray disagreed. I think we should

(02:28):
go with in the Summertime. Hesaid, it's quite catchy. Quite catchy
is an understatement. It's a donelevel earworm. The melody is eminently hummable,
which Dorset accentuates with rhythmic grunts andDDD do dddd scadding double bass,
banjo, washboard piano, and stompson the floor. It all feels like

(02:49):
pop in its most primordial form.In the summertime may have ruled the summer
of nineteen seventy, but it doesn'tthe least bit sound like nineteen seventy,
when the pop charts and prog rockwere all reveling in excess. The song
is refreshingly slight, but it wasalso short coming. In it just over
two minutes long. Dorset suggested addingthe sound of a motorcycle to go along

(03:12):
with its open road theme. Theydidn't have one handy, so the engineer
went out and recorded the sound ofan MG sports car revving its motor.
After adding that sound effect, theysimply splaced in the first ninety seconds from
that original recording. The second halfof the song is just the first half.
Again, the loose jug band soundfits a song that honestly seems like

(03:32):
it was written in ten minutes.The length of each line of the verses
can vary by a few syllables hereand there, so Dorset has to sometimes
draw out or speed through as phrasings. This dashed off quality reinforces the rogueish
ensucians of the lyrics. It's lessa pop song than an idol, a
dream of a simpler time and place, a summertime when life's for a living

(03:55):
and nothing more. The Hollywood MusicVessel was the start of Mungo. It
was also its own sort of backto the Garden dream. The goal was
to be the UK Woodstock. It'sonly similarity with that generational event, however,
was that the organizers lost money.Mungo Jerry hit the stage in the
afternoon and the festival's first day.The sun had just come out, and

(04:16):
Paul King recalled seeing the audience layingabout, presumably stoned. He said,
we went straight in with the harmonicismbanjo, making a different noise to everyone
else on the bill. The crowdall started getting up and clapping and dancing.
About the Hollywood music festivals mostly afootnote, remembered for its place in
Grateful deadlore. It was eclipsed asthe UK Woodstock by the Isle of White

(04:41):
Festival at the end of August nineteenseventy, which featured The Doors, Jimmie
Hendricks and The Who, and thefirst live performance by Bob Dylan in three
years. Mungo Jerry arrived at theIsle of White Festival, happy to play
even if they didn't get paid,but their set time was moved around so
many times they just went home thesummer of In the summertime was over that

(05:05):
Mungo Jerry had the first Maxi singleas a fascinating moment stoked my love for
different formats. I still have threeinch CDs, for example, and somewhere
in a crate I have ten inchfinal records of the Bible to be played
at sixteen rpm. I don't haveaccess to a sixteen rpm turntable, so
I've only ever been able to playthem by spinning manually, which is really

(05:26):
something to hear when considering that therecord is the book of Revelations. Anyway,
by the mid nineteen seventies, theMaxi single eventually evolved into a twelve
inch final record played at forty fiverpm, often with extended remixes of the
A side to be played by DJsor aspiring DJs, which as some ways
offers less value music wise than astands as single, but also more potential

(05:49):
utility. It ushered in an eraof when you not only played music,
you could play with it. Thiseventually led to singles being released as both
twelve inches and the well of seveninch vinyl and the KA single Let's say
the single was unloved, but myfriend Sam would disagree, probably by quoting
Bobby Brown to say, it's myprogative. Mungo Jerry's in the Summertime is

(06:13):
also an apt song to end thisseason of the best song ever This week
We'll be back after our summer recess. I can't thank you enough for listening
to and following the podcast. Theresponse has been consistently amazing. Please enjoy
these last weeks of summer and inthe spirit of Mungo Jerry, love everybody,

(06:35):
but do as you please. Thanksagain, Let's see you in the
fall. Hi. I'm Mark Francisand host of a new podcast, The

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