Top 12 Summer Songs

Escape — from daily routines, from goodbyes, from sadness, from time itself — is an inescapable urge in the summer. Escape is also a vibe that runs through the very best in summertime music.

When the days are longest, the nights are warmest, and the steamy evening air calls out for its own soundtrack, it's time again to listen to these 12 summer songs. All perfectly capture the season's essence: a sense of longing for all that is bright, airy and carefree.

Dreams of holidays and happiness fill the songs on this list.

Sun, sand and perfumed breezes are to be savored, as brilliant days become golden nights. Music is food. Love is a place. California is a state of mind. And late September is the only threat to the good life.

In this spirit, throw down a beach blanket and break out a picnic. Catch a wave. Let the sun shine in, set the playlist to repeat, then chill out with these sounds of summer.

Here's to July, now and forever.

 1) "Island in the Sun," Weezer
One moment of summer, defined: "We'll run away together, we'll spend some time forever, we'll never feel bad anymore."

2) "Summer Song," Chad & Jeremy
One moment of summer, defined: "Trees, swaying in the summer breeze, showing off their silver leaves."

3) "Good Vibrations," The Beach Boys
One moment of summer, defined: "I'm picking up good vibrations, she's giving me excitations."

4) "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In," The Fifth Dimension
One moment of summer, defined: "No more falsehoods or derisions, golden living dreams of visions."

5) "Dancing in the Moonlight," King Harvest
One moment of summer, defined: "Everybody feeling warm and right, it's such a fine and natural sight."
 
6) "Save Tonight," Eagle-Eye Cherry
One moment of summer, defined: "Fight the break of dawn."

7) "Holiday From Real," Jack's Mannequin
One moment of summer, defined: "We'd waste our weeks beneath the sun, we'd fry our brains and say it's so much fun out here."

8) "This Kiss," Faith Hill
One moment of summer, defined: "It's a feeling like this, it's centrifugal motion, it's perpetual bliss."

9) "Here Comes the Sun," The Beatles
One moment of summer, defined: "The smiles returning to the faces." 

10) "Closer to Fine," Indigo Girls
One moment of summer, defined: "It's only life, after all."

11)  "Let's Live for Today," The Grass Roots
One moment of summer, defined: "Let others plan their future, I'm busy loving you."

12) "Sweet Rose," Matt Costa
One moment of summer, defined: "Nothing stays the same, but you and I, we will remain."