SOUNDS OF SUMMER: Have a Drink, Have a Drive, But Not in That Order

I had a friend who thought Steely Dan was a person. For his sake, let's do a quick review: Steely Dan is a group, but Eagle-Eye Cherry is a man. Franz Ferdinand and Jethro Tull were people, but they have bands named after them. And Mungo Jerry? A band. Sort of.

Mungo Jerry is the band fronted by English singer/songwriter Ray Dorset. He named his group after Mungojerrie, one of the T.S. Eliot characters later brought to screeching life in the musical Cats. Dorset is the only perennial member of Mungo Jerry, and the author of their most enduring hit, "In the Summertime." Actually, it's their only enduring hit, though they placed several other songs on the charts back in the '70s.

"In the Summertime" has a special place in the Annoying Songs You Can't Help But Like Hall of Fame, along with "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" and "Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu." If the shuffling jugband rhythm doesn't get you, the killer ragtime piano will. But when your toe stops tapping, you'll have to wonder, what kind of music is this? Nothing recorded after 1930 can really be called ragtime, and it's too slow (and piano-heavy) to be skiffle. It's just a delightful pop anomaly, one that sold over 23 million copies and dominated radio in the summer of 1970.

Dorset's had a varied career, collaborating with people like blues rocker Peter Green and writing songs for other artists, as well as for films and television. But he's best known as the folksy, hiccuping voice of Mungo Jerry, enticing us to stretch right up and touch the sky. Bob Dylan and Roger Miller, no slouches where songwriting is concerned, have also written songs called "In the Summertime." Ray Dorset's is better. If I were him, I would put that on a plaque.

TODAY'S RECOMMENDATION: "In the Summertime" by Mungo Jerry
AVAILABLE ON: In the Summertime; iTunes