"Hot Fun in the Summertime" is a 1969 song recorded by Sly and the Family Stone. The single was released in the wake of the band's high-profile performance at Woodstock, which greatly expanded their fanbase. The song peaked at number 2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart and number 3 on the U.S. Billboard soul singles chart in autumn 1969.
Thematically, "Hot Fun in the Summertime" is a dedication to the fun and games to be had during the summer. "Hot Fun in the Summertime" was intended to be included on an in-progress album with "Everybody Is a Star" and "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)"; the LP was never completed, and the three tracks were instead included on the band's 1970 Greatest Hits LP.
The B-side to this single is "Fun", a song taken from the group's third album (Life) from 1968.
It was performed on stage in HBO's 1981 television special The Pee-wee Herman Show.
The track was covered by The Beach Boys on their commercially and critically disastrous 1992 album Summer in Paradise. A video was made to accompany the song.
It was covered in 1982 with somewhat greater chart success by a funk outfit known as Dayton, and again in 1995 by The Manhattan Transfer featuring vocals by Chaka Khan.
Genesis vocalist and drummer Phil Collins cited the song as one of the musical inspirations for "Misunderstanding". The members of Toto have also cited it as an inspiration for "Hold the Line".
Rolling Stone ranked it #247 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Read more about Hot Fun In The Summertime: Personnel
Famous quotes containing the words hot, fun and/or summertime:
“Babe, you know how these things go, it’s like a crap game. When you’re hot you shoot everything, you shoot the works. Well, right now baby, I’m so hot I’m burning up all over.”
—Gus Van Sant, U.S. screenwriter, and Dan Yost. Bob Hughes (Matt Dillon)
“That is the consolation of a little mind; you have the fun of changing it without impeding the progress of mankind.”
—Frank Moore Colby (1865–1925)
“There warn’t anybody at the church, except maybe a hog or two, for there warn’t any lock on the door, and hogs likes a puncheon floor in summertime because it’s cool. If you notice, most folks don’t go to church only when they’ve got to; but a hog is different.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)