The Hot Ones of Summer: 50 Years of the Season’s Biggest Anthems

The Carpenters covered the Burt Bacharach/Hal David song with great success as it spent four weeks at the top of the charts.

Coming from King’s album Tapestry, the song spent five weeks on top of the charts.

The ballad was the hit of summer 1972 taking up the top spot on the charts for four weeks.

This song was penned by Paul McCartney as a love song to his wife Linda and spent four weeks on top of the charts.

There was a four way tie this year with the following songs each spending two weeks on top of the charts. Paul Anka with Odia Coates - (You’re) Having My Baby, John Denver - Annie’s Song, George McCrae - Rock Your Baby, and Bo Donaldson And The Heywoods - Billy, Don’t Be A Hero

The song was released by Neil Sedaka in 1973, but Captain & Tenille’s version proved to be a hit as it spent four weeks on top of the Billboard charts.

The Wings track "Silly Love Songs" had a run of four weeks on top of the charts. A late run by Elton John & Kiki Dee saw their track “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” matched Wings’ early effort.

The Andy Gibb hit “I Just Want To Be Your Everything” and The Emotions “Best Of My Love” both ended the summer period recording three straight weeks at number one.

Gibb had his second straight summer with the season’s top song as “Shadow Dancing” spent a remarkable seven straight weeks on top of the chart.

Summer was the artist of summer 1979 with “Bad Girls” spending five weeks on top and “Hot Stuff” spending three weeks on top earlier in the season.

Olivia Newton-John had great success with the film Xanadu as she was not only the lead actress, but recorded the lead single from the soundtrack, which spent four weeks at the top of the charts.

The song spent six weeks on top of the charts. It preceded our timeline with a run of three straight weeks at the top spot as well.

After a fantastic run by the Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder song “Ebony And Ivory,” the Survivor classic rapidly gained momentum spending six weeks on top of the charts in summer 1982.

The song from the band’s final album Synchronicity was a proper sendoff as it spent a remarkable eight weeks on top of the charts.

The song from Prince’s landmark album Purple Rain defined summer 1984 and spent five weeks on top of the charts.

Summer 1985 saw a wide variety of songs holding the top spot with the Tears For Fears track “Shout” having the longest stay at three weeks.

Another summer with the top song having a short stay at number one with the Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald classic spending three weeks.

This track spent three weeks on top of the charts as it was another summer with a wide variety of hits.

“Roll With It” had a run of four straight weeks at the number one spot.

It was another summer with alternating songs at the top of the charts. “Right Here Waiting” took the crown, spending three weeks at number one.

Mariah Carey’s debut was wildly successful as her single “Vision Of Love” spent four weeks on top of the charts.

The song spent six weeks on the top of the charts beating out Paula Abdul’s “Rush Rush” for longest duration at number one.

One of the all time great summer jams spent five weeks on top of the charts in 1992.

Within our time period the UB40 track spent seven weeks on the chart. If you expand the period back to May, it would take a backseat to Janet Jackson’s “That’s The Way Love Goes,” which spent a whopping eight weeks at the top spot.

The single spent a remarkable nine weeks on top of the charts and if you stretch it past our time period, it extends it an additional two weeks to eleven total weeks.

TLC’s hit song “Waterfalls” spent seven weeks on top of the charts during its incredible run in 1995.

Going by our time period, we have a tie. Both Los Del Rio’s “Macarena” and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony’s “Tha Crossroads” each spent five weeks on top of the charts.

The Puff Daddy & Faith Evans collaboration had a remarkable run debuting at number one and spending eleven total weeks there.

The smash hit accomplished something no other song has to this point. It spent the entire duration of the time period as the number one song. That’s 13 weeks in total.

The last year of the millennium saw a tie with both Christina Aguilera’s “Genie In A Bottle” and Jennifer Lopez’s “If You Had My Love” spending five weeks on top of the charts.

Summer 2000 saw frequent changes at the number one spot, but “Be With You” held it the longest at three weeks.

The song was originally recorded in 1974 by Labelle, but the Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim, Mya, and Pink version held the top spot for five weeks.

It was the summer of Nelly as his hit “Hot In Herre” spent seven weeks at the top of the chart.

Beyoncé’s smash hit was the song of summer 2003 spending eight weeks at the top spot.

Usher had a fantastic summer as “Burn” spent six weeks at the top spot and also saw his song “Confessions Part II” spend time at number one.

Mariah Carey ruled the summer as she spent nearly the entire summer up top. There was all but one week during our time period that “We Belong Together” didn’t sit at number one.

The song spent six weeks on the top of the chart and ultimately ended up with a platinum certification for selling over one million copies.

The opening track from her third album Good Girl Gone Bad is one of Rihanna’s most impactful songs and spent time at the top spot for seven weeks.

Perry laid claim to the song of summer 2008 as “I Kissed A Girl” spent seven weeks at the top spot.

It was the summer of the Black Eyed Peas as “I Gotta Feeling” spent nine weeks on top of the charts. It was preceded by their other hit “Boom Boom Pow,” which spent five weeks at number one.

Katy Perry once again laid claim to song of the summer as “California Gurls” spent six weeks at the number one spot.

“Party Rock Anthem” was the big hit this summer spending a total of six weeks at number one.

This is crazy, but the Carley Rae Jepsen smash hit spent nine weeks on top of the charts in summer 2012.

The lines weren’t blurred on what the song of summer 2013 was as the hit spent 11 weeks at number one.

Everyone was feeling fancy in summer 2014 as Iggy Azalea’s smash hit spent seven weeks on top of the charts.

The Wiz Khalifa/Charlie Puth collaboration takes the title and spent six weeks at number one.

Drake’s hit song “One Dance” was the summer 2016 anthem spending nine weeks on top of the charts.

The unanimous number one choice for song of summer 2017 as “Despacito” spent the entire time period as the number one song on the charts.

Summer 2018 was really the summer of Drake as he had two songs spend extensive time at number one. “In My Feelings” spent seven weeks up top while “Nice For What” spent four weeks.

Surprised? Probably not. “Old Town Road” nearly held the top spot for the entirety of the time period. It wasn’t until the second to last week that Billie Eilish’s “bad guy” surpassed it on the charts.