30 Years of Summer Jamz

Every summer some ubiquitous tune lodges its way into your brain whether you want it to or not. It's the song that blares from every car, television, cellphone, and apartment window; the song that just happens to be at the right place, at the right time.

So what will be this summers song? The choices seem pretty grim and don't get me started on last summers song... But first, here's an arguable list of the summer jamz of the past 30 years. Reading this list is really wild because I can totally envision those summers by imagining those melodies in my head and so many of them just suck total sh*t.....................

1977: "Margaritaville," Jimmy Buffett
1978: "Hot Blooded," Foreigner
1979: "My Sharona," the Knack
1980: "Funkytown," Lipps, Inc.
1981: "Jessie's Girl," Rick Springfield
1982: "Jack and Diane," John Cougar Mellencamp
1983: "The Safety Dance," Men Without Hats
1984: "The Reflex," Duran Duran
1985: "The Power of Love," Huey Lewis and the News
1986: "Venus," Banarama
1987: "Here I Go Again," Whitesnake
1988: "Pour Some Sugar on Me," Def Leppard
1989: "Good Thing," Fine Young Cannibals
1990: "Vogue," Madonna
1991: "Unbelievable," EMF
1992: "Jump," Kris Kross
1993: "Whoomp! There It Is," Tag Team
1994: "All I Wanna Do," Sheryl Crow
1995: "Fantastic Voyage," Coolio
1996: "The Macarena," Los Del Rio
1997: "Walking on the Sun," Smash Mouth
1998: "Gettin' Jiggy Wit' It," Will Smith
1999: "Livin' La Vida Loca," Ricky Martin
2000: "Who Let the Dogs Out?" Baha Men
2001: "Bootylicious," Destiny's Child
2002: "Hot in Herre," Nelly
2003: "Crazy in Love," Beyoncé
2004: "Yeah," Usher
2005: "Hollaback Girl," Gwen Stefani
2006: "Crazy", Gnarls Barkley

This summers cesspool of possible hits: (I'll try to somehow reserve commentary)

1- "Umbrella" by Rihanna... The song, which recently topped Billboard's Hot 100 chart, is "the first serious contender for Song of the Summer," according to New York Times pop music critic Kelefa Sanneh.

2-"Buy u a drink" by T Pain... Florida rapper T Pain's new jam recently hit number one on Billboard's Hot 100 chart.

3- "Do You" by Ne-Yo"... has already been stamped as the hottest love song of the summer by the Washington Post. And I mean when I think music, I think Washington Post.

4-"Lip Gloss" by Lil Mama... Lil Mama, a teenager from Brooklyn, lets you know that "My lip gloss is poppin', my lip gloss is cool" in this regrettably catchy song.

5- "I'm a Flirt" by R. Kelly... the embattled R&B star is being touted by Billboard as a candidate for the "song of the summer." His new record topped the Billboard 200 chart last week.