Released August, 1983 Recorded 1983 Length 3:42 | Format 7" (45 rpm) Genre New wave | |
B-side "Some Things Never Change" | ||
"Suddenly Last Summer" is a hit song by new wave band The Motels. It was the lead-off 45 from their RIAA Gold-certified fourth album Little Robbers. The single entered the Billboard Hot 100 at #60 on September 3, 1983 and peaked at #9 on November 19, 1983.
"Suddenly Last Summer" peaked at number 18 on the Adult Contemporary chart and hit #1 on the U.S. Billboard Top Tracks chart, the only instance of a Motels song topping any US music chart. Two bootleg dance versions have been made of the song, one with a techno-like dance beat and another with a semi-tropical beat.
Lead singer Martha Davis has said in various radio interviews that she wrote the song while reflecting on her life and "how you know summer is ending when you hear the ice cream truck go by for the last time and you know he won't be back for a while". An ice cream truck appears throughout the music video (directed by Val Garay, the single's producer), which also features one of Davis' daughters (presumably Maria) and actor Robert Carradine as Davis' love interest. The single began climbing the Hot 100 as that summer turned to fall.
Tennessee Williams, writer of the earlier same-named 1958 off-Broadway one-act play, died in February 1983, the same month The Motels returned to the studio to record Little Robbers.
The song was included on the 1990 compilation album, No Vacancy: Best of the Motels.
The B-side of the 7" single was "Some Things Never Change." The song has appeared on the soundtrack of the TV show Breaking Bad.