Released June 29, 1999 Recorded 1998 Length 4:17 | Format CD Genre Pop-rap Label Arista | |
"Summer Girls" is a song recorded by the pop group LFO. It was released in June 1999 as the lead single from their album, LFO. The song reached the Top 30 in the US in July 1999 and peaked at number three in August 1999.
Contents
Background and content
The song was written by Rich Cronin, Dow Brain, and Brad Young. Cronin said that the song included numerous inside jokes, and that he never anticipated its success. He claimed this was because the song was made strictly for a demo tape, but was leaked to WWZZ, a top 40 radio station in Washington, D.C.. PD Dale O'Brien at the radio station got an unmixed copy of the song from Kelly Schweinsberg, GM of LFO's initial label, Logic Records. He listened to it a few days later, his "jaw dropped, and the song was added in a hot second." Many of the song's rhyming lines appear to be randomly inserted. The formula often consists of writing a line about Cronin's summer relationship with a girl and following it with a non sequitur that rhymes, similar in fashion to "The Thanksgiving Song" by Adam Sandler. It is considered the most popular song by the boy band.
"Summer Girls" is often identified by one of the lines in the chorus: "I like girls that wear Abercrombie and Fitch" and "You look like a girl from Abercrombie and Fitch." The song was also featured in the movie Longshot, in which LFO appeared.
The song has a myriad of primarily 1980s and early 1990s cultural references, including Cherry Coke, Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone, Michael J. Fox and his Family Ties character Alex P. Keaton, New Edition, Kevin Bacon in Footloose, New Kids on the Block, Beastie Boys, Larry Bird, William Shakespeare, Abercrombie and Fitch, Cherry Pez, "Paul Revere", Mr. Limpet, Chinese food, pogo sticks, Eric B. and Rakim, The Wizard of Oz, "Candy Girl", The Color Purple, Boogaloo Shrimp, and Fun Dip.
Music video
The music video was directed by Marcus Raboy and was released on July 20, 1999.
In popular culture
Rapper Eminem parodied the song's chorus in his track "Marshall Mathers", from his 2000 album The Marshall Mathers LP.
"Summer Girls" was certified Platinum by RIAA and reached the number-one position on the Billboard Hot Single Sales in 1999. In 2010 Billboard magazine named it the number sixteenth biggest summer song of all time.
Track listing
- "Summer Girls" – 4:17
- "Summer Girls" (Instrumental) – 4:17
- "Can't Have You" – 4:02
- "Summer Girls" – 4:17
- "Summer Girls" (Instrumental) – 4:17
- "Summer Girls" (Video) – 4:17