Format 7" single Length 3:33 | Genre Pop Label EMI | |
B-side "(You Go Your Way) I'll Go Mine" Released 20 March 1975 (1975-03-20) | ||
"Summer Love" is a song by Australian pop group Sherbet which was released on 20 March 1975. It became their first number-one hit on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart. The band had had a string of top 40 hits in the early 1970s with "Can You Feel It Baby" in 1971. "Summer Love" spent 2 weeks at number one in May 1975. The song was written by band members, Garth Porter and Clive Shakespeare. It was promoted on the newly aired ABC TV pop series, Countdown, which gave it wide exposure. From early 1975 the group made more appearances on the show than any other band in the programme's history. In October, at the King of Pop Awards, "Summer Love" won the Most Popular Australian Single, the band won Most Popular Australian Group and their lead singer, Daryl Braithwaite, won the King of Pop award.
On the Kent Music Report's 1975 End of the Year Singles Chart it appeared at No. 4 and was the highest placed single by an Australian artist. "Summer Love" was the first Sherbet single issued in the United Kingdom, and was their only release on EMI. Sherbet had signed a one-off deal for "Summer Love" with EMI – rival to their regular label Festival Records. This was a ploy to gain leverage when negotiating a more favourable contract. After "Summer Love" peaked at No. 1, Sherbet re-signed with Festival which issued their subsequent material on the group's own Razzle and Sherbet labels. The B-side was "(You Go Your Way) I'll Go Mine", which was written by the band's bass guitarist, Tony Mitchell. Braithwaite covered "Summer Love" as a solo artist. In March 2001 it was performed live by an ensemble group – which included a reunited Sherbet – at the Gimme Ted tribute and benefit concert for fellow 1970s artist, Ted Mulry.