It’s that time of year when the words of summer hits are intertwined with the memory of sand, and smell of monoï (or damp sweaters, depending on where you summered), and lyrics that will still make lips twitch upwards and drag on hearts or other parts of anatomies when summer 2024 has completely faded. Many summer hits have had a personal impact, from "Good Vibrations" (Beach Boys), "Summertime" (Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong), "Under the Boardwalk" (The Drifters), the 1989 Lambada, the Brazilian summer hit that I always associate with swinging hips and hammers as the Berlin wall came down, and a new wind of globalisation blew in, to the recent "Watermelon Sugar" (Harry Styles) and Sabrina Carpenter's "Espresso." And, of course, there was Bagatelle’s epic "Summer in Dublin" written by singer-songwriter Liam Reilly in 1980.
Reilly passed on New Year’s Day 2021, aged 65. It's funny how some greats leave us on a significant day of the year, making it easy “to never forget.” However, a door was left open for someone brave enough to pay Reilly and his mythical song homage.
Paddy Sherlock stepped up to the challenge in early 2024 when he launched a crowdfund for his new song "Those Summers in Dublin" about his start in the music world on Dublin’s streets. People chipped in, knowing Paddy had “So many stories to tell." I’m from the same generation and was curious to see if any of our Dublin memories aligned.
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