| Summer Girls | |
| Cover: | SummerGirlsLFO.jpg |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | LFO |
| Album: | LFO |
| Length: | 4:17 |
| Label: | Arista |
| Prev Title: | Sex U Up (The Way You Like It) |
| Prev Year: | 1997 |
| Next Title: | Girl on TV |
| Next Year: | 1999 |
"Summer Girls" is a song by American pop group LFO. It was released on June 29, 1999, as the lead single from their debut album, LFO (1999). "Summer Girls" reached number three on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). In 2010, Billboard magazine named it the 14th-biggest summer song of all time.[1] In 2019, Billboard also ranked the song the 43rd-greatest song of 1999.[2] This was the band's first single to feature Devin Lima as a member of the group after original member Brian "Brizz" Gillis left the group.
The song was written by Rich Cronin, Dow Brain, and Brad Young. Cronin said the song included numerous inside jokes,[3] 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.[3] 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."[4] 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"[5] and "You look like a girl from Abercrombie and Fitch."[6] The song was also featured in the 2002 movie Longshot, in which LFO appeared.
The song has myriad, primarily 1980s and early 1990s, cultural references, including Cherry Coke, Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone, Michael J. Fox, his Family Ties character Alex P. Keaton, New Edition, Kevin Bacon in Footloose, New Kids on the Block, Larry Bird, Abercrombie and Fitch, Cherry Pez, Mr. Limpet, Paul Revere, Chinese food, pogo sticks, Eric B. and Rakim, "Candy Girl", The Color Purple, Boogaloo Shrimp, and Fun Dip. The song also references The Wizard of Oz and Shakespeare's sonnets.
The music video was directed by Marcus Raboy and was released on July 20, 1999. It was filmed at Coney Island in New York.[7] [8]
US CD and cassette single, Australian CD single[9] [10] [11]
European CD single[12]
UK cassette single[13]
UK CD1[14]
UK CD2[15]
| Chart (1999) | Peak position | |
|---|---|---|
| Australia (ARIA)[16] | 71 | |
| Canada CHR (Nielsen BDS)[17] | 16 | |
| Europe (Eurochart Hot 100)[18] | 52 | |
| Netherlands (Dutch Top 40 Tipparade)[19] | 12 | |
| US Billboard Hot 100[20] | 3 | |
| US Mainstream Top 40 (Billboard)[21] | 18 | |
| US Rhythmic Top 40 (Billboard)[22] | 29 |
| Chart (1999) | Position | |
|---|---|---|
| US Billboard Hot 100[23] | 38 | |
| US Mainstream Top 40 (Billboard)[24] | 68 |
|}
| Region | Date | Format(s) | Label(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | June 29, 1999 | CD | Arista | [25] |
| United Kingdom | September 6, 1999 | [26] |