Summer Madness (instrumental) explained

Summer Madness
A-Side:	"Spirit of the Boogie" (Nor. Am.)
Type:	single
Artist:	Kool & The Gang
Album:	Light of Worlds
Released:	September 1974
Recorded:	1974
Genre:	Jazz-funk^[1] soul^[2] synth-pop^[3]
Length:	4:16
Label:	De-Lite
Prev Title:	Spirit of the Boogie
Prev Year:	1975
Next Title:	Caribbean Festival
Next Year:	1975

"Summer Madness" is an instrumental tune that was released in 1974 by Kool & the Gang on their album Light of Worlds. It reached number 35 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 36 on the Hot Soul Singles charts.^[4] It has subsequently become one of the most sampled R&B compositions of all time. In the early summer of 1996, Epic Records, a division of Sony Music, reissued and re-released the song as a CD and cassette single. ^[5] ^[6] As of 2018, over 145 recordings had sampled it.^[6]

Composition

The song's most recognizable aural signature is the 4-octave ascent from F₃ to F₇ on an ARP 2600 played by Ronald Bell.^[7]

Uses

"Summer Madness" has been used in various media:

It appears in the 1976 film Rocky.^[8]
It is prominently sampled in the Grammy-winning 1991 single "Summertime" by American hip hop duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince from their fourth studio album, Homebase.
The track was sampled in the 1996 song "A Girl Like You", as performed by Aaliyah and Treach, from the former's second album One in a Million.^[9]
In a 2006 Nike shoe commercial featuring LeBron James' "The LeBrons".
It appears in the 2002 video game , on the in-game radio station Fever 105. It also appears on the Fever 105 soundtrack CD, in addition to the game's first trailer.^[10]
It is sampled in the second part of "Kno Ya Wrong" by Schoolboy Q and Lance Skiiwalker, which was featured in Grand Theft Auto 5 and Grand Theft Auto Online
It is sampled in the song "Summer 2020" by American R&B singer Jhene Aiko, on the deluxe version of Chilombo.
It appears in the first season second episode "Hooper" of the 2021 Netflix series Last Chance U: Basketball.
It was sampled by Lizzo in her track "Naked" for her fourth studio album Special.
Khruangbin covered the track on their album.

Charts

Chart (1975)	Peak position
US Billboard Hot 100^[11]	35
US Cashbox Top 100^[12]	27
US Record World Singles Chart^[13]	34

Notes and References

Web site: BeatCaffeine's 100 Best Jazz-Funk Songs . https://web.archive.org/web/20180825081205/https://beatcaffeine.com/100-best-jazz-funk-songs/ . Gorton . TJ . BeatCaffeine . July 30, 2018 . August 25, 2018 . September 19, 2021.
Web site: Pitchfork Staff . The 200 Best Songs of the 1970s . . August 22, 2016 . It’s eight minutes of breezy instrumental synth-soul has been stretched, chopped, and looped countless times.. October 13, 2022.
Web site: Pitchfork Staff . The 200 Best Songs of the 1970s . . August 22, 2016 . It’s eight minutes of breezy instrumental synth-soul has been stretched, chopped, and looped countless times.. October 13, 2022.
Web site: Breaks With Tradition: Kool & The Gang's "Summer Madness". September 17, 2018.
Web site: Summer Madness by Kool & the Gang – Songfacts. www.songfacts.com.
Web site: Five Hip Hop Tracks That Sampled Kool & The Gang's Summer Madness. future-classic-music.
Cox, Arnie. Music and Embodied Cognition: Listening, Moving, Feeling, and Thinking. United States, Indiana University Press, 2016. 55.
Web site: Kool and the Gang – History. Kool and the Gang Official Site. Red Light Management. December 9, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20151209085655/http://koolandthegang.com/history/. December 9, 2015.
Web site: The 25 Best Aaliyah Songs. Complex. 27 August 2021. 19 July 2022.
Web site: Various – Grand Theft Auto Vice City O.S.T - Volume 6 : Fever 105. Discogs.
Web site: Kool & the Gang: Hot 100. Billboard.
Web site: Cash Box Chart Entries 1970-1979. popmusichistory. October 5, 2023.
Web site: Record World Singles Chart: July 5, 1975. October 5, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230922151255/https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Record-World/70s/75/RW-1975-07-05.pdf. September 22, 2023. live.