(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Sat 11 October 2025 9:00, UK
Before Daft Punk, Len, and The Fresh Prince had scored much-loved paeans to the joyous arrival of warmer and longer days, Mungo Jerry’s ‘In the Summertime’ for many stood as the perennial anthem to sweltering on the beach and complaining about it, if you’re English at least.
While eclipsed by much of The Beach Boys’ Californian songbook, Mungo Jerry’s global smash for many still stands as the definitive sunshine number. A number one everywhere in about 20 countries, and peaking at a respectable number three on the US Billboard Hot 100, its chirpy banjo and easy cabasa shake won the sunny affections of millions around the world, proving to be the first port of call to many a summer compilation album or June Spotify playlist to this day.
Dodgy lyrics aside, “If her daddy’s rich, take her out for a meal/if her daddy’s poor, just do what you feel,” but part of ‘In the Summertime’s enduring appeal, along with its gentle arrangement, is the authentic innocence at play in its lyrical cheer. “When I was young, my family always went to Hayling Island, in Hampshire, for holidays; great affairs with about 20 of us,” frontman and songwriter Roy Dorset reminisced to The Guardian. “So, for part of the song, I was recalling lovely childhood memories.”
Dreamed up while working at a Timex lab, ‘In the Summertime’s instant success suddenly thrust Dorset to a strata of fame he could only dream of while whiling away the hours at his day job. He added, “It was a complete madhouse. When I look back at performance clips of the single, I see I’ve got this big grin and I’m wearing clothes that make no sense at all, with these massive sideburns, while the other guys in the band have a proper hippy look. I think I was trying to align everything to nature and spontaneity.”
So why no other monster hit? Mungo Jerry fared well in their home country, next single ‘Baby Jump’ similarly shooting to the top of the charts and maintaining a steady run of albums, but simmering band tensions that led to a mini-hiatus for two years, and an inconsistent promotion from the US Janus distributors meant few outside Britain ever nabbed further singles, or albums beyond 1971’s Electronically Tested.
Bouts of success were still had, however, scoring several European winners throughout the decade, and ‘Alright, Alright, Alright’ a few years later, but nothing that touched the fortunes of his eternal summer hit. Mungo Jerry even penned a tongue-in-cheek sequel with 1974’s Long Legged Woman, presenting a slightly inverted and reassembled version of his mammoth monster heralding the arrival of Autumn’s dark clouds on the wry ‘Summer’s Gone’.
But Dorset spoke candidly about ‘In the Summertime’s live power over the years, and shining place in his legacy. “This song has brought pleasure, and extremely fond memories to literally millions of folks throughout the world,” he told Der Spiegel in 2020. “These folks now span five generations. The underlying sentiment of the song is primarily that of Love, Peace, Happiness, and the celebration of life.”
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