CHAD & JEREMY - "A SUMMER SONG" (1964)

"A Summer Song" is a 1964 Top Ten hit by Chad & Jeremy. The song was written and composed by duo partner Chad Stuart (Jeremy Clyde made few contributions to Stuart's and his repertoire) with Clive Metcalfe and Keith Noble.

Like Stuart's and Clyde's breakthrough selection in duo partnership, "Yesterday's Gone," "A Summer Song" is a reminiscence of a summer romance. However, "A Summer Song" eschews the "Merseybeat" sound of "Yesterday's Gone" in favor of a gentler folk-influenced arrangement, with the lyrics also being wistful in tone.
Stuart would recall, on The Steel Pier Radio Show, that his "A Summer Song" collaborators, Clive Metcalfe and Keith Noble, were themselves a musical duo with whom he and Clyde had become friendly, and that "A Summer Song" was written and composed in Stuart's flat in London: "We were sitting around jamming on four chords and we came up with 'A Summer Song.'" "We never thought 'Summer Song' could possibly be a single," he recalled another time. "It was just a pretty, romantic song. Or so we thought...you never can tell, can you?"
The selection was one of a number to be included on the Yesterday's Gone album recorded at CTS Studios Bayswater in June of 1964 under the production auspices of Shel Talmy, with Johnnie Spence conducting the orchestra.

"A Summer Song" was issued in both the UK and the US in July 1964; the UK single version opens with Chad and Jeremy trading vocals while the US single features unisonant singing throughout.

"A Summer Song" was played on Juke Box Jury drawing from guest Ringo Starr the assessment of the track as a "miss" (i.e., flop) with US hit potential. Indeed, in the UK - where Chad & Jeremy's "Yesterday's Gone" had been a rather mild hit since followed by the unsuccessful "Like I Love You Today" - "A Summer Song" did not reach the charts while in the US following the near Top 20 success of "Yesterday's Gone" the track would afford the duo their career record reaching #7 on 17–24 October 1964. "A Summer Song" also went to number two for six weeks on the Adult Contemporary chart. When Gary James asked him about it, Stuart suggested: "You'd never hear something that sweet in the British charts...For some reason in America it worked. I don't honestly know why" -"[perhaps] because the American market is bigger."
"A Summer Song" also reached #7 in Canada and #49 in Australia. The selection is featured on the soundtrack of the film Rushmore, and was used in the "ESPN's Sports Heaven" commercial that aired during Super Bowl XL.