This week guest presenter Johnny l’Anson and I went on holiday! Vacations of all kinds have inspired songwriters across decades and genres: our show featured rock-inflected rest, reggae relaxation, getaway grime, and ballads on the Beach (Boys).
We’re All Going On A Summer Holiday
Summer Holiday by Cliff Richard & The Shadows is perhaps, for UK listeners, the song associated most with holidays. The song is taken from the 1963 film of the same name, which stars Richard as a bus mechanic who converts a London bus into a mobile home and drives across continental Europe (hijinks ensue). Summer Holiday was released as the second single from the film, and spent a total of two weeks at number one on the UK Singles Chart.
Dreadlock Holiday by 10cc details a very different kind of holiday to that of Cliff; the narrator details a trip to an unnamed Caribbean island where he is bullied, threatened, and offered “something harder”. Problematic stereotyping aside (which songwriter Graham Gouldman has voiced regret over), Dreadlock Holiday is ultimately a jibe at English tourists. The song was released as the lead single from the 10cc‘s 1978 album Bloody Tourists, and became the group’s first international number one hit; it topped the charts in the UK, Belgium, New Zealand, and The Netherlands.
Aruba, Jamaica, I wanna take ya
Holiday (1983), a song that longs for an escape from everyday life, was in many ways Madonna‘s commercial breakthrough. It reached number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the Dance Club Songs chart, and became a top-ten hit in several countries. The song was released as the third single from her self-titled debut album, was written by Curtis Hudson and Lisa Stevens-Crowder of disco group Pure Energy, and produced by John “Jellybean” Benitez.
Kokomo (1988) by The Beach Boys was the band’s first original top-twenty single in 20 years, their first no. 1 in 22 years, and their final top-forty hit. The lyrics describe two lovers taking a trip to a fictional place called “Kokomo” – a place we gather is somewhere off Florida Keys, and comparable to “Aruba, Jamaica, etc.”… The recording does not feature the late Brian Wilson, who claimed (doubtfully) that he was intentionally excluded from the sessions. Kokomo was featured in the 1988 film Cocktail, and was later covered by Jim Henson’s Muppets on the album Muppet Beach Party in 1993.
Dizzee Islands
Island In The Sun (2001) by Weezer was ranked as the 495th song of the 2000s by Pitchfork – which we’re pretty sure is a compliment! It was the second single from the band’s self-titled third album, and remains the most-licensed song from Weezer’s catalogue (not Teenage Dirtbag!).
Dizzee Rascal released Holiday in 2011 as the third single from his fourth studio album Tongue n’ Cheek. The track was produced by Calvin Harris, with chorus vocals from R&B singer Chrome. Harris had originally written the song for The Saturdays, but after they turned it down, it became a career-defining hit for Dizzee, debuting at number one in the UK. The whole Tongue n’ Cheek album marked a stylistic departure from his earlier work, shifting into glossy dance-pop anthems that stood in contrast to the genre-defining, Mercury Prize–winning Boy In Da Corner (2003). While this move leaned into radio-friendly hits – four UK number ones in total – Dizzee’s unmistakable voice and MC persona kept a direct link to his grime roots. Released on his own label, Dirtee Skank, it was an independent success story that flipped the usual narrative of grime artists being absorbed by major labels.
Neil Diamond vs Neil Diamond
Our soundslike this week explored the similarities between Neil Diamond’s 1966 The Boat That I Row and The Monkees‘ 1967 A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You. Spoilers: it’s not plagiarism, as both songs were written by Diamond!
Holiday Quiz
For our quiz this week, we played clips from famous songs-of-sojourn – guess the artist and song!
As always, find the show and blog at joebennett.net/5live, with occasional Instagram extras at @joebennettmusicology. With a new show comes a new Spotify mega-playlist, which contains all songs featured on the show:
And you can still listen to our old mega-playlist here.
- Words: Joe Bennett, John Pierce O’Reilly
- Audio production: Joe Bennett, Rafi Waters
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