A Hot Weather Play List

1. "Heat Wave"

Our first candidate comes from the 1954 Marilyn Monroe musical, "There's No Business Like Show Business." A key scene is when a breathy Monroe sings and undulates her way through "Heat Wave," possibly the smarmiest Irving Berlin song ever created. There's also an amusing cover of the song by the Muppets, featuring the incomparable Miss Piggy in the leading role.

2. "Fever," another 50's gem by Peggy Lee, who made this sultry torch song a classic. The velvet-voiced Lee (nee Norma Deloris Egstrom in Jamestown) was perhaps the hottest thing North Dakota ever produced. 

3. "Melt!" by Souxsie and the Banshees, a British rock band formed in 1976 by vocalist Siouxsie Sioux. As you can see from the video, the band has a penchant for punk-goth melodrama.

4. "Heat Wave" by Martha and the Vandellas, ranked #96 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 greatest artists of all time.

5. "Burning Love" by Elvis, one of his last rock hits during the early 1970s. At the time of this performance, he was deep into his rhinestone-studded twilight years. Another song of the same name is my personal favorite, a tight disco jam from Italy's D.D. Sound.

6. "Hot Stuff" by Donna Summer. No explanation necessary.

7. "City Too Hot" by Lee "Scratch" Perry, also known as Pipecock Jackxon and The Upsetter. Perry is a pioneer of reggae music. In addition to writing, recording and performing his own tunes he created The Black Ark, a famous studio that produced Bob Marley & the Wailers among others.

8. "Hot, Hot, Hot" by Buster Poindexter, the flamboyant alter ego of David Roger Johansen, a member of the much edgier protopunk band, The New York Dolls. The catchy calypso jazz tune has been featured wide and large. In Tampa Bay it was adapted to become a commercial jingle for a local Toyota dealership. Johansen has since returned to his roots, has evidenced by a recent interview with the Onion's A.V. Club.

9. "Ring of Fire" by the man in black, Johnny Cash. The song was written by Cash's wife, June Carter, and Merle Kilgore. It became one of his most enduring hits.

10. "Why Does the Sun Shine (The Sun is a Mass of Incandescant Gas)"  by They Might Be Giants. This one is for the kids: TMBG, far and away one of the quirkiest bands of the last 20 years, uses stop-motion animation to explain what the sun is in the most literal way.