.

Songs to Cure the Winter Blues

01/05/2011
.
(Gibson) Some of us are freezing in the middle of winter in the northern hemisphere. For those readers, here are some songs to warm you up with thoughts of sunshine. For those of us partying by the pool in the southern hemisphere, here's your summer soundtrack.

4. "California Girls" - David Lee Roth: The Beach Boys' original version of this song is an undisputed classic, and its musical and cultural influence cannot be underestimated or overstated. But David Lee Roth's 1985 cover had just as much of an impact, albeit in a different way. In his autobiography, Crazy From the Heat, Roth explains that the video's unique, color-saturated look, for which he won the Cinematographer Award from Kodak, was a direct result of the glacier goggles he refused to take off during editing. "I did not see the video till a month later, when it shows up on MTV, and it looks like somebody nuked the set," Roth writes. "It looks like Chernobyl meets Chuck Jones. It's electrifying." Roth claims the video directly influenced the look of subsequent videos by many other artists.

2. "Here Comes the Sun" - The Beatles: Is there a better song to wake up to on a sunny morning? Cool breeze nudging the curtains, dappled sunlight falling across the room, and the shimmery, proto-indie guitar tones of one Mr. George Harrison. "Here Comes the Sun" is one of several Abbey Road tracks which found Harrison asserting his songwriting voice ("Something" is another classic from the sessions. "Here Comes the Sun" simply and succinctly sums up the early days of summer. Check out the full list here

Gibson.com is an official news provider for the Day in Rock.

Preview and Purchase Beatles CDs

Beatles MP3 Downloads

.