Today is the first day of summer. In keeping with a summer theme, I selected Under the Boardwalk as this week's song.

The original as performed by The Drifters. There's a pretty amazing story to the song. They recorded it in May 1964. Amazingly, the group's lead singer died of a drug overdose the night before they recorded! Instead of canceling their scheduled studio time, they called a former singer for the group for the recording session. Little did they know at the time that the single would climb all the way to #4 on the Billboard charts.

Many have covered Under the Boardwalk. I chose Bruce Willis' version from the 80's. My view is that he's surprisingly good - kind of bluesy and understated. I wouldn't have expected that from John McClane of the Die Hard movies! Willis' version actually made it to #2 on the UK charts.

Rolling Stone magazine included this song as one of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.