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Living for the past decade in one of the hottest regions of the American mid-South, I don’t often launch into celebrations of the summer season. In fact, normally I just hunker down under the gauzy comfort of air conditioning and wait for autumn to arrive. Nevertheless, when I happened to hear a snippet of this week’s spotlight track in a local radio bumper last week, I became momentarily inspired to make an exception. Back during the summer of 1986, Van Halen’s 5150 quickly gained prominence as one of the two primary hard rock cassettes I was listening to repeatedly. This was just before I started to get into rock music on a more serious level, but it turned out that the two albums in question (the other being Judas Priest’s rather underrated Turbo) did a decent job of foreshadowing my general listening preferences for the next couple of years, for better or for worse.

Looking back, I still feel that several tracks on that Van Halen album – the first recorded with Sammy Hagar on lead vocals following the high-profile departure of David Lee Roth – qualify as solid arena rock and guitar-centric classics of the ’80s. In the case of “Summer Nights,” we may better speak in terms of a minor classic, but the fact remains that the chorus of that deep track remains a celebratory, unabashedly feel-good rock and roll moment. As for the rest of the song, it’s probably most accurate to categorize the verses as the sonic equivalent of liquor being poured down the front of  a busty, scantily clad female during a beach-bonfire night of debauchery. Surely that comment would probably be interpreted even by aging rockers like Hagar as more of a compliment than a criticism, and I suppose that makes sense. Nevertheless, the testosterone-heavy, melodically bereft portion of the song overindulges in bravado and macho posing to say the least. But ultimately that’s a minor complaint, as the harmony vocals of bassist Michael Anthony and Eddie Van Halen help transform the pure, visceral joy of a lyric full of simple pleasures into something more: “Summer nights and my radio, That’s all we need, baby, don’tcha know.” You forgot to mention air conditioning, Sammy.

• Sample or download “Summer Nights” here.
• Top Van Halen Songs of the ’80s
• Compare prices on Hagar-era Van Halen CDs here.
• Top 10 Arena Rock Artists of the ’80s

Album Cover Image Courtesy of Warner Bros.

Man, I thought I was going to have to retire this column. Not so fast, says J. Cole. His second album, Born Sinner, is broadcasting live on bornsinner.com. Hop on over there to try it before you buy it (street date: June 18th). Come back and tell me what you think.

• Stream: J. Cole – Born Sinner

Artwork © Roc Nation

J. Cole has let loose a new track from Born Sinner. The R&B-flavored “Crooked Smile” pairs Cole with only one of two guests on the album, TLC. Cole is using this one to celebrate women who feel the “pressure to look impressive.” He also tackles insecurities like, well, a crooked smile. Born Sinner is out June 18th.

Stream J. Cole’s “Crooked Smile.”

Longtime fans of the beloved atmospheric ’80s British post-punk band Echo & the Bunnymen have no doubt been long aware of one of the key secret weapons within the band’s 1987 recording of “Bedbugs and Ballyhoo.” However, the rest of us relative neophytes may just be discovering – as we continue to mourn the untimely passing last month of Ray Manzarek, keyboard wizard for ’60 psychedelic rock legends The Doors – that his organ work plays a major role in the majesty of that aforementioned single. Strains reminiscent of the Doors classic “Touch Me” lend a haunting sonic layer to the already complex arrangement on this track, not that the impressive E&B lineup particularly needed an assist. Rather, Manzarek – a champion of fine underground music during the ’70s and ’80s even when his own musical ventures were a bit few and far between- simply appreciated Echo & the Bunnymen as a music lover. Having contributed his keyboards to the band’s cover of  The Doors’ “People Are Strange” for The Lost Boys soundtrack during the sessions for 1987′s Echo & the Bunnymen LP, Manzarek remained available and enjoyed the additional opportunity to work with a band he admired.

Perhaps as much as his central significance to one of America’s most revered classic rock acts of all time, Manzarek is being remembered in the wake of his death as a musician’s musician across the ages. Obviously, his discovery of L.A. punk band X and his production of their early records stand as Manzarek’s primary ’80s calling cards. Even so, the fact remains that in the face of the tragic dissolution of his own band more than a decade prior, this is a music figure who always retained an uncanny sixth sense for identifying performers that greatly deserved to be heard. In the quarter-century following the release of this week’s noteworthy unsung track, Manzarek never stopped functioning on some level as a respected ambassador for cutting-edge alternative music. In that sense, it’s always a good time to remember the legacy of a true rock music craftsman. Unfortunately, we’ll be doing so with considerable sadness for the immediate future.

• Sample or download “Bedbugs and Ballyhoo” here.
• Compare prices on Echo & the Bunnymen CDs here.
• Top Songs from ’80s Punk Rock Band X

Album Cover Image Courtesy of Sire/WEA

Though I’m partial to Maurice Durufle’s “Ubi caritas,” I have been thoroughly enjoying Paul Mealor’s that he composed for the royal wedding in 2011.  Learn the Latin lyrics and English translation of Ubi caritas.

Here’s a heartfelt love song sung by Hoffmann after he lays eyes upon the human-like mechanical doll from Jacques Offenbach’s opera, Les Contes d’Hoffmann.  Learn the lyrics to “Allons! Courage et confiance…Ah! vivre deux!”