In the Summertime : Facts

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Aug 21, 2020 // By:gkpsrzgq // No Comment

The song was written and composed by Ray Dorset in early 1968 as additional repertoire for his band, that at the time was named The Good Earth after the Pearl Buck book of the same name |

The record was released on Friday, May 22nd 1970, as a three track maxi-single, the first of its kind in the world, on the first of Pye Records Dawn label releases |

By the time of the record’s release the name of the band had been changed to Mungo Jerry, the name having been inspired by the cat, ‘Mungojerrie’ who is a character in T. S. Eliot’s iconic book entitled ‘Old Possum’s Book of Cats’ |

The band performed at The Hollywood Music Festival on Saturday May the 23rd, and again on Sunday May 24th after The Grateful Dead’s three hour plus set, and after the weekends record sales, the maxi-single entered the U.K. charts at number 13|

The record stayed in the No.1 position in the UK music charts for seven weeks |

In Italy the record was given the Golden Gondola Award, and Mungo Jerry was given The Group of the Year award |

In France, In the Summertime was the fastest, and biggest selling record of all time in the history of French Record sales |

In the U.S.A. the record reached the number one position in Record World magazine |

A cover version of the song by Shaggy reached the No.1 position in the U.S.A. record charts, and went on to sell over one million copies. This version contains samples of Ray Dorset’s guitar and mouth percussion from the Mungo Jerry version of the song |

In the early days of its release in the U.K., the record company shipped out 78,500 copies of the record, incredibly on a Monday morning, which were all sold, and paid for by lunchtime of the same day |

Ray Dorset received two Ivor Novello awards for composing the song, one as writer and composer, and the other for composing The International Hit Of the Year. Barry Murray received one for his role as producer, and Our Music Ltd. received one as publisher of the title |

In 1971 Ray Dorset received The Citation of Achievement award from Broadcast Music Inc., U.S.A. for composing In the Summertime |

In July 2005 Ray Dorset received The PRS ( Performing Right Society Ltd.) Iconic Song Award to recognise the iconic status of In the Summertime |

The Shaggy recording of In the Summertime resulted in Ray Dorset being awarded the ASCAP Rhythm and Soul Award in 1996 for topping the R&B charts in 1995 |

The Mungo Jerry & The Brothers Grimm recording of the song which was released on Miles Copeland’s independent IRS label in 1987 made a large dent in the UK Independent record charts |

There has been over 100 cover versions of the song worldwide including an instrumental version by the “buzzing of a hive of honey bees” |

When Clive James, the celebrated broadcaster and writer, was interviewed on a BBC Radio programme, he was asked which song he would choose as a worldwide national anthem, and his answer to the question was In the Summertime |

The song has been recognised as a celebration of life |

To put modern days sales into context, In the Summertime has sold four times as many as Ed Sheeran’s worldwide hit, Thinking Out Loud |

This song and the recording of it has changed the lives of very many people in very many ways. It will surely continue to do so |