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‘Should not be played indoors’: writers on their all-time favourite summertime songs

As the weather heats up, Guardian writers pick their defining summer tracks, from Phoenix and Donna Summer to Stevie Wonder

Nothing makes me feel older than taking a form traditionally associated with literal and figurative hotness – the summer – and selecting as its ambassador a Wall of Sound-ish, orchestrally-arranged throwback appearing on a later-period Bruce Springsteen album, recorded when the Boss was in his late 50s and released in January. The cold cresting waves would spray foam into the orange sky as I drove along Ocean Beach on the way to the most beautiful Taco Bell in the world, which sounds like a locale in a Lana Del Rey song but is, in fact, a real place. Released as a single almost a year ahead of her masterpiece Norman F**king Rockwell!, Venice Bitch is long (9 minutes and 37 seconds), soft and moody, the perfect soundtrack to the darkening end of a warm day spent outside.

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