Do some people wind up with the one that they adore
In a heart-shaped hotel room it's what a heart is for
The bubble floats so madly will it stay sky-high?
Hello partner
Kiss your name bye-bye
Sometimes...

Romantic Piscean seeks angel in disguise
Chinese-speaking girlfriend big brown eyes
Liverpudlian lady sophisticated male
Hello partner
Tell me love can't fail

& it's you & me in the summertime
We'll be hand in hand down in the park
With a squeeze & a sigh & that twinkle in your eye
& all the sunshine banishes the dark

Do some people wind up with the one that they abhor
In a distant hell-hole room third world war
But all I see is films where a colourless despair
Meant angry young men with immaculate hair
Sometimes...

Get up a voice inside says there's no time for looking down
Only a pound a word & you're talking to the town
But how do you coin the phrase though that will set your soul apart?
Just to touch
A lonely heart

& it's you & me in the summertime
We'll be hand in hand down in the park
With a squeeze & a sigh & that twinkle in your eye
& all the sunshine banishes the dark

& it's you I need in the summertime
As I turn my white skin red
Two peas from the same pod yes we are
Or have I read too much fiction?
Is this how it happens?


Lyrics submitted by spliphstar

Summertime Lyrics as written by Harriet Wheeler David Gavurin

Lyrics © Kanjian Music, Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.

Lyrics powered by LyricFind

Summertime song meanings
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20 Comments

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  • +4
    General Comment

    This could have been the Sundays big hit in the US if only they would have released it IN THE SUMMERTIME! haha Not that I thought they needed a big hit, but it's such a great song that I wanted more people to hear it and love it, too.

    This has to be one of the classic song endings:

    "two peas from the same pod, yes we are, or have I read too much fiction? Is this how it happens?"

    So powerful with the music, and brilliant lyrically.

    TK6022on January 14, 2005   Link
  • +3
    General Comment

    Like most of The Sundays' lyrics, this song is clever and evokes the curiosity/fear/joy of the first date. The song is touching on the basically universal search for romantic love.

    "Some people wind up with the one that they adore," contrasted with "the one that they abhor" shows us the singer's awareness that love is a tricky game, and relationships can end up being something that, like sunshine, "banishes the dark," and bring the joy the singer (like all of us) hopes to find in romance.

    It can also fail to bring a connection. I think that's where the singer is at. She hasn't found the love of her life, but is still hopeful.

    "Get up a voice inside says there's no time for looking down Only a pound a word & you're talking to the town"

    Here, she's willing to try again. But, trying to meet new people to date is never easy, and fraught with difficulty. She doesn't know what to say in her new ad:

    "But how do you coin the phrase though that will set your soul apart? Just to touch A lonely heart"

    A tough proposition. What do you say to show complete strangers who you are, and attract someone who will make you feel like the feeling in the chorus, where it's thrilling and something you never want to end?

    David and Harriet met in college, not through a dating site. The singer here is a typical young woman who desperately wants to fall in love and be swept away, like in the fiction she mentions.

    "Is this how it happens?" she asks, apparently feeling the glorious joy of the chorus, but wondering if it's real, or just her dreams of love being solely in her own head.

    We're left to wonder how it will turn out, and if her pleasure is temporary, or will last. Like summertime itself, it won't always be like it feels now.

    "& it's you & me in the summertime We'll be hand in hand down in the park With a squeeze & a sigh & that twinkle in your eye & all the sunshine banishes the dark"

    We all want to feel that way. We all hope to find someone who is as thrilled to be with us as we are to be with them, even though it seems like just a dream.

    Personally, I never found anyone who made me feel that way. I wanted it. I even pretended, hoping it would grow into that. It never lasted, and now that I'm old, I gave up and don't care anymore. I'd rather be alone than with someone I "abhor."

    I hope that the singer does find what she wants. I hope you all do, because while all my affairs ended badly, I'm just one guy.

    Take that chance. You may get hurt, but there's that tiny chance that it could be just what you're hoping for, with a squeeze and a sigh and a twinkle in your eye.

    XR650Ron September 16, 2014   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    ^^^ YOU ARE INSANE, i just downloaded the city on film version...there is no way it is better than the sunday's version....the sunday's dreamy guitars are what does it for me...that wha...

    poly800rockon March 30, 2006   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    Who cares about a diff version of this...? The first is always the best... I loved this song the first day i heard it on the radio and i love it to this day... Guys trust me...play this to your girl and see what happens!

    Starfuryon May 08, 2006   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    I agree with Michaelwood\nI think the main inspiration for this song were lonely heart adverts In a newspaper and the question the song asks is were the adverts successful did the person looking for love end up happily married “Kiss your name bye-bye” referencing the tradition of woman taking their husbands surname after marriage or did they end up with a person they despise in a toxic marriage?\n\nI’m old enough to remember the days before Tinder and the internet when people had to pay per word to advertise in a local paper’s “Lonely Hearts” column when they were trying to find love “Only a pound a word and you’re talking to the town”. Verse two quotes typical lines that might have been found in these adverts “Liverpudlian lady seeks sophisticated male”, “Romantic Piscean seeks angel in disguise”, also the line “But how do you coin a phrase though that will set your soul apart?” Asks how do you come up with something original and witty to set your advert apart from everyone else and attract interest. Did they quote from adverts they had read?\n\nWhen we come to the chorus I think it’s a reference to a Mills and Boom version of love “Or have I read too much fiction?” Summertime is always a season associated with love. Long sunny days, people out and about socialising, walking in the park hand and hand, flowers and plants growing as opposed to winter a dark and depressing season.\n\nStatic and Silence is my favourite The Sunday’s album. A classic compared to previous albums where if they were painters they would have been painting in black and white as opposed to this album were they used all the colours of the rainbow.

    Jimiron January 21, 2022   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    I think song is about connecting to someone you barely know just because the mood is comfortable to fall into.

    pollypocketon September 12, 2002   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    Damn I've always loved this song,

    Dprincess1220on March 10, 2003   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    I agree TK. I just finished listening to the song a few minutes ago. I must have heard this song a million times, but it's the first time that the ending resonated with me. Interesting that it hit you the same way.

    ophelia219on January 26, 2005   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    this is a classic song from back in the say. i still love it!

    roach133on May 01, 2005   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    this song is so infectious, and it's been, to me, the theme of summer for the past 6 years. one of the best choruses ever...it's such a lovely tune. =P

    delialon July 23, 2005   Link

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