“Summer Breeze” by THE ISLEY BROTHERS

For the first official week of summer: The Isley Brothers make something hot and funky from Seals and Crofts' '70s soft rock exemplar, "Summer Breeze."

Musical genius is most often represented by those who could hear something previously undiscovered. Take the structure and scale Beethoven brought to composition, or what Charlie Parker did for chord tones, forever influencing jazz improvisation. Now pick any one of your favorites — Duke Ellington, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Prince, whoever — and notice how their greatness is mostly celebrated as a break between times before and after. It makes sense – music itself is hard to describe, so we default to its impact on the culture. But what of those with a genius for the during, whose talent is to unfailingly hear something of their own in the present moment? That’s the Isley Brothers. 

The Isleys’ first hit came in 1959 with their first composition, “Shout,” an ebullient sweet spot between street-corner doo-wop and gospel fervor that can still fill a wedding reception dancefloor. Then came their mid-’60s Motown classic, “This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak for You),” and their funky late-’60s hit for their own label, “It’s Your Thing” — and so on, for the next four decades without resolving into a nostalgia act. 

“Summer Breeze” comes from the Isley Brothers’ 3+3 album, released in 1973. The title refers to the formal addition of three new official members to the group, youngest Isleys Ernie and Marvin, plus in-law Chris jasper. Ernie grew up watching the group’s original guitarist, Jimi Hendrix, and his funk-rock guitar¹ drives much of this evolution of the Isleys’ sound. Ernie’s fuzzed-out, phase-shifted guitar solo on “That Lady,”² a remake of the group’s 1964 R&B number “Who’s That Lady?,” made the song a top-10 hit. The group also spun tough funk-rock out of even more unlikely source material: “Summer Breeze” was a wispy hit the year before by Seals and Crofts, a duo who exemplified one of the era’s dominant radio sounds, California Soft Rock. 

Soft Rock — soft is right there in the name, and there wasn’t a whole lot of rock. The Laurel Canyon scene gave the sound a patina of singer-songwriter sincerity and an idealized sense of the  laidback ‘70s California lifestyle. Mainly, however, Soft Rock was made up of pop songs played at easy tempos and lavished in the latest studio techniques for a pristine sound — Adult Contemporary music done up in faded denim.

Jim Seals and Dash Crofts were Texas kids who moved to Los Angeles to join The Champs after that band struck it big with “Tequila,” and followed Glen Campbell when he left the group to form Glen Campbell and the GC’s. They kicked around in bands for ten years before deciding to strike out as a duo. Their fourth album, Summer Breeze, went Double Platinum thanks to the title song, which was a #6 pop hit as well as #4 on the Adult Contemporary charts. The song has an easy appeal, with a nicely complex bridge and a simple two-line chorus (“Summer breeze makes me feel fine/Blowin' through the jasmine in my mind”) that adorns the lyrics’ endearing domestic scene with two saleable features of that Southern California lifestyle: good weather and abundant flowering shrubbery. 

See the smile awaitin' in the kitchen

Through cookin' and the plates for two

Feel the arms that reach out to hold me

In the evening when the day is through

The Isleys ease into their cover of the song, with Ronnie’s falsetto riffing on the title, “ah-ha yeah… summer breeze… all in my mind” over Jasper’s tinkling clavinet and quiet piano chords. Even as Ernie’s guitar begins to snarl, it’s seemingly building into a ballad that’s just a more soulful take on the original, much like Al Green’s cover of the Bee Gees’ “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart'' or Aretha Franklin doing Bread’s “Make It With You” on Live at the Fillmore West — opening up the arrangement so they could sing the shit out of the song. After that opening minute, however, the Isleys jump right into the chorus, quickening the chorus a touch and finding the funk in the rhythm. 

For all the thumb-slap bass in the world, funk is more often about what’s going on just below the surface, like the interplay between an open high-hat and the lazy snare. It’s not an ocean wave crashing to shore, but a rip current tugging you out into deeper water. And that’s the case here. You feel it in your torso — the rhythm makes you want to roll your shoulders as you lean back with tightened abs to swivel your hips. The Isley Brothers’ “Summer Breeze” is not a cooling, gentle wind. It’s hot. It’s sexy. 

Take how they split the bridge in two: The first couplet’s airy poetry (“July is dressed up and playing her tune”) is sung over the clavinet and not much else, but they shift back into that insistent funk for “when I come home from a hard day’s work / and you’re waiting there…” And the tough rhythm continues to build into the third verse as Ronnie amps up his sultry whisper for “See the smile awaiting’ in the kitchen.” In Seals and Crofts’ original, the song culminates with a wholesome dinner prepared by the singer’s partner. Here, those dinner plates could be pushed aside on the way to the bedroom. The song ends with Ernie’s blistering two-minute guitar solo, which while not as phased-out and distorted as “That Lady,” is its equal in conveying escalating passion. 

The Isley Brothers were able to ply Ronnie’s sweet and seductive voice for the boudoir balladry of 1983’s “Between The Sheets'' and followed that path through to 2006’s plainly titled album Baby Makin’ Music, by which time he was known as Ronald, befitting a mature man. “Between the Sheets'' also underpinned one of the biggest hip-hop tracks of the ‘90s, Notorious B.I.G.’s “Big Poppa.” Dr. Dre used their “Sensuality” for Eminem’s “Guilty Conscience,” and perhaps most famously, that’s their “Footsteps In the Dark'' driving Ice Cube’s “Today Was a Good Day.” Unlike most of the funk and soul artists whose samples were integral to an era of hip-hop, The Isley Brothers were around, and vital enough, to enjoy the moment. And they still are. 

11 Song Playlist

Listening to the Isley Brothers cover rock (and soft rock) songs, you can really hear how fierce their sound of this era was.

Thank You

Hello and welcome to you new subscribers to The Best Song Ever (This Week). It’s great to have you. I never could have imagined the connections I’ve made here.

I can be guilty of letting the great be the enemy of the good, so making Big Summer Plans for this newsletter and its podcast, which is now moving along its own evolutionary path, got in the way of actually getting this out to you. I always say my favorite thing about writing this is what I learn in the course of doing it, about music of course, but also about myself as a writer and a person.

Excelsior.

1. Played on the black Fender Stratocaster Ernie bought at Manny’s Music on 48th Street in Manhattan, New York’s Music Row, on Christmas Eve 1971 with a blank check from his brother Ronald.

2. The story I heard but have not been able to verify is that his brothers had been making fun of him for spending his money on the phase shifter and fuzz box effects pedals, so Ernie played the “That Lady” solo alone in the studio full of anger. It kind of sounds that way, and it seems to fit how it would be playing in a literal band of brothers. Or maybe it’s just a good story.