‘Summer Breeze’ is a song written and originally recorded by American soft rock duo Seals and Crofts. It is the title track of their fourth studio album, and was released as the album's lead single in August 1972. The song reached No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the US. In 2013, it was ranked No. 13 in Rolling Stone′s "Best Summer Songs of All Time". The song also became a hit for the Isley Brothers in 1974.
Released nine days ahead of their 1972 Summer Breeze album, Seals and Crofts' original version reached No. 6 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart in the US that same year. Bruce Eder of AllMusic referred to it as "one of those relentlessly appealing 1970s harmony-rock anthems ... appropriately ubiquitous on the radio and in the memory".
Jim Seals and Dash Crofts were from Texas. They were members of The Champs (of "Tequila" fame) in the late '50s and early '60s. When the group dissolved in 1965, they worked with several other artists, including Gene Vincent. In 1969 they released their first album as a duo. ‘Summer Breeze’ was their first hit single, appearing on their fourth album in the fall of 1972. Their next single, ‘Hummingbird,’ also evoked nature and was a solid hit. They later scored with ‘Diamond Girl’ and ‘Get Closer.’
Seals told Melody Maker that ‘Summer Breeze’ was "A very simple song about a man coming home from work and hearing the dog barking and things like that, and to a lot of people the song's about looking for security. Our meaning goes further than that, for a prison can be the prison of self and a person can become insecure and paranoid if he doesn't have a direction in his personal life."
Label – Warner Bros. Records
Songwriters – Jim Seals, Dash Crofts
Producer – Louie Shelton
SONG LYRICS
[Verse 1]See the curtains hangin' in the window
In the evening on a Friday night
A little light a-shinin' through the window
Lets me know everything's all right
[Chorus]
Summer breeze makes me feel fine
Blowin' through the jasmine in my mind
Summer breeze makes me feel fine
Blowin' through the jasmine in my mind
[Verse 2]
See the paper layin' on the sidewalk
A little music from the house next door
So I walk on up to the doorstep
Through the screen and across the floor
[Chorus]
Summer breeze makes me feel fine
Blowin' through the jasmine in my mind
Summer breeze makes me feel fine
Blowin' through the jasmine in my mind
[Bridge]
Sweet days of summer, the jasmine's in bloom
July is dressed up and playing her tune
And I come home from a hard day's work
And you're waiting there
Not a care in the world
[Verse 3]
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
[Chorus]
Summer breeze makes me feel fine
Blowin' through the jasmine in my mind
Summer breeze makes me feel fine
Blowin' through the jasmine in my mind