“How’s your summer jam coming along?”

If you’re going to write the ultimate summer jam – and I’m talking about one of those instant classics that forever defines a moment in time – then you really ought to start with the title. Beats and hooks are great, but it’s the title more than anything else that charts the course of your jam and reaches into the hearts and minds of millions.

You need a title that will rise above the whims of the moment and strike a chord for the ages. The title of any great summer jam should brush aside the fads and superficialities of the time and get right down to the real thing. It should grip the zeitgeist by the junk and bellow “Here I am, all the way live from the 416 or whatever my area code may be, to speak for my generation!”

When Len came up with “Steal My Sunshine,” do you think they were in it for the moment? Do you think they were approaching their track in terms of the next week, the next month, or even the next year? You’re damned right they weren’t, and that’s why their summer jam will endure for decades if not centuries to come, in spite of being totally overplayed and unwelcome at the time.

The current working title for my summer jam is “We Got Da Butts (Party Anthem Pt. 1).” And I don’t want to get ahead of myself here, but I really think it’s going to be a hit.

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