Buddy Holly was twenty-two. Think of what he might have gone on to achieve. I mean, if Beethoven had been killed in a plane crash at twenty-two, the history of music would have been very different. As would the history of aviation, of course. — Tom Stoppard, The Real Thing

For me, the summer is for ear-worming cheery cheesy pop songs. Partially this is because they’re just good for summer, but partially this is because of a long-ago summerstock production of Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing, which is framed around a love of pop music, and whether it’s worthy of being loved. The show fades out with ‘I’m A Believer’ and that song soundtracked the summer of 2000 for me, and left me with an indelible urge to shake my ass to hooky keyboards and slightly inane choruses when the weather turns hot.

So this is a playlist for that. Muchas gracias to Adam, Chris, Elise, Jess, Michael, Maja, the Maternal Unit, Uncle Butch, and the rest of the Twitter and FB denizens for suggestions. I have incorporated them all in some fashion.