Tired of the Canadian media determining the song of the summer using not even the United Kingdom, but United States chart data? So are we. That’s why we’ve gone through the Canadian charts to determine the song of the summer in Canada each year. The Canadian charts are a reflection of Canadian tastes in music.
There are different ways we could determine the song of the summer using the chart data. First off, we need to define when summer is. True summer is from the solstice around June 20 to the autumnal equinox around September 23. However, we usually think of summer as the two months of July and August as that’s when we enjoy(ed) school holidays. We decided to look at songs that spent the most weeks at number 1 (which we have put in parentheses), all weeks occurring from the solstice to equinox, with at least 1 week from July 1 to August 31. If there was a tie, we looked at which song finished higher on the year-end chart. If there was no year-end chart, we took the song closest to the mid-point of the summer (we needed to do this only for 2007).
The authoritative charts for Canada are RPM to 2000, The Canadian Singles chart to 2006, and thereafter the Billboard Canadian Hot 100. Songs by Canadian artists are in red, partially Canadian in purple. All songs in 1965 spent only 1 week on top, and there was no year-end chart, so we haven’t included it or 1964 below, but the song of the summer in 1964 was “Rag Doll by The Four Seasons (4 weeks). Don’t get too hung up on arguing a song was bigger using other methods. The purpose of creating this list is to celebrate some of the big hits during the summer months in Canada over the years. Big hit or not, any song that brings back happy memories of a past summer for someone is precious. What song does it for you?
Spinning Sixties
1966: “Summer in the City”, Lovin’ Spoonful (2 weeks)
1967: “White Rabbit” Jefferson Airplane (2 weeks)
1968: “Lady Willpower”, Gary Puckett & The Union Gap (4 weeks)
1969: “Spinning Wheel”, Blood, Sweat & Tears (3 weeks)
Logical Seventies
1970: “Close To You”, The Carpenters (2 weeks)
1971: “Sweet City Woman”, The Stampeders (3 weeks)
1972: “Alone Again (Naturally)”, Gilbert O’Sullivan (3 weeks)
1973: “Playground in My Mind”, Clint Holmes (3 weeks)
1974: “Rock the Boat”, The Hues Corporation (2 weeks)
1975: “I’m Not in Love”, 10cc (2 weeks)
1976: “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”, Elton John and Kiki Dee (3 weeks)
1977: “I Just Want to Be Your Everything”, Andy Gibb (3 weeks)
1978: “Baker Street”, Gerry Rafferty (4 weeks)
1979: “The Logical Song”, Supertramp (2 weeks)
Emotional Eighties
1980: “Emotional Rescue”, The Rolling Stones (5 weeks)
1981: “Stars on 45 Medley”, Stars on 45 (12 weeks)
1982: “Eye of the Tiger”, Survivor, (6 weeks)
1983: “Every Breath You Take”, The Police (2 weeks)
1984: “When Doves Cry”, Prince (3 weeks)
1985: “Never Surrender”, Corey Hart (4 weeks)
1986: “Sledgehammer”, Peter Gabriel (2 weeks)
1987: “Always”, Atlantic Starr (2 weeks)
1988: “Together Forever”, Rick Astley (4 weeks)
1989: “Right Here Waiting”, Richard Marx (4 summer weeks, 5 total)
Mysterious Nineties
1990: “Vision of Love”, Mariah Carey (4 weeks)
1991: “I Do It for You”, Bryan Adams (8 summer weeks, 9 total)
1992: “I’ll Be There”, Mariah Carey (5 weeks)
1993: “That’s the Way Love Goes”, Janet Jackson (3 summer weeks, 6 total)
1994: “Can You Feel the Love Tonight”, Elton John (4 weeks)
1995: “I’ll Be There for You”, The Rembrandts (5 weeks)
1996: “Change the World”, Eric Clapton (5 weeks)
1997: “Building a Mystery”, Sarah McLachlan (6 summer weeks, 8 total)
1998: “Iris”, Goo Goo Dolls (8 weeks)
1999: “If You Had My Love”, Jennifer Lopez (6 weeks)
Heavenly Noughties
2000: “Bent”, Matchbox Twenty (5 weeks)
2001: “Elevation”, U2 (5 weeks)
2002: “A Little Less Conversation”, Elvis Presley vs. JXL (10 weeks)
2003: “Bridge over Troubled Water”, Clay Aiken (13 weeks)
2004: “I Believe”, Fantasia (10 weeks)
2005: “Inside Your Heaven”, Carrie Underwood (8 weeks)
2006: “Do I Make You Proud”, Taylor Hicks (13 summer weeks, 15 total)
2007: “Big Girls Don’t Cry”, Fergie (3 weeks)
2008: “I Kissed a Girl”, Katy Perry (9 weeks)
2009: “I Gotta Feeling”, Black-Eyed Peas (12 summer weeks, 16 total)
Blurred Tens
2010: “Love the Way You Lie”, Eminem (7 weeks)
2011: “Moves Like Jagger”, Maroon 5 (5 summer weeks, 10 total)
2012: “Payphone”, Maroon 5 (5 summer weeks, 8 total)
2013: “Blurred Lines”, Robin Thicke (10 summer weeks, 13 total)
2014: “Stay with Me”, Sam Smith (7 weeks)
Canadian Music Blog 
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