five songs for your tired of winter playlist

By Jess Santacroce
Music Writer, Phoenix Radio

Between January’s snow storm and the stretch of startlingly cold temperatures, most of us are more than ready for warmer seasons, though that likely looks a little different for everyone. But no matter what “ready for warmer weather” means to you, there is a song to add to your playlist as you prepare for….and look forward to….your plans for spring and summer of 2026. 

Just tired of the bitter cold weather: Here Comes the Sun (The Beatles 1969)

There are plenty of songs about summer out there. A quick internet search for songs about summertime generates multiple lists of more than sixty songs each about summer love, summer activities, and summer and heat used as metaphor. “Here Comes the Sun” stands out among them all as simply being a catchy, hopeful song about the sun coming back and bringing happiness with it. The lyrics state that it has been a “cold lonely winter,” and note that it feels like it’s been years since the sun has been around, sentiments that most people in upstate New York can easily relate to these days. Add this one to your playlist on those days when it is just plain too cold out there. 

Planning a beach vacation: Surfin USA (The Beach Boys 1963)

Adding a Beach Boys song to a summer playlist may seem a bit too obvious, but there is something about “Surfin’ USA,” that makes you start dancing as though you were at an afternoon cookout or evening bonfire on the beach. It doesn’t matter if you have no interest in surfing, you live nowhere near California, and you’re actually looking out at snowdrifts covering your yard and wondering whether those are sidewalk salt or ice patches on your walkway. The opening chords of this song play, and you’re instantly transported to that next beach vacation, even if you never thought to plan one before. When it’s time to sit down and rework your budget and schedule to fit that trip to the beach in, play this song to get you started.

Looking forward to summer concerts and other arts events: Summertime (Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong  1959)

For some people, summer isn’t so much about beach parties and sunny days as it is about  getting to go out to events more often, especially concerts and music festivals. While this song certainly isn’t about concerts and festivals, listening to this version of the song from Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess,” mentally transports you to that Jazz festival you wish you were attending right now. And while we can no longer hear this particular rendition live, there is a very good chance you might hear an outstanding version of this song at a summer Jazz festival in 2026. According to the website “Music Festival Wizard,” Jazz fans have more than twenty different Jazz festivals to choose from this year, spanning the country from California to Chicago, with nine planned for spring and nine more taking place in the summer.

Anticipating the Semiquincentennial (USA 250): Saturday in the Park (Chicago 1972)

Somebody is going to play this song at a Fourth of July picnic somewhere in America every year, but this year, for the two-hundred and fiftieth birthday of the United States, Independence Day really does fall on a Saturday, making this the perfect planning/kickoff theme song for a very special milestone for the nation. It is a bit early in the year for all of the plans and promotional items to launch, but if it is anything like the bicentennial in 1976, that should be coming soon. Americans who are in their early fifties this year may be a bit too young to literally remember the bicentennial, as most people do not have memories of the year they were one to three years old. But many still feel as though we do, as bicentennial mementos and merchandise was still circulating four and five years later.

Already ready for the Great New York State Fair:  Sharp Dressed Man (ZZ Top 1983)

Summer is not a favorite season for everyone. There are many who dread the heat, and are just looking forward to their afternoon or evening at the Great New York State Fair to say “goodbye” to summer and look forward to the cooler weather of next fall. And even many who love the summer months look forward to capping them off with a day at the fair each year. If the Great New York State Fair is a tradition in your family or friend group, get in the mood to go early by listening to the song used to promote the latest act to be added to the fair schedule for 2026. On January 27, the facebook page of the Great New York State Fair added a “concert clue” consisting of a cartoon of a group of push pins with smiling faces, dressed in business suits. The next morning, a followup post announced that ZZ Top would perform at Suburban Park on September 3 at 8 p.m.

The end of winter may look far away right now, but warmer weather is coming soon. Keep warm. Keep safe. And keep making those warm weather plans and playlists.