BEACH DAY SONGS
Grab a tropical drink, sunscreen, your favorite beach chair, and head out to your front porch cause summer’s cancelled and the beaches are full of rona. Lucky for you, we have the next best thing - Beach Day Songs. The best beach day songs will make you feel like you’ve been whisked away to the peaceful and tropical Caribbean with unlimited sunshine and drinks. Hopes are high for this playlist as any slightly upbeat and happy song with the word sunshine, summer, ocean, beer, or sand should be automatically at least Tier 3. Sit back, relax, and enjoy Beach Day Songs as it takes you back to happier, warmer, pre quarantine summers.
Tier 1
Toes, No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems, Margaritaville, Surfin’ U.S.A., One Love, Under the Boardwalk, Walk, Don’t Run, Knee Deep, Three Little Birds, Kokomo
Some songs are good to bring to the beach, but these songs bring the beach to you, conjuring up images of sun, surf, and sand no matter where you are. Put on “Margaritaville” while working on a Wednesday, and you’ll swear you can feel humid, salty, ocean air and see Tommy Bahama beach chairs in the distance. Tier 1 songs are so obvious (The Beach Boys?? c’mon) that it’s almost cheating. No beach day is complete without these songs, just like no beach house is complete without a “Life’s a Beach” or “On beach time” wooden wall decoration.
Tier 2
In the Summertime, Island In The Sun, It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere, Summer Nights, Beer In Mexico, Glory Days, Summer Of ‘69, This Morning, Free, Miami, Sunshine, Santeria, Escape, Soak Up The Sun, Beachin’, Brandy, Red Red Wine
Tier 2 songs are great beach day songs, but they lack the immersive beach day feelings Tier 1 songs provide. That being said, every song here would be a welcomed addition to any beach day playlist. Tier 2 has the expected classics like “Island In The Sun” and “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere” as well as more unknown songs like “Free,” which is shockingly the only song with a ukulele submitted. If Tier 1 songs are the Bahamas, Tier 2 songs are the Outer Banks.
Tier 3
Run-Around, She Came Along, Steal My Sunshine, Summertime, Summer Girl, Cheerleader, I2I, Pontoon, All Summer Long, California Gurls, Badfish, Sweet Honey, Corona And Lime
Tier 3 songs are decent songs that work well enough at the beach, but they are not necessarily beach day songs. They could all be added just as easily to a summer BBQ playlist. On the sliding scale of summer day songs vs. beach day songs, most of these lean more heavily on the summer day song side, which is a key distinction. Over 20% of these songs literally have summer in the title. Songs that outkicked their coverage in this group include “She Came Along,” which has the subtle “surf guitar” rhythm reminiscent of The Ventures and “I2I,” which is an absurd submission but oddly sounds like the perfect backing song for a Baywatch or Saved By the Bell Malibu Sands volleyball game montage. “Corona And Lime” is a song that sounds like a great beach day song based on the title alone, yet gets worse every time you listen to it. Fortunately for Shwayze, the lack of relistenability is the only thing that stopped it from dropping even more.
Tier 4
Replay, Closer, Pon de Replay, This Life
There is nothing that makes the first 3 songs listed here beach day songs, except they might accidentally come on shuffle while you’re listening to music at the beach. In their defense, “Replay” and “Pon de Replay” would make fantastic beach day songs if you were on spring break in Panama City in 2009 while “Closer” is probably a hit at all the under 21 clubs in Ocean City, MD during senior week. “This Life” would be a solid beach day song if you don’t speak English. Most people don’t want to be bombarded by a song about infidelity, suffering, and death while relaxing on the beach. “This Life” is only saved from Tier 5 by the fact that it is super catchy, and there is a greater than zero chance that anyone listening to this song at the beach is too distracted or too drunk to understand the lyrics.
Tier 5
King Kunta
“King Kunta” is a great song. It is not a great beach day song. “King Kunta” is far too aggressive for the vibe and atmosphere at the beach. Unless curb stomping seagulls and clotheslining small children with boogie boards is your idea of a fun beach day, you probably want to steer clear of this song on your beach day playlist. If there’s one thing beach songs don’t need more of, it’s gunshots.
Conclusion
Beach Day Songs is a very solid, but very safe and predictable playlist. It’s almost impossible to have a bad beach song, though some certainly tried their best. The various artist repeats do take it down a notch as Zac Brown Band, The Beach Boys, Bob Marley, Rascal Flatts, Will Smith, Sublime, and Jimmy Buffett all had multiple appearances. Regardless, the bulk of the songs are perfectly acceptable and appropriate beach day songs. No one will complain about this playlist on your first day back to the shore post quarantine. Until then, let the top songs transport you to tropical paradise and “King Kunta” take you to Compton.
Surf On.
Best: “Kokomo” - The Beach Boys
Props: “She Came Along” - Sharam, “Free” - Donavon Frankenreiter
Worst: “King Kunta” Kendrick Lamar
Playlist Rank: 8.0/10
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No Bens were harmed in the writing of these rankings.