Soundcheck

(flickr/sigma)

The Sounds of Summer

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Every year there's a song or two that becomes that summer's essential song. Some are literally about summer, others just feel like summer. To mark the first day of summer, Rolling Stone contributing editor Anthony DeCurtis shares some of the all-time classic summer songs -- those for road trips, rolling surf, and steamy nights. And we look at the candidates for this year's chart-topping summer tune. Also: Alessandra Belloni, an Italian singer, dancer and percussionist, joins us to explain the history and meaning of the Tarantella, a trance dance ritual from Southern Italy, which has been used to cure the mythical bite of the tarantula. The Tarantella (meaning "the bite of the tarantula spider") began in ancient Greece, then moved to southern Italy, where it flourished in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

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