Let’s have the lyrics speak for themselves:
Now fellas, you better watch your step
Don’t let them teeny French bikinis
Make you lose your breath
Back to the ladies
Y’all keep doing y’all’s thing
‘Cause everything about you
Makes me wanna scream
Pair those with a pop melody and “High School Musical”-esque production, and you’ve got yourself an unsubstantial summer hit for the masses. Rascal Flatts seems to have a paint-by-number strategy for the summer: they release the most obnoxious song on the album (2006: “Me and My Gang,” 2008: “Bob That Head”), consistently sacrificing the opportunity to make a bold, interesting choice of single for a sure-fire chart-topper. It’s frustrating, because the group has put out infinitely better songs in the past that capture the same free-spirit and energy –think “Fast Cars and Freedom.”
The only redeeming quality of this single is that, as cheesy as it may be, you get the feeling the Flatts boys actually want to sing about French bikinis and Igloo coolers. And their fans actually want to hear about French bikinis and Igloo coolers – they voted “Summer Nights” to be the group’s next single.
It’s hard to argue with that, but hopefully come Summer 2011, Rascal Flatts will have the courage to take a chance and break the insipid cycle.
Written by Busbee, Brett James and Gary LeVox
Grade: D+
Listen: Summer Nights
I have to agree with your grade, Tara. I don’t completely hate Rascal Flatts and I actually like some of their singles. Most I can at least tolerate, but this (and “Me & My Gang” and “Bob That Head”) is so annoying.
As long as they release “Why” this fall/winter, I can forgive them for this.
I turn the radio off or switch to another channel when RF comes on! Cannot stand them! This song makes me want to scream! Gary’s voice just sends me into orbit! They seem like nice guys, but don’t care for their music!
The guys of Rascal Flatts are making it harder and harder for me to continue liking them. Their past couple of albums haven’t impressed me much and the songs they’ve released to radio are just annoying, but none more so that this song.
While I will admit this song is hard to tolerate, I will give them some credit for this song, since it’s not as annoying as Bob That Head or Me And My Gang. The song is complete radio filler and the only redeeming quality it has is Gary’s vocals sounding more energenic than some of their past singles in the last couple of years.
Rascal Flatts = WHY??!!
This is an awful song but it isn’t there worst effort. Of course they’ve set the bar so low with “Bob That Head” it’s almost impossible not to clear it!
Do radio deejays get payola for airing such a song? Sounds like it was written for a “bad lyrics” contest.
Everybody needs a fun summer song, “Bob That Head” was definitely my least favorite. However, there are some great songs on the album with strong lyrical credibility. Especiall, “Why.” I agree with Matt on that!
wow…
i dunno but the lyrics is terrible,
for those who scrutinize the lyrics
don’t, haha… you’ll be much disappointed with ‘Summer Nights’ and I wonder why this reached the top 5 of Billboard country songs
In a brighter side, I enjoyed the melody :)
Nothing worse than an overweight guy wailing about girls in bikinis. Gross. It’s amazing the crap that gets tons of air play. WHY??? – frederick sallaz
“Nothing worse than an overweight guy wailing about girls in bikinis. Gross. It’s amazing the crap that gets tons of air play. WHY???”
Lol, these 3 guys are still going strong. “Summer Nights” actually peaked at no. 2 in the counry charts.
That’s true, Ava, but their level of commercial success doesn’t necessarily shape everyone’s opinion of them.
As long as they release “Why” this fall/winter,