"Summer Madness" is an instrumental tune that was released in 1974 by Kool & the Gang on their album Light of Worlds. It reached number 35 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 36 on the Hot Soul Singles charts.[3] It has subsequently become one of the most sampled R&B compositions of all time. In the early summer of 1996, Epic Records, a division of Sony Music, reissued and re-released the song as a CD and cassette single. [4][5] As of 2018, over 145 recordings had sampled it.[5]

"Summer Madness"
Side two of US single "Spirit of the Boogie"
Single by Kool & The Gang
from the album Light of Worlds
A-side	"Spirit of the Boogie" (Nor. Am.)
Released	September 1974
Recorded	1974
Genre	Jazz-funk[1] soul[2] synth-pop[2]
Length	4:16
Songwriter(s)	Kool & the Gang, Alton Taylor
Kool & The Gang singles chronology
"Spirit of the Boogie" (1975) "Summer Madness" (1974) "Caribbean Festival" (1975)

Uses

"Summer Madness" has been used in various media:

• It appears in the 1976 film Rocky.[6]
• It was featured in most season 1 and season 2 episodes of the 1996-2004 Nickelodeon animated television series Hey Arnold!, created by Craig Bartlett, with additional music by Jim Lang.
• It is prominently sampled in the Grammy-winning 1991 single "Summertime" by American hip hop duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince from their fourth studio album, Homebase.
• The track was sampled in the 1996 song "A Girl Like You", as performed by Aaliyah and Treach, from the former's sophomore album One in a Million.[7]
• It appears in the 2002 video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, on the in-game radio station Fever 105. It also appears on the Fever 105 soundtrack CD, in addition to the game's first trailer.[8]
• It is sampled in the song "Summer 2020" by American R&B singer Jhene Aiko, on the deluxe version of Chilombo.

References