"Girls in Their Summer Clothes" is a song by American recording artist

Bruce Springsteen Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American singer and songwriter. He has released 21 studio albums, most of which feature his backing band, the E Street Band. Originally from the Jersey Shore, he is an originat ...

, from his album ''

Magic Magic or Magick most commonly refers to: * Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces * Ceremonial magic, encompasses a wide variety of rituals of magic * Magical thinking, the belief that unrela ...

''. Matched with a pop-oriented melody, Springsteen's full-throated singing, and a pop-orchestral arrangement, the lyric portrays a series of warm small-town vignettes: :''Frankie's Diner, an old friend on the edge of town,'' :''The neon sign spinning round,'' :''Like a cross over the lost and found.'' :''Fluorescent lights flicker over Pop's Grill,'' :''Shaniqua brings the coffee and asks "Fill?"'' :''and says, "Penny for your thoughts now my boy, Bill"'' "Girls in Their Summer Clothes" has been cited as a singularly "breezy" song on the album,Levine, Stuart
Springsteen’s ‘Magic’ is a rockin’ good time

MSNBC.com MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...

, Sept. 25, 2007. Accessed November 5, 2007. though A. O. Scott of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' notes: "Not that 'Girls in Their Summer Clothes' is untouched by melancholy. Its narrator, after all, stands and watches as the girls of the title 'pass me by.'"Scott, A. O
In Love With Pop, Uneasy With the World
''

'', September 30, 2007. Accessed November 5, 2007. Jay Lustig of ''

The Star-Ledger ''The Star-Ledger'' is the largest circulated newspaper in the U.S. state of New Jersey and is based in Newark. It is a sister paper to ''The Jersey Journal'' of Jersey City, ''The Times'' of Trenton and the '' Staten Island Advance'', all of wh ...

'' writes that the song "unfolds gradually and at its own eccentric pace, with the music, and Springsteen's vocals, getting progressively more intense." At the

51st Grammy Awards The 51st Annual Grammy Awards took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, on February 8, 2009, honoring the best in music for the recording year beginning October 1, 2007, through September 30, 2008. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss were the b ...

, the song was nominated for

Best Rock Song The Grammy Award for Best Rock Song is an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality songs in the rock music genre. Honors in several ...

and

Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance The Grammy Award for Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance was an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for works (songs or albums) containing qua ...

, winning the former.

Releases

It was released for

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digital download on January 15, 2008, as a single-like "bundle" consisting of two audio tracks and an accompanying video. As such the "Winter Mix" of the song was presented, which featured a single not doubled Springsteen vocal track, some added or enhanced percussion parts, and similar small changes. In addition to the Winter Mix, a live version was included. The release achieved minor chart success, reaching positions 95 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, 67 on the

Pop 100 The Pop 100 was a songs chart that debuted in February 2005 and was released weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States until its discontinuation in 2009. It ranked songs based on airplay on Mainstream Top 40 radio stations, singles s ...

, and 62 on

Hot Digital Songs The Digital Songs or Digital Song Sales chart (previously named Hot Digital Songs) ranks the best-selling digital songs in the United States, as compiled by Nielsen SoundScan and published by ''Billboard'' magazine. Although it originally start ...

. It also hit 27 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock charts. The

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

for the song (entitled "Girls in Their Summer Clothes (Winter Mix)") was directed by

Mark Pellington Mark Pellington (born March 17, 1962) is an American film director, writer, and producer. Life and career Pellington was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Bill Pellington, an All-Pro linebacker who played football with the Baltimore Colts ...

. Filmed on the

Jersey Shore The Jersey Shore (known by locals simply as the Shore) is the coastal region of the U.S. state of New Jersey. Geographically, the term encompasses about of oceanfront bordering the Atlantic Ocean, from Perth Amboy in the north to Cape May Po ...

on a cold winter day, it showed girls and women of various ages, interspersed with shots of Springsteen strumming his vintage

Gibson J-45 The Gibson J-45 is a dreadnought style acoustic guitar manufactured by the Gibson Guitar Corporation. It is generally regarded as Gibson's most famous and widely used acoustic guitar model. The J-45 is part of Gibson's round-shoulder "jumbo" ...

acoustic guitar. The backing

E Street Band The E Street Band is an American rock band, and has been musician Bruce Springsteen's primary backing band since 1972. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014. For the bulk of Springsteen's recording and performing caree ...

was not shown. Parts of the video mirrored the song's imagery, especially the diner scene.

Live performances

"Girls in Their Summer Clothes" was regularly featured on the 2007–2008 Magic Tour, often as the first encore song, although it suffered being dropped during a number of shows in early portions of 2008. One such first leg of tour performance was recorded and included in the January 2008 digital download bundle. Although the song's lush pop-orchestral production approach was extended on many of the tracks of Springsteen's 2009 album ''

Working on a Dream ''Working on a Dream'' is the sixteenth studio album by Bruce Springsteen, released on January 27, 2009, through Columbia Records.Cohen, Jonathan"Bruce Springsteen 'Dreams' Big on New Album" ''Billboard''. November 17, 2008. It topped the charts ...

'', "Girls in Their Summer Clothes" was little played on Springsteen and the E Street Band's associated

Working on a Dream Tour The Working on a Dream Tour was a concert tour by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, which began in April 2009 and ended in November 2009. It followed the late January 2009 release of the album '' Working on a Dream''. This was the first ...

Grammy nominations and award

In typically delayed fashion, the song garnered two nominations for the

Grammy Awards of 2009 The 51st Annual Grammy Awards took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, on February 8, 2009, honoring the best in music for the recording year beginning October 1, 2007, through September 30, 2008. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss were the ...

and

. It won the first, but lost the second to

John Mayer John Clayton Mayer ( ; born October 16, 1977) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Born and raised in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Mayer attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, but left and moved to Atlanta in 1997 with ...

's "

Gravity In physics, gravity () is a fundamental interaction which causes mutual attraction between all things with mass or energy. Gravity is, by far, the weakest of the four fundamental interactions, approximately 1038 times weaker than the stro ...

". Springsteen subsequently confessed that he had not been tracking this closely: "I didn't even know I was up for a Grammy! I opened the newspaper on Monday and saw that I had won, and thought, 'Well, that's great!'"

Track listing

#"Girls in Their Summer Clothes" (Winter Mix) - 4:20 #"Girls in Their Summer Clothes" (Live) - 5:17 #"Girls in Their Summer Clothes" (Video) - 4:21

References

{{authority control 2007 songs 2008 singles Bruce Springsteen songs Songs written by Bruce Springsteen Song recordings produced by Brendan O'Brien (record producer) Columbia Records singles Grammy Award for Best Rock Song Music videos directed by Mark Pellington