Today’s record high temperatures prove conclusively that Al Gore is fat. It also makes me ask: what are the best movies about extreme heat, what are the best songs?
For movies, I’ll go with the divine Body Heat and the great Do The Right Thing. For songs, I’ll go with Heat Wave and, just to get old-school, Too Darned Hot.
What else? Please, no Hot Town, Summer In The City or Smooth.
khead
Do the Right Thing
Been using ice to cool down since the AC went out…..
Lolis
I have been grooving to Brite Futures, “Dog Eared Summer.” I got it for free on KEXP Song of the Day podcast available on Itunes. I have gotten so many awesome songs there.
Jewish Steel
Or Prince Buster. Take your pick.
(FYWP for behaving unreasonably)
Here’s a better recording:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyyRw7IbVQE&feature=related
Mike Toreno
The temperature in Seattle is 58. So there is no global warming.
jharp
100 fucking degrees here today. Indianapolis.
Served
Not a movie, but there’s a Twilight Zone episode where the earth is getting pulled into the sun, and it’s hot as hell in an apartment building.
Best Songs? The musical “In The Heights” takes place during a heatwave in Washington Heights in NYC, and has some great songs and funny quips about the heat.
Nylund
Movies:
The heat plays a big role in Summer of Sam. I think it may in Dog Day Afternoon as well, but its been decades since I’ve seen that.
Songs:
Too Hot (original by Prince Buster or the cover by The Specials)
Summer in the City by The Lovin Spoonfull
ed_finnerty
key largo
zulu
Bnut
Canned Heat – Jamiroquai
ira-NY
This. Hot In Here by Nelly.
Comrade Mary
Sly and the motherfucking Family Stone for the motherfucking win: Hot Fun in the Summer Time
Paul
96 Degrees in the Shade by Third World.
Jewish Steel
@ed_finnerty: Ooh yeah. Zulu’s a good call. Those poor bastards all buttoned up in their wool uniforms.
Nylund
I’m stuck in moderation. In case it was all the links…here it is sans links:
Movies:
The heat plays a big role in Summer of Sam. I think it may in Dog Day Afternoon as well, but its been decades since I’ve seen that.
Songs:
Too Hot (original by Prince Buster or the cover by The Specials)
Summer in the City by The Lovin Spoonfull
Citizen_X
Damn you Jewish Steel for coming up with the same song I had in mind!
Well. Here’s the Specials’ version.
ETA: Aggh! Nylund beat me too!
Corner Stone
@ira-NY: What the hell happened to Nelly? That dude had some all time shit working for a while.
Hey!! It must be the $$$!!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Hey, I thought of the same one. Just saw it a few weeks ago. Pretty much my personal nightmare.
Almost on topic, there was a chirpy little report on the weather channel this morning about a piece of ice the size of Manhattan breaking off a Greenland glacier. The anchor-bot talked about it in that “can you imagine that?” sing-song voice they usually save for moose swimming in somebody’s pool videos.
Darby
/lurker (Yes, I’ve been haunting the place since before Cole converted)
Ring of Fire
That is all.
\lurker
pajaro
Lawrence of Arabia
vtr
Steam Heat from The Pajama Game. Thanks for banning Hot Town, though I like John Sebastian. Yes -Sly.
Steeplejack
@ira-NY:
Second the Nelly song, but c’mon, dude, you gots to have the video. Equally hot.
Aries Moon
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Mark S.
@ira-NY:
No.
adolphus
Either version of Dune comes to mind.
There was a cheesy Sci-Fi movie back in the 80’s called Ice Pirates.
I’ll second Dog Day Afternoon.
Beau Geste
Lawrence of Arabia
Spaghetti Lee
Rhythm of the Heat?
serge
For movie, William Friedkin’s “Sorcerer.” For music, I’ll take Don Giovanni’s descent into hell.
Gin & Tonic
Absolutely Key Largo. And I love, love, love Ella doing Too Darn Hot.
Len
Al Gore isn’t fat. Chris Christie is fat.
DanR2
A Time to Kill,, 1996, with Matthew McConaughey, Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin Spacey and Sandra Bullock all sweating their asses off for the entire 2 and a half hours.
Donald Sutherland, Oliver Platt, Kiefer Sutherland and Ashley Judd add to the sweatiness.
adolphus
Plus there were some episodes of Barney Miller that really made me sweat. I think it was the pit stains on the characters, but you could tell they were really hot. The same for some episodes of Hill Street Blues.
ed_finnerty
only mad dogs and englishman go out in the noon day heat
Citizen_X
Old South, summer, no AC: To Kill a Mockingbird
Jim, Foolish Literalist
also, too, the Simpsons where they get a pool.
“Marge, can you make the oven cold?”
Anonymous At Work
Movie: Long Hot Summer
Song: Under the Boardwalk
adolphus
Soylent Green was a hot, sweaty movie, too if I recall. Plus a lot of fire movies like Back Draft and Towering Inferno.
Citizen_X
Sex, Lies, Videotape
lamh34
Ummm hello. I see I’m gonna have to represent for R&B soul
Kool and the Gang “Too Hot”
Oh and classic hip hop it’s NOT summer until this song is played:
DJ Jazzy Jeff and Fresh Prince – Summertime
fleeting expletive
I thought of the Twilight Zone episode as well. Back in the mid 70’s there was some “Summertime” song that I liked, didn’t know the performer. At the record store all I could find was something from Ted Nugent. As I was looking at the album, the store employee came up beside me and said, “Dude, you don’t want that.” Still don’t know who did the song I liked. Glad I passed on Nugent though.
Corner Stone
@Citizen_X: Or another James Spader classic of doom, Supernova.
“Oh, I’m coming for you”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Inherit the Wind. Spencer Tracy, Harry Morgan, Sinatra and a very large Frederick March. Very dated, but I love Spencer Tracy in just about anything.
dexwood
Fire – Arthur Brown
Baghdad Cafe
Corner Stone
Cool Hand Luke
Obviously.
Gromit
“Barton Fink”.
John Goodman roaring down that hotel corridor as the walls burst into flames around him.
Captain Goto
Movie: “The Hill”
Sean Connery, Harry Andrews, Ossie Davis.
Ol' Dirty DougJ
Gotta run for shelter, gotta ru-hun for shade.
Gin & Tonic
My iTunes just went to Art Blakey’s Moanin’, which also always struck me as a very hot number for some reason.
someone
Best song about the heat? That’s easy, leave it those from New Jersey:
It’s Not the Heat, It’s the Humanity
Bouncing Souls
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLrw3pkJx4s
It’s a four-alarm fricasee boy this heat is killing me
it’s hot, it’s hot, it’s hot tonight
It’s duelling dicks in a deep-fry It’s hot standing next to these other guys
it’s hot, it’s hot, it’s hot tonight
It’s sweaty snapper in a stir-fry A blazing sun under a red sky
it’s hot, it’s hot, it’s hot tonight
It’s hot and sexy and it’s wet and the show ain’t even over yet
How much better can get tonight
It’s so hot i can’t even think I need some air I need a drink
Sweaty bodies everywhere down to their underwear tonight!
My balls are sticking to my leg Pass the 40; sippin’ dregs
Raise the roof let’s set it off cause we just can get enough tonight!
lamh34
I agree with “Do The Right Thing”. the scene with the ice cube is what I always remember, among other things.
Joel
It’s certainly not better than Body Heat, but Falling Down was okay.
How about “Summertime” by Sublime/Pharcyde?
someone
As for a movie, Since Barton Fink and Soylent Green have been mentioned I’ll add: Streets of Fire.
Ol' Dirty DougJ
Great one. Sublime doesn’t get its due, IMHO.
honus
Sahara, with Humphrey Bogart and the original Flight of the Phoenix. Songs Fire by Arthur Brown, Hendricks, and Springsteen and Red Hot
Special Patrol Group
“Barton Fink” is a good call. I would also nominate “Blood Simple,” what with the ceiling fans and the incinerator.
Captain Goto
“Das Boot” comes to mind as well.
Gin & Tonic
Oh, and Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil.
Captain Goto
@G & T, #55: Ooohhh, *good* one.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Springsteen has a lot of summer songs, doesn’t he?
Barefoot girl sittin’ on the hood of a Dodge/Drinkin’ warm beer in the soft summer rain
Sandy, the fireworks are hailin’ over Little Eden tonight/forcin’ a light/onto all them stony faces/left stranded on this warm July
Girls in Their Summer Clothes
dr. bloor
Guilty pleasure: Summer Breeze, Seals & Crofts. Never fails to put me back on the seat of my gold sting-ray in July, riding over to my friend Len’s house.
Martin
Are you guys fucking kidding me?
A simply sublime song by America’s greatest composer, performed by two of America’s greatest artists ever.
JenJen
I was just saying yesterday that here in Cincinnati, it was “Do The Right Thing” hot. My real thermometer hit 103 outside today. Freaking miserable and all the Ohio sweet corn I associate with July in the midwest can’t make up for it, either.
kd bart
Bridge On the River Kwai
Ol' Dirty DougJ
Meh, they’re all it’s so hot in Jersey, gonna eat some fried dough with my girl.
Ol' Dirty DougJ
I swear to Bieber you and the Cool Hand Luke people are ripping off the sweatiest movie ever debate from the first episode of Cheers.
DanielX
Summertime…..the version by Big Brother and the Holding Company featuring one Janis Joplin.
JPK
Every Sergio Leone western.
ira-NY
This oldie. Heatwave by Martha and the Vandellas.
trollhattan
@Martin:
Now that there’s hard to top.
PopeRatzy
Just pull out War – Anthology
Summer
Cisco Kid
L.A. Sunshine
Low Rider
Sun oh Son
Tobacco Road
War has always been my “begin the summer playlist”
Comrade Luke
62 degrees here in Seattle. One of our local meteorologists ran the numbers, and we’ve been above eighty degrees for 78 minutes so far this year: 12 minutes on July 2, and 66 minutes on July 6.
Seventy. eight. minutes.
But hey, almost 19hrs above 75, so there’s that.
robertdsc-PowerBook
The China Syndrome.
Jason Bylinowski
Can’t believe noone has mentioned Elia Kazan’s A Streetcar Named Desire. That whole movie is one big sauna session.
Off Colfax
Movie: C’mon, dudes. Don’t tell me nobody has mentioned the Mad Max movies yet?
Song: Meatloaf – You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night)
trollhattan
Audio on this is flat as a board, but as a summertime pop tune it’s hard to beat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NVVe1DkVsQ&feature=related
Double also, too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSqi_2yaMmc&feature=related
Earl Butz
“Summertime Blues” – any version, haven’t heard a bad cover of it yet.
JPK
@PopeRatzy:
Yes, and also “All Day Music.”
John T
My favorite music for bringing the temperature down is Jamaican dub reggae, the spacier the better, with lots of “wet” reverb.
But I live in Portland, Oregon, where we haven’t really had any summer weather yet. Hearing the lamentations of everyone else in the country (outside of the Pacific Northwest) makes me feel kind of grateful for that.
Corner Stone
@Ol’ Dirty DougJ: I’m the only one who has mentioned it. And I have no idea what you’re talking about.
Montysano
How ’bout a whole album: Stevie Wonder “Hotter Than July”.
“Cash In Your Face”
For a movie: “No Country For Old Men”.
freelancer (iPhone)
Volunteers with Tom Hanks and John Candy.
“Jesus H Christ! We must be a mile from the sun!”
Also, Sinatra wasn’t in Inherit the Wind, Gene Kelly played E K Hornbeck aka H L Mencken.
dedc79
Summer Babe – Pavement
James E. Powell
The hot parts of Cool Hand Luke.
Ben Cisco
Alex Bugnon – 107 In The Shade
Kool & The Gang – Summer Madness (This is a long-form live version at the House of Blues).
Corner Stone
In case no one has mentioned it yet, Cool Hand Luke has some of the sweatiest scenes in all of moviedom.
Corner Stone
Oh, I see James E. Powell was thinking along the same lines.
Cool Hand Luke was a pretty fucking sweaty movie, IMO.
Martin
Ok, gotta trump the room here.
James Brown’s Celebrity Hot Tub Party
trollhattan
Mmmkay, I found a better Cold Sweat vid.
Maceo!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ni5ELUVM2eI&feature=related
trollhattan
@Martin:
My favorite Eddie Murphy bit, evah.
dbwhite
Rockaway Beach
Ben Cisco
Ohio Players – Fire
scandi
If you like opera/musical theatre, there is a beautiful song in Kurt Weill’s STREET SCENE called “Ain’t it Awful, the Heat?”
Jewish Steel
@Martin: Mine too.
Good Gawd!
Quincy
In the Heat of the Night. Rod Steiger can sweat with the best of em.
Geoduck
“Please, no Hot Town, Summer In The City or Smooth.”
Wow, only two people didn’t listen. I like HT, myself.
MikeJ
Hung Up with Summer – Big Star
Summer – Buffalo tom
Double Summer – the Chills
Other Side of Summer – Elvis
Summer Skin – Death Cab
Summer song – decembrists
summerland – everclear
something wonderful happens in summer – Frank
Celebrated Summer Hüsker Dü
Jesus, I’ve got 97 more summer songs in itunes.
Cat Lady
Walkabout
Picnic at Hanging Rock
Gerry
Death Cab:
Summer Skin
freelancer (iPhone)
Three Amigos!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHVpJGXZ21o
Jack Canuck
Siouxsie and the Banshees, 92 Degrees.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIqyVsZGxi0
mvr
Burning and Looting.
Here’s a version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=za01QWLXisQ&feature=related
Steeplejack
Bobbie Gentry’s voice makes this even hotter: “Ode to Billie Joe.”
Mike Kay (Democrat of the Century)
Miami Vice had some great episodes on the heat and humdity
VietNam movies usually focus on the heat (Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Boys in Company C).
Year of living Dangerously
The Dangerman
@Comrade Luke:
I was in Seattle in June; brrrrrrrr. Cold as the Mariners bats.
Has “Summer Nights” by Van Halen been tossed into the mix?
Mike Kay (Democrat of the Century)
Thong scene from Crocodile Dundee
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhKIut9BkNI
diakron
Meat Puppets – Flaming Heart
Lyrics have nothing to do with hot weather but I don’t care. That’s my submission.
JGabriel
Best Film About Extreme Heat: Hapax Legomena I: Nostalgia, by Hollis Frampton
.
Mike Kay (Democrat of the Century)
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Inside Man
Citizen_X
Gin and Juice!
Mike Kay (Democrat of the Century)
Fahrenheit 9/11
Elliecat
Wreckless Eric: I Wish It Would Rain
PIGL
One Hot Summer
Veda Hille, from Spine, 1996.
There seems to be no YouTube version, but the song absolutley cooks…and the Grass in the City is Catching on Fire. boom taddada boom taddada boom taddada boom.
“Gravel and sand, I am avalanche land”
and I wish I could remember for you all the words, or give you some feel for the melodic power of this almost unknown song.
Mike Kay (Democrat of the Century)
The Flamingo Kid
Ya know when you think about it, summer movies really feature summer weather
while there are coming of age movies set in summer like corvette summer, American Graffiti, Blue Crush, etc., they don’t feature hot weather.
FlipYrWhig
Film : Hustle and Flow.
dead existentialist
@ 86 Trollhatten
BOOTSY!!!!
Karen
“Hot Child In The City” Nick Guilder
“Hot In The City” Billy Idol
“Summertime, Summertime” The Jamies
Every song by the Beach Boys and Jan and Dean.
eemom
1. Hot August night, and the leaves hangin down and the grass on the ground smelling sweet
2. Helter Skelter in the summer swelter, the birds flew off to the fallout shelter, eight miles high and falling faaaaaast
eemom
….how they danced in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat
some dance to remember, some dance to forget
eemom
pre Pulp Fiction (long pre) John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John:
Summer lovin, had me a blaaaaaast
Summer lovin, happened so faaaaast
eemom
Night moves
In the sweeeeet summertime, summertime
Handsome Stranger
My all-time favorite summertime heat movie may be Street Scene — an astonishingly great movie considering it was released in 1931. Directed by King Vidor and starring Sylvia Sidney.
Brachiator
The episode is called “Midnight Sun.”. Great episode, as always with a twist.
Also, there is a great 1960s British science fiction movie, “The Day The Earth Caught Fire.”
dead existentialist
@ eemom
Heat gettin’ to ya, or are those just the normal hot flashes?
BD of MN
Fine. no “hot” threads when the dewpoint hit 88 and the heat index hit 132 on Tuesday in Moorhead, MN which is just across the border from Fargo…. yes, freaking Fargo…
just for that, I give you “Predator 2” as my hot movie….
AnotherBruce
It might have made 68 today in Seattle, thank god it’s beginning to cool down.
Not to rub it in of course. Enjoy the heat and humidity.
Pappy G
Long time lurker here. Agree with everything I know or recognize from above. Just want to throw in Jane Campion’s ‘In the Cut’ – not a great film, but she captures NYC summers in a very visceral way. I also really dig listening to ‘Here Comes the Summer’ by The Undertones when it gets really hot. But, alas, I live in dsease covered Puget Sound. Haven’t had any cause to break it out yet. Which is fine by me. Al Gore is phat.
Linkmeister
I can’t kick about Ella & Louis’s version of “Summertime,” nor about Janis’s, but don’t forget Paul Robeson sang it too.
JP Stormcrow
“The night was sultry.” — Throw Momma From the Train.
Brachiator
People, people….
Peggy Lee, “Fever.”
vawolf
“Hot As Sun/Glasses” from Paul McCartney’s first album (instrumental)
hamletta
And featuring the gracious and dignified Beulah Bondi adjusting her undies.
Was just thinking about that shot this afternoon when everything was sticky.
barbara
“The Day The Earth Caught Fire” — great sci fi movie from the 60’s, I think. No longer science fiction.
stuckinred
Cruel Summer
harlana
Not a movie, but The Midnight Sun, which is also one of my very favorite TZ episodes
Taylor
Echo “The Day The Earth Caught Fire.” The science in it is total crap, but its depiction of a world melting down, done in that typical understated British fashion, is better than any histrionics by Emmerich.
The best book on this subject is Ballard’s The Drowning World.
Also don’t forget Soylent Green, which considers a world dying due to global warming, among other environmental failures. Silly, but now we can see also prophetic. Who knew the human race was too stupid to survive?
Tony J
Mickey Rourke. Lisa Bonet. Angel Heart. It’s hot and sweaty and the Devil’s gonna get you in the end.
And, for the love of FSM, people. Why has no one mentioned Top Gun? Blue skies, aviator shades and that volleyball scene that I can never watch without getting an itch on (not the Marcus Bachmann kind, the other kind) at the very thought of all that sand getting into sweaty crevices.
Lisa
Did anyone mention this totally badass episode of The Twilight Zone yet? I fucking love this episode:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Midnight_Sun
Cat Lady
Seven Year Itch. Can’t believe no one thought of Marilyn’s street grate scene before now. It’s the iconic image of “hot” for all time.
Dr. Wu
Billy Joel’s “Borderline” gets an honorable mention for its line “Blackout, heatwave, .44 caliber homicide/the bums drop dead and the dogs go mad in packs on the West Side”
Dr. Wu
Oh, and you can forget about any version of “Summertime” other than Billy Stewart’s.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xrhcQcAJSI
Lurking Canadian
I second Angel Heart. Every scene in that movie takes place in a miserably hot room under an ineffective ceiling fan.
Hewer of Wood, Drawer of Water
124 Linkmeister, et al- so did Peter Gabriel
Amir_Khalid
My own candidate for favorite summer song: Sherry Darling by Bruce. “Let there be sunlight, let there be rain, let the brokenhearted love again …” And the Big Man,
God bless him, is just all over the song with that magnificent horn.
Paul in KY
How bout Mungo Jerry’s ‘In the Summertime’?
Excellent choices up above by all.
chopper
dillinger escape plan: “43% burnt”
MomSense
Hands down best song is Ella Fitzgerald singing Too Darn Hot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlMWW4R1ZBM
brantl
Summer in the City was a great fucking song! Dmmmit!
Bridget
Siouxsie and the Banshees – 92 Degrees
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIqyVsZGxi0
Fogeyman
The musical version of “The Rainmaker”: “110 Degrees in the Shade”
phein39
Music:
Pierre Dorge and the New Jungle Orchestra, (So Hot) Even the Moon is Dancing “Suho Ning Samo”
Movie:
“Rear Window” — Jimmy Stewart sitting at his apartment’s courtyard window to catch a breeze, watching his neighbors cope (or not) with the summer heat.
low-tech cyclist
Why so harsh on the Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Summer in the City” ?
It is one of the quintessential summer songs – you can almost feel the heat rising up off the pavement while listening to it. Terrific song.
Gus
Barton Fink.
Gus
Oh, and Hot Fun in the Summertime-Sly and the Family Stone
Long Hot Summer Night-Jimi Hendrix
artem1s
Drunken Angel
early Kurosawa, post WWII, set in Tokyo slums. Takashi Shimura plays an alcoholic doctor who is trying to save everyone. Toshiro Mifune in his first film with Kurosawa steal the show as a mob guy, street tough suffering from tuberculous. Boy was he HOT. He could totally kick James Dean’s ass.
Come to think of it, a bunch of Kurasawa’s films feature the oppressive heat as a central character. Stray Dog especially.
Cube Zombie
The Day the Earth Caught Fire
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054790/
pookapooka
Honolulu exotica band Don Tiki’s “Heat” from their CD “Skinny Dip with Don Tiki” wherein it is claimed soon every place will be tropical.
Bo Alawine
Here’s one:
Heavy Shift’s 90 Degrees in the shade
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUAe7eeNYJc