Turn Up the Heat!

We once worked at a radio station that had a number of gifted music programmers, but had also, for a time, a sales manager who liked to drift back into the record library and offer suggestions. Like this: "Why don't you do a show all about rivers? Play all the great river songs--'Old Man...,' 'Cruising Down the...,' ''Up the Lazy...,' 'Cry Me a...'." The librarian rolled her eyes and the sales manager went back to his office.

He has long since departed for the Great Sales Meeting in the Sky ("Shall We Gather at the...") but in his memory, we offer a selection of songs suitable for this week's weather forecast, all best enjoyed while sipping gin and tonic in your hammock:

"We're Having a Heat Wave"(Irving Berlin)
"Too Darn Hot" (Cole Porter)
"Harlem Air Shaft" (Duke Ellington.)
"Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer" (C. Tobias-H. Carste)
And our #1 choice: "Ain't It Awful, the Heat?" (Kurt Weill-Maxwell Anderson)

And when it gets too much, and heat hallucinations begin, switch to "Baby, It's Cold Outside" (Frank Loesser).