“Drums please.” And with that begins DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince’s massive hit, “Summertime” from their album Homebase. It’s hard to fathom that the tune was released 20 years ago, but it hit the airwaves in May of 1991 and the video debuted in July of that year. Built on a sample of Kool & The Gang’s “Summer Madness”, the song is an ode to all things related to those hot summer months including carefree relaxing, ridiculously skimpy clothing, fun-filled cookouts and competitive games of basketball at the park (with added female spectators!).

The video opens with Will and Jeff up to their usual, playful antics that made them so lovable as Will and Jazz on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air before cutting to the duo seemingly coasting through the city on a platform with refreshing drinks in hand, taking in the sights. Throughout the clip, we see many of the aforementioned elements of summer (in slow motion!) along with kids running around playing, people dancing in Soul Train lines, open fire hydrants and pretty girls cruising down the street at “two miles per hour, so everybody sees you”.

While Will and Jeff have gone their separate ways, with Will being an international movie star and Jeff becoming a worldwide ambassador for hip-hop, “Summertime” may very well be their crowning achievement. Many others have tried to carve out their own hip-hop summer anthem, but “Summertime” remains the champion and likely will continue to be the quintessential summer jam for many years to come.

On this day back in 1966, Bobby Fuller of the Bobby Fuller Four, known for his iconic tune “I Fought the Law”, was found dead in his car in LA at the young age of 23. Leaving this world so young like his idol and fellow Texan, Buddy Holly, Fuller’s death was declared a suicide, but rumors abound as to possible other causes. That aforementioned classic tune was later remade with a harder edge famously by the Clash.

On July 1st, 1941, viewers seen the world’s first TV commercial, a 20-second spot for Bulova watches. It isn’t on YouTube yet, but you’re not missing much: just a clock superimposed on a US map while an announcer says, “America runs on Bulova time.” Thankfully, commercials got a lot more interesting throughout the years, so here’s a look at some of the most unforgettable.

According to Wikipedia, punk rock bands “created fast, hard-edged music, typically with short songs, stripped-down instrumentation, embracing a DIY (do it yourself) ethic”.

This sounds familiar to me. It sounds like the greatest band of all time circa 1963 knocking out their first masterpiece in a marathon single day session. The Beatles had more edge than the Sex Pistols, rocked harder than the Clash, and had a revolutionary attitude that would make Black Flag blush. Simply put, the Beatles embodied all of the major punk rock ideals a decade and a half prior to the invention of the genre. Paul McCartney’s “1, 2, 3, 4” was not only the count in to the first punk rock song, but also the count in to the greatest revolutionary force of the 20th century. Vladimir Lenin, Che Guevara, Mao Zedong eat your heart out.

Never mind the bollocks, here’s the Beatles…

For those of us who don’t have cable or satellite television, good old-fashioned cartoons are hard to come by. When I was growing up, Woody Woodpecker, Bugs Bunny, and Winnie-the-Pooh were Saturday morning staples, but things have changed in recent years. The best Warner Brothers and Disney shorts have been saved for DVD releases, while the airwaves are clogged up with cheap-looking anime knock-offs, family-friendly sitcoms, and bland “educational” programs that would bore anyone over the age of ten to tears.

But if you have Antenna TV, the retro-themed TV network that airs in at least 26 states, you can watch Totally Tooned In. Usually airing in three hour blocks early Saturday morning, it’s the place to see characters like Mr. Magoo, Fox and Crow, Gerald McBoing-Boing, Scrappy, and Lil’ Abner.