Music Friday: Jon Bon Jovi’s Girlfriend Shines Like a New Diamond in ‘Summertime’

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you sensational songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, we’re going to do our best to keep the summer alive with a fun song from Bon Jovi’s 2007 chart-topping Lost Highway album.

It’s called “Summertime” and includes this line… “I keep a postcard in the back of my mind / White sand, sunshine / And you shining like a brand new diamond.”

In the song, Jon Bon Jovi describes how his girlfriend reminds him of summertime. He reminisces about warm breezes, lazy days, beach blankets, a bottle of wine and his girlfriend sparkling like a precious stone.

“Like a first slow dance and a first long kiss,” he concludes, “there ain’t nothing, baby, better than this.”

Written by frontman Jon Bon Jovi, lead guitarist Richie Sambora and producer John Shanks, “Summertime” blended the best elements of rock and country music to create an upbeat, sing-along experience that had Bon Jovi fans dancing in the aisles. The song was featured on the Bon Jovi setlist from 2007 through 2011.

"Summertime" appeared as the second track from Lost Highway, Bon Jovi's 10th studio album. The group’s calculated maneuver into the country genre paid off big time as the album charted in 23 countries and made its debut at #1 on the US Billboard 200 Albums chart. It was the group’s first album to debut at #1 and was so well received that it went on to be nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album at the 2008 Grammy Awards.

John Francis Bongiovi, Jr., was born in Perth Amboy, NJ, in 1962. A blood relative of Frank Sinatra, the young Bon Jovi spent much of his youth skipping school to pursue musical activities. By the time he was 16, he was already playing in New Jersey clubs. A year later, while sweeping floors at his cousin Tony Bongiovi’s recording studio, Bon Jovi got the opportunity to sing on a Star Wars Christmas album. His first official credit was on a 1980 release called “R2-D2 We Wish You A Merry Christmas.”

By 1983, Bon Jovi had formed the group that bears his name. Over the past 39-plus years, the group has sold more than 120 million records and performed more than 2,700 concerts in 50 countries. Bon Jovi and Sambora were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2009.

We hope you enjoy the video of Bon Jovi’s live performance of “Summertime.” The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…

“Summertime”
Written by Richie Sambora, John Shanks and Jon Bon Jovi. Performed by Bon Jovi.

Feels something like summertime
Top down and nothin’ but time
Radio’s on and your by my side
Feels something like summertime

These days life goes like this
Wake up, check that off of some list
Gotta be a little something more than this
The bottom of my coffee cup

I keep a postcard in the back of my mind
White sand, sunshine
And you shining like a brand new diamond
It’s keeping me for giving up
Thinking like I had enough

You make me feel something like summertime
Top down ain’t nothing but time
Radio’s on and you’re by my side
Feels something like summertime

Like a first slow dance and a first long kiss
There ain’t nothing, baby, better then this
It’s like a beach blanket and a bottle of wine
It feels something like summertime
Summertime

I was a warm breeze with a cool tan
Life mapped out on the back of my hand
When I was laughing I was making plans

But I didn’t laugh when I found you
There's a heaven baby your the proof

You make me feel something like summertime
Top down ain’t nothing but time
Radio’s on and you’re by my side
Feels something like summertime

Like a first slow dance and a first long kiss
There ain’t nothing, baby, better than this
It’s like a beach blanket and a bottle of wine
It feels something like summertime
(Sum-summer-summertime)

Feel something like summertime
Top down ain’t nothing but time
Radio’s on for me and my valentine

It’s like that first slow dance and that first long kiss
There ain’t nothing baby better then this
It’s like a beach blanket and a bottle of wine (Yeah)

Feels something like summertime
Top down ain’t nothing but time
Radio’s on and you’re by my side,
Feels something like summertime
Just like summertime
(Sum-sum-summertime)
But it feels alright

Credit: Photo by Matthew Fox, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.