Story Behind the Song: Jason Aldean, ‘A Little More Summertime’
Jason Aldean earned his 18th No. 1 hit with "A Little More Summertime," the second single from his seventh studio album, They Don't Know. The song, written by Jerry Flowers, Tony Martin and Wendell Mobley, resonated instantly with Aldean, in part because of its infectious, warm-weather lyrics.
Below, Aldean and the writers of "A Little More Summertime" share with The Boot and other reporters the story behind the single.
Wendell Mobley: [Flowers and Martin] actually brought me the idea. They had already started it and brought the title; I don’t know whose title it was. They had it kind of started already, and then we worked on it a little bit.
By the time it was over, we worked on it -- I can remember working on it one May, and then the next May getting it out again. It was old-school writing. It’s like, “Hey, what about that idea we were working on?” We just kept working on it and working on it.
I promise you, there are more parts to this song that didn’t make it in the song than [there are parts that] actually made it. What we started with, we didn’t use. The only thing that made it through actually was the title. We were still cutting stuff off when we were demoing it.
I never even dreamed Jason would cut this song. I remember, they were getting down to cutting time, and I loved this song, and it wasn’t that old. I guess it was maybe a couple weeks old at that point … It was on hold, maybe for [Tim] McGraw, and it didn’t work out. I thought, “This doesn’t sound like Jason, but I’m going to send it to [producer] Michael [Knox].”
Tony Martin: I think it was the first song he cut for the record, too, on the first day. And that made me nervous, thinking they’d change their mind quick on the first one.
Jerry and I spent a whole day [on it]. And I think eventually he had to go on the road with Keith [Urban] or whatever. And I had just said the line, “A little more summertime -- I had a little more summertime.”
And even though it never was kind of anything, it sat around, probably even before I brought it up to Wendell one day. We couldn’t come up with anything. I said, “I just remember this thing with Jerry: 'If I had a little more summertime.’”
I think everybody’s had that “if.” "If" is always an interesting thing in life.
Jerry Flowers: Wendell and Tony did all the heavy lifting. They just made me look good.
Jason Aldean: I was actually headed to my house in Florida, in my Jeep; I’m driving through this little beach town, and I’m listening to this song. I had a CD of songs I was listening to for the new album, and I’m driving through this little beach town as the song comes on, and it was almost like something out of a movie. My wife was sitting next to me, and she fell in love with the song. That was pretty much it. I had to cut it.
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