"Summer in the City" is a song by the American pop band the Lovin' Spoonful, written by John Sebastian, Mark Sebastian and Steve Boone. It was released as a single in July 1966 and was included on the album Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful later that year. The single was the Lovin' Spoonful's fifth to break the top ten in the United States and their only to reach . A departure from the band's lighter sound, the recording features a harder rock style. The lyrics differ from most songs about the summer by lamenting the heat, contrasting the unpleasant warmth and noise of the daytime with the relief offered by the cool night, which allows for the nightlife to begin. John Sebastian reworked the lyrics and melody of "Summer in the City" from a song written by his teenage brother Mark. Boone contributed the song's bridge while in the studio. The Lovin' Spoonful recorded "Summer in the City" in two sessions at Columbia Studios in New York in March 1966. Erik Jacobsen produced the sessions with assistance from engineer Roy Halee, while Artie Schroeck performed as a session musician on a Wurlitzer electric piano. The recording is an early instance in pop music of added sound effects, made up of car horns and a pneumatic drill to mimic city noises. "Summer in the City" has since received praise from several music critics and musicologists for its changing major-minor keys and its inventive use of sound effects. The song has been covered by several artists, including Quincy Jones, whose 1973 version won the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement and has since been sampled by numerous hip hop artists. Background and composition The Lovin' Spoonful completed their first two albums, Do You Believe in Magic and Daydream, over a period of six months. In need of new material for their next LP, John Sebastian, the band's principal songwriter, recalled a song composed and informally taped by his teenage brother, Mark, titled "It's a Different World". Written when Mark was 14, it featured a bossa nova-like sound and rudimentary lyrics, written in the style of soul singer Sam Cooke. John expanded on Mark's original composition, reworking the melody and "[replacing] Mark's laconic verses with more vital, upbeat ones." John was pleased with Mark's original line, "But at night it's a different world", determining that the verse before that point needed to build