Is The Dove Shack's "Summertime in the LBC" the Perfect Summer Song?

Nanette Gonzales

See also: KDAY, the Gangsta Rap Oldies Station, Breaks New Ground by Playing Music From the Bad Old Days

This is the city and the season for the summer jam. You only have to turn on your radio to reap the rewards of 50 years of pop music and propitious weather. Put on K-EARTH 101 and The Beach Boys remain ready to raise serotonin levels. On KROQ, Sublime stay "Doing Time," with "Bradley on the microphone with Ras M.G." Power 106 pumps this year's contenders, with blunt cruise-worthy bangers from Tyga, Kendrick Lamar, YG and ratchet man Joe Moses.

But my dial inevitably gravitates toward the classic hip-hop of KDAY, 93.5 FM, the subject of Ben Westhoff's feature story last week. It's partially an age thing. Science has proven that music never sounds better than when you're 13 years old (hasn't it?). And that was my age in the summer of 1995, when The Dove Shack dropped "Summertime in the LBC," my favorite homegrown summer jam of the last two decades.

That's not to say there aren't dozens of worthy rivals. The G-funk era alone produced Domino's "Ghetto Jam," DJ Quik's "Pitch in on a Party," Ice Cube's "Today Was a Good Day," Warren G's "Regulate" and singles galore from Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre. But those songs sound right any time of year. Whereas listening to "Summertime in the LBC" -- The Dove Shack's lone hit -- in the winter feels like an elaborate ruse.

The Dove Shack made their debut on Warren G's multiplatinum debut, Regulate ... The G-Funk Era. The following year, the Long Beach rapper-producer put his neighborhood homies on via a distribution deal between Def Jam and his own G-Funk Entertainment records. With poor strategic planning, Warren G's first two artists, The Twinz and The Dove Shack, released their debut records on the same day, 17 years ago this month.

Despite placement on the soundtrack to hip-hop documentary The Show, "Summertime in the LBC" got lost in the estival deluge. It scarcely earned radio play outside of California, stalling at No. 54 on the Billboard Hot 100.

But from Memorial Day weekend until Labor Day, the song rarely escapes rotation in car stereos and cookouts from Long Beach to Lancaster. The secret is simple: a blissed-out sample from Midnight Star's "Feel So Good," a Nate Dogg-worthy hook from crooner Bo Roc and a timeless ability to distill summer into four scorching minutes.