Summer 2025 Theme Mix Tape
The Summer 2025 Theme Mix Tape (Side A) – Summer By the Water can be found on Spotify. Listen in-blog below for a more rich experience, or on Spotify for uninterrupted music. Please note below each song is a link to song lyrics for accessibility. Check out more details on how to best enjoy mix tapes.
Good day!
You’re listening to KMTJ-DB – Your Mix Tape Journey – Denver, Colorado.
I’m your host, DJ Ponyboy and I am pumped to begin Summer 2025 with three celebratory theme mix tapes: Summer By the Water, Summer On the Water, and Summer In the Water!
Without further ado, let’s begin Side A: Summer By the Water with a musical double-shot, kicking off with a joint effort by Imagine Dragons and Ado, 2024’s “Take Me to the Beach”.
The Ramones – one of my favourite bands since I was a teenager – with 1977’s “Rockaway Beach”. Imagine Dragons and Ado before that.
Today we’re celebrating sun and water with Side A: Summer By the Water, featuring songs curated for the beach or pool.
Otis Redding shares another way to enjoy the sea, sand, and sun: 1968’s “(Sittin’ On) the Dock of the Bay”.
(Sittin’ On) the Dock of the Bay Lyrics
Otis Redding with the first posthumous #1 single in the US, recorded just several days before his tragic death in a plane crash.
American rock band Of A Revolution (styled as O.A.R.) has been active since 1996. They are keeping our beach vibe going with 2018’s “Just Like Paradise” on KMTJ-DB – Denver, Colorado.
It’s important to remember – today’s tape is all about summer BY the water – the source of that water makes no difference! If you are land-locked like we are here in Colorado and don’t have a beach nearby, you can still party by the water!
Lucy Angel kicks off a pool-themed musical double-shot with “Public Pool Party” on KMTJ-DB – Denver!
Pool Boys Lyrics
Queer Southern hip-hop and Bounce artist Big Freedia with “Pool Boys”, featured in the Netflix film Thelma the Unicorn. Country mother-daughter group Lucy Angel before that with “Pool Party”.
I am DJ Ponyboy, experiencing more joy than a human being should be allowed to. I hope you’re having fun in the sun and enjoying your play in the spray.
Blake Shelton reminds us of the power of positive thinking – when things get annoying, imagine “Some Beach”.
Blake Shelton on KMTJ-DB – Your Mix Tape Journey – Denver, Colorado.
I’m DJ Ponyboy and I hope you are having as much fun as I am! Join me next week for a brand-new format with a brand-new DJ – Spiller’s Corner with Spiller. The two weeks after that will be comprised of Sides B and C of this month’s theme tape: Summer On the Water, and Summer In the Water, respectively.
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Back to the music! We kindly keep it sunny with a track from Jesse Rice’s 2012 album The Pirate Sessions, “Island State of Mind”.
Long-time listeners may recall the second mix tape (and very first theme tape) I ever released in April 2024 was called A Very Oldies Summer Mix Tape.
Kicking off that tape was our next track, “Under the Boardwalk”, released in 1964 by The Drifters.
I’m DJ Ponyboy on KMTJ-DB – Denver.
We heard the Drifters with “Under the Boardwalk”.
Closing us out today is Washington DC indie pop band Sub-Radio with a song released just a few months ago, April 2025’s “Sleep On the Beach”.
Thank you so much for joining me today for Side A of this month’s theme mix tapes. Make sure to come back next week to meet my new colleague Spiller in our new segment Spiller’s Corner, and then two weeks after that for Side B: Summer On the Water, and the following week for Side C: Summer In the Water.
You ‘ve been listening to KMTJ-DB – Your Mix Tape Journey – Denver, Colorado.
I’m your host, DJ Ponyboy.
Stay gold.