Harry Styles’ “Adore You” was one of the year’s biggest pop hits, and his follow-up, “Watermelon Sugar,” looks bound for summer smash-hood.
The former One Direction star co-wrote the song, inspired by Richard Brautigan’s 1968 novel “In Watermelon Sugar.” “Watermelon sugar high” refers to the frisson one sometimes experiences when meeting or seeing someone new.
Strawberries on a summer evenin’
Baby, you’re the end of June
I want your belly and that summer feelin’
Getting washed away in you
It’s smooth, easy to listen to, mid-tempo but with enough energy to induce swaying while listening, and sexually suggestive.
“Sugar Sugar,” by the Archies, THE summer song in 1969, was less sophisticated and more saccharine-y, but just as suggestive:
When I kissed you, girl, I knew how sweet a kiss could be
I( know how sweet a kiss can be)
Like the summer sunshine pour your sweetness over me
(Pour your sweetness over me)
This week, “Watermelon Sugar” is #9 on Top 40 and #14 on Adult Top 40. The accompanying tres sexy video includes at least a dozen dazzling women in bikinis, and a lot of fruit.
“Fruit songs” run the gamut from the Beatles to Prince to Johnny Cash to Harry Belafonte:
“Watermelon Man”
“Strawberry Fields Forever”
“Raspberry Beret”
“Banana Boat Song”
“Orange Blossom Special”