Sausalito Summernight

The song was written in 1979 by Diesel members Mark Boon and Rob Vunderink at Boon's parental home in the Hague: (Rob Vunderink quote:) "I came up with the riff, [Boon] added some chords, and then I came up with the melody", the song's tune being completed in roughly an hour's time. The lyrics were written the following day by Boon who in 1962 - at age 11 - had moved to Los Angeles and had lived in California until 1967,[2][3] and had also sojourned in California prior to joining Diesel in 1978:[4][5] Boon would later recall that he had spent time in Sausalito the summer before writing the song.[6]

An ironic car ode, the lyrics of "Sausalito Summernight" focus on a couple driving a "clunker" north from Los Angeles to San Francisco who take a breather in Sausalito, four miles from San Francisco (and in fact to its north).

In other countries, the track is known as "Sausolito Summernight", as a result of a misspelling on the Netherlands releases of the single and the album. This was corrected on the 1981 U.S. and Canadian releases.[8]

Although eventually afforded classic hit status in the Netherlands, "Sausalito Summernight" was only a modest chart success in its original 1980 local release, but in 1981 it became a Top 40 hit in the U.S. and also reached #1 in Canada: further international releases ensued but - apart from nicking the charts in a Netherlands re-release[9] - with no further success.

"Sausalito Summernight" was oft-cited as a Steve Miller Band soundalike:[10][11][12][13] eg. "'Sausalito Summernight' is a top-notch number with power, melody and snap that sounds like the seemingly defunct Steve Miller Band at more than its best" (from Pittsburgh Press 18 October 1981).[14] In fact "Sausalito Summernight" reached the U.S. Top 40 a week prior to the 23 October 1981 release of Circle of Love, the first non-compilation Steve Miller Band album in four years, with the Top 40 tenure of that album's lead single: "Heart Like a Wheel", overlapping with that of "Sausalito Summernight" for four weeks in November 1981.[15]

It was reported in December 1981 that "Sausalito Summernight" had sold 600,000 units worldwide.[16]

"Sausolito Summernight" was introduced on Diesel's debut album Watts in a Tank, whose producer Pim Koopman would recall that the recording of "Sausolito Summernight" cost half the budget for the entire album.[17] Watts in a Tank had been recorded in 1979 subsequent to the band's first single: "Goin' Back to China", reaching #34 on the [Netherlands] Single Top 50: upon the album's March 1980 release - by which time the advance single: "Down in the Silvermine", had charted at #16 - Koopman and the band members all considered "Sausolito Summernight" the obvious choice for single release: however Diesel's label Polydor chose another album cut: "Alibi", and only after "Alibi" proved a flop did Polydor give single release to "Sausolito Summernight" - edited to 3:30 from the 5:06 album track - which afforded the group a modest chart comeback, peaking at #33.[18] The song was later performed on the Dutch TV show TopPop[19]

The track's U.S. Top 40 success in the autumn of 1981 - see Section 3 below - led to the song's re-release in the Netherlands, with a resultant one-week tenure in the Single Top 50 at #49.[20] However despite the lack of interest generated by "Sausolito Summernight" in its Netherlands releases, the track eventually earned the status of a classic hit in the Netherlands, as evidenced by its appearing in the Top 2000 almost every year since 1999 ranking as high as #984 (in 2000).[21]

Veteran record producer Kim Fowley discovered Diesel via his affiliation with Southern Music with whom Diesel had a pact, and Fowley's advocacy led to the U.S. rights for Diesel's recordings being acquired by the independent Regency label in 1981.[22][23] Ensuant to the U.S. release of its parent album: Watts in a Tank, the last week of May 1981, the track "Sausalito Summernight" quickly garnered airplay on FM radio - WWCK-FM in Flint (Michigan) is credited with inaugurating the track's U.S. airplay - ;[23][24] however while Regency's U.S. distributor MCA Records did release a promo single of "Sausalito Summernight" (edited to 3:06) the track did not have a commercial single release until August 1981 when Regency switched distribution from MCA to Atlantic Records who issued "Sausalito Summernight" as a single - formatted to 3:30 as in its original Netherlands release - within a week of contracting with Regency.[25]

The single of "Sausalito Summernight" debuted on the Hot 100 in Billboard dated 12 September 1981 at #86. Diesel's producer Pim Koopman would later allege that his perusal of Billboard showed "Sausalito Summernight" strongly supported throughout the United States with the "curious" exception of Sausalito's home state of California:[17] the track - which did in fact rank in the Top 20 on hit parades for the California cities of San Bernardino, Santa Barbara and San Jose - was indeed supported in U.S. secondary markets over a wide geographic range, including Top Ten rankings in hit parades in New England, the South - including Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri and Texas - and in the states of Arizona and Nevada.[26] However after reaching the Top 40 in October 1981, "Sausalito Summernight" began to lose traction, the final quarter of the year evidently unfavorable to this summer-themed song. The single was afforded an "eleventh hour" top-tier market breakout when playlisted in mid-October by Chicago Top 40 station WLS (AM): with a peak of #18,[27] the WLS hit parade tenure of "Sausalito Summernight" failed to significantly augment the track's Top 40 fortunes, the track peaking at #25 on the Hot 100 dated 21 November 1981.[5][28]

In its Canadian release - distributed by Regency through RCA Records - "Sausalito Summernight" received airplay on the nation's flagship Top 40 station: CHUM (AM) in Toronto, as early as July 1981: debuting at #27 on the CHUM Chart dated 1 August 1981, the track was promptly playlisted throughout the CHUM Limited broadcasting chain - which included CFRW in Winnipeg and CFUN in Vancouver - with airplay spreading to additional stations:[27] in the RPM magazine issued 29 August 1981 - immediately after the Canadian release of "Sausalito Summernight" as a commercial single - the track (which that week ranked #1 on the hit parade for CFRW and ranked at #2 by CHUM-AM) debuted on the National 50s Single Survey at #5, moving up to #1 on the chart dated 5 September 1981.[1] Ultimately ranked at #13 on the listing of the biggest hits of the year,[29] "Sausalito Summernight" in December 1981 had its Canadian sales reported as 100,000 units.[16]

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
• Listen to "Sausalito Summernight" on YouTube