Yesterday was the first day of summer, and whenever it's the first day of summer I automatically think of that catchy old tune by Tony Carey, "The First Day of Summer".

I've been a fan of Carey ever since his days playing keyboards with Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow. I remember him best for his wild organ work on the wicked 1976 Rainbow album Rising, as well as the double-live album On Stage, released a year later. That was what we called "metal" back in the seventies.

I interviewed Carey back in '84 when, as a solo artist, he released his One Tough City album, which spawned the hit single "A Fine, Fine Day" before "The First Day of Summer" followed it up the charts.

“The gist of the song isn’t necessarily about the first day of summer," Carey told me at the time, "it’s about when something goes well in your life, for a change. How nice it feels. When you win 5,000 dollars in a lottery, or when your wife gets pregnant! 'The whole world knows your name and nothing feels the same.'"