Songs for Summer

Summer Brannin, 21 year old college student and healthfood store employee, lost her battle with kidney cancer in 1999. Adam Gimbel had originally worked on a now shuttered website to support Summer. Following her death, Gimbel put together an effort to create a memorial charity record featuring 15 of Summer’s favorite musicians. Gimbel gives a fuller accounting of the efforts here, especially in the Update.

Anna Waronker had recorded a special cover of The Cure’s “Catch” for the album. As Gimbel discusses, problems getting the clearance from Fiction Songs, The Cure’s publishing house, led them to drop the song from the album. A short time later, Fiction Songs released the song. Rather then just shelving the song, Gimbel and Waronker decided to release it for free. It was initially available on the website. Now, it’s downloadable from the Soundcloud page.