Naughty By Nature's last album on Warner Bros' Tommy Boy Records went on to earn the 1996 Grammy for the Rap Album of the Year. In terms of listenability on a hot summer day, "Poverty's Paradise" remains one of the most accessible albums in Naughty By Nature's discography. Even if you live far from an urban center like New York, mellow, feel-good tracks like "Feel Me Flow," "Clap Yo Hands," "Craziest," and "Sunshine," make a listener want to crack open a fire hydrant and run around in its cooling spray of '90s hip-hop nostalgia.

"Born in the U.S.A." was released in October, just one week before Ronald Regan's re-election in 1984. Commercially, it's far from a tradition "summer album." But, let's forget all of that for a second... Like Norman Rockwell's "Saturday Evening Post" sketches of Post-War American idealism, almost every song on "Born in the U.S.A." is like an audio portrait of summer in the American heartland. It's an idyllic memento of a blue-collared summer in the Regan '80s. Songs like "Darlington County," "Working on the Highway," "Glory Days," and "My Hometown" evoke strong imagery of evenings on the back of a pick-up tailgate in a Diary Queen parking lot, swatting fireflies and flirting with that girl from chemistry class between bites of soft serve. And that frozen treat just tastes so much sweeter on the lips with Bruce, Clarence, Stevie, and the rest of the E Street Gang in the background.

Recorded in July 1975 in London, "Live" serves as testimonial to the fact that Marley was just as talented live as he was crooning out catchy ear candy in the studio.

Produced by Rick Rubin, "Californication" was an evolutionary milestone for the best rock-funk-hop group to come out of the '90s. Almost every track on the album, from "Around the World" to "Road Trippin'," sticks as a bonafide turn-of-the-millennium anthem. Eleven years later, radio-friendly earworms like "Otherside", "Californication," and "Scar Tissue" remain the music equivalent of gazing at a Pacific Coast sunset: a little joyful at the coming of the night; a little bittersweet to see the day end.

When Dylan's seventh studio album debuted in May 1966, it didn't cause nearly as much of an angry, mob-mentality uproar as "Bringing it All Back Home" or "Highway 61 Revisited" did during the "let's-lynch-Bob-Dylan-for-going-electric" summer of '65. "Blonde on Blonde" kicks things off with a demented invocation to its listeners ("Everybody must get stoned!") before throttling into a hedonistic bluesy roots-rock trip that ends with a contemplative 11-minute ballad, "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands." The only Dylan album on our list remains an essential for any Kerouacian-spirited road trip, whether it's an "Easy Rider"-ish bender to New Orleans, a pilgrimage to Sturgis, or a weekend at Bonnaroo.

It wouldn't be summer in the South without sitting in the grassy lawn of an amphitheater at a Panic concert, sipping on a tall boy, "just looking for a place to shed our skin." "Light Fuse, Get Away" is the Georgia jam-rock band's first live album and showcases John Bell, David Schools, and the band's late founding guitarist Michael Houser in rare form. Spirited opuses like "Space Wrangler," "Travelin' Light," and "Rebirtha" show off the band's chops while remaining digestible to even those audiophiles that loathe jam bands.

Wilco's second album, "Being There," is a little bit country, but mostly straight-forward rock 'n' roll. Jeff Tweedy's songwriting ability is downright cerebral. Some tunes dabble in mellow, midsummer's eve ambiance. Others, including "I Got You (At the End of the Century)," "Outtasite (Outta Mind)," "Someday Soon," "Kingpin," and "Dreamer in My Dreams," are more straightforward and thundering, as if they were composed for car-stereo sing-a-longs.

When positioned against the tragic history of the Allman Brothers Band, this double platinum classic stands on its own as a huge commercial success. It's easy to forget that each screaming guitar solo and Southern-fried alleluia once lived on another album in a bygone decade, weathering musical fads from disco to dubstep. From "Statesboro Blues" to "Southbound," each tune remains just as juicy and ripe as a Georgia peach in August.

Released in a tumultuous socio-political hangover following Woodstock in August 1969, CCR's greatest studio effort has that sticky, country-fied swamp rock vibe that makes one want to holler "thereeeee's a bad mooon on the risseeee" out a rolled-down car window.

Released before the Olympic madness of the summer of 1996, De La Soul's fourth album ruffled feathers with other rappers in the scene at the time, mostly because it decried hip hop's progression toward gangsta rap. Nonetheless, the album also showcased a young, ambitious up-and-comer by the name of Mos Def. Sophisticated-yet-carefree, "Stakes Is High" is practically tailor-made to soundtrack a poolside afternoon with a Strong Island Ice Tea.

In the early '70s, reggae superstar Jimmy Cliff landed a leading role in Perry Henzell's crime film, "The Harder They Come." As part of the collaboration, Cliff came up with a reggae soundtrack to accompany the movie. Though the flick is relatively forgettable, the music remains incredibly popular, even in 2011.

Anytime you're mourning the state of music and/or rock 'n' roll to DJs blasting wet, wompy dubstep, turn on "Brothers," pinch yourself, and remember that each track on this bluesy, grittier-than-thou album was only recorded about a year ago. This duo from Akron managed record a superb record sounds increasingly like a relic from the halcyon days of late '70s garage bands.

Thanks to the success of "Reachin'," the extremely, extremely mellow hip-hop trio the Digable Planets blew up big during hip-hop's golden era. This album is one of those albums you can queue up on your iPod during a cook-out and everyone will love it, but no one will be able to tell you who it is. Just remind them about how impossibly cool the Digable Planets were back in the day.

I dare you to find someone who came of age in the '90s that hasn't toasted a beer or smoked a J over the summer to one of the music's greatest rock-reggae hybrids. Sublime's "40oz. to Freedom" is one of the first albums that introduced the world to just how well Marshall-stack garage band distortion can co-exist with laidback, reggae easy skanking. Jimmy Cliff, Toots and the Maytals, and Grateful Dead covers certainly helped as well.

Yes, it's only a year old. But Nas's lively collaboration with Damian Marley was a breath of fresh air that showcased a modern, nonchalant fusion between hip-hop and reggae.

In one way or another, almost every song on this surf rock classic is about things we absolutely love here at BroBible: The beach, shredding gnar, summer flings, and girl, girls, girls. Seriously, you didn't really think "I Get Around" was about cruising around in a car, did you?

Straight out of the Philly 'burbs, G Love's tipsy, half-baked rapping style epitomized the East Coast college white kid rapper genre circa the late-90s. Any G. Love compilation that includes hits like "Cold Beverage," "Rodeo Clowns," and "Baby's Got Sauce" is party-friendly enough for a drunken jump in the pool.

Rod Stewart basically owned the Summer of 1971. His third album, "Every Picture Tells a Story," hit number one on the Billboard charts thanks to the stand-out singles "Maggie May" and "Reason to Believe." Somehow Stewart's first album manages to flirt between genre lines, combining soulful, leisure-suit-friendly '70s studio rock with grittier folk and blues elements.

In the mood to throw on your favorite Don Johnson shirt and throw back a few Mai Tais after a day on the beach? That's where the acoustic ukulele and pseudo Pan-Polynesian crooning of Donavon Frankenreiter comes in. If you're so wound up that you can't chill out to this former pro surfer's self-titled album, consider Zoloft.

There's no arguing that Van Morrison's "Brown-Eyed Girl" is one of the best summer songs of all time. However, the Northern Irish singer-songwriter's songbook goes much deeper: "Tupelo Honey," "Moondance," and "Wild Nights" are all mandatory warm-weather listening.

How could anyone have attended college in the past decade and not listened to Dispatch? It's pretty much unfathomable. Perhaps more so than any of the group's studio albums, "Gut the Van" captures one of our favorite college rock bands at their feel-good best.

In terms of style, "Mutations" is all over the place. The whole anthology is like a musical genre pina colada that's one part tropicalia and Brazilian bossa nova and one part American country and blues.

Warren Haynes's Southern rock outfit is another one of those bands that's best enjoyed cranked up loud in the field of a music festival.

Fifteen years ago, Eddie Vedder picked up a ukulele during a booze run in Hawaii. This past spring, he showed the world just how talented he is with the four-stringed instrument. The result is one of the best acoustic albums since Vedder's soundtrack for "Into the Wild."

Hendrix's last album before his famous last hurrah on the Summer of '69 festival circuit. Second-to-none fiery, face-melting classics like "Voodoo Chile" and "All Along the Watchtower" are still hot enough to make a nun sweat that sugarcube of LSD 25 she regrets never taking.

There's absolutely no place in the world like Chicago in the summertime. Released in April 1969 with the world still searing from the unprecedented violence at the1968 Democratic National Convention, the band Chicago's first album captures that strange moment in time before the curtain finally closed on the 1960s. And, somehow, they managed to do it with a leisurely, upbeat optimism.

If you can't sing-a-long to "Just What I Needed," "Good Times Roll," "Drive," and "My Best Friend's Girl," you unfortunately skipped a very enjoyable section of classic rock history circa the early '80s.

Psychedelic rock quartet Phish can easily be credited with the popular resurgence of destination-based outdoor music festivals. Almost every Phish summer tour from 1993 through 2000 included at least one three-day festival in upstate New York on an abandoned Air Force base in Maine. However, in the spring of 1997, Trey and the gang headed to Europe to get away from the arena and amphitheater circuit and take things down a notch in smaller venues. Many fans of the band consider that European run in '97 some of Phish's best -- and definitely funkiest -- live work ever. "Slip, Stitch, and Pass" captures Vermont's Phinest at their finest.

Soulful, funky, and more mellow than a bay breeze, "Fulfillingness' First Finale" is one of the few Stevie Wonder albums that merits position on a summer album list. Wonder plays a clavinet on most of the album, which gives tunes like "Boogie on Reggae Women" and ""You Haven't Done Nothin" their signature, hyper-syncopated funk.

Come on, you didn't think we'd neglect this former Hawaiian surf star, did you? Almost every album in Jack Johnson's catalog could -- and should -- make a list of requisite summer listening. When we don't have a six-string handy, "On and On" is the album we throw in around the campfire.

Heads were scratched and worlds collided in 1978 when the Rolling Stones dropped "Some Girl." It's almost impossible to not notice disco's light influence on Mick, Keith, and the gang, especially on take-away favorites like "Miss You," "Just My Imagination," and "Beast of Burden."

In the summer of 2002, Houston rapper Scarface put out this masterpiece with the help of guests Jay-Z, Beanie Sigel, and Nas, along with the producing help of Kanye West and the Neptunes.

Wilco's third album, "Summerteeth," is pretty much eponymous with summer. And, as far as we know, it has absolutely nothing to do with girls you'd see at a NASCAR race with a mangled set of there ("some her teeth were here, some her teeth were there..."). The songs have the poppy warm weather feel you'd expect from any summer album, yet still remain firmly rooted in alt rock.

Back in 1991, Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, and producer Pete Rock went into uncharted waters with "The Low End Theory," creating a hip-hop album that encapsulates that relaxed stoner vibe that we love so much. The album continues to be one of the ultimate block-party albums, with bangers like "Check the Rhime," "Jazz (We Got), "Scenario," and "Buggin Out," still lively enough to give any summer rage session a pulse.

If you've ever walked past the southwest corner of New York's Ludlow and Rivington streets in July, you know just how scorching the Lower East Side can be during the middle of the summer. That's where the Beastie Boys shot the jacket cover for "Paul's Boutique," the group's second album for Capitol Records. The album made a huge splash when it hit in the summer of 1989. Though recorded in Los Angeles, tracks like like "To All the Girls," "Shake Your Rump," and "Hey Ladies" capture all the cat-calling fun of summer in the five boroughs with your buddies.

Which sweet-tempered folk-rockers could possibly bellow out tighter harmonies than the Beach Boys? Easy: Crosby, Stills, and Nash. "Daylight Again" includes "Southern Cross," a song that easily wins over the heart of many-a recreational mariner with its rich nautical imagery.

Look, you can hate on country music all you want, but who says a list of summer albums just apply to rap, reggae, and rock? No way. A lot of recording artists in Nashville deserve to make this list. However, Alan Jackson's summer 1994 "Who I Am" had more hits than a punching bag. "Summertime Blues," "Gone Country," "Livin' on Love," and "I Don't Even Know Your Name" were all number-one Billboard Country singles. Those songs still get a lot of radio time in parts of the country and there's a reason why: They're great, folks relate to Jackson's lyrics, and he somehow manages to sum up all the hee-hawing good times of summer in the sticks.

From 1971 to 1977, Little Feat tirelessly cranked out six studio albums and a plethora of instantly loveable Southern-friend blues rock classics, including "Sailin' Shoes," "Dixie Chicken," "Oh Atlanta," and "Time Loves a Hero." Then Lowell George and Bill Payne added the Tower of Power horn section to the band for a live show in London and Washington D.C. The resulting recording was released as "Waiting for Columbus," a fantastic, high-octane compilation of Little Feat bringing out the big guns for a stellar show.

There was a time, back in the day, when throwing on a tie-dye and heading to a Grateful Dead show was just as much of a summer rite of passage as heading to the local ballpark to take in a baseball game. With Jerry Garcia at the helm, the Dead played approximately 2350 shows over the course of their history. Hundreds of thousands -- if not millions -- had an opportunity to see them on any given summer. Almost four decades after recorded live in Western Europe, "Europe '72" captures the band's unique psychedelic blend of bluegrass, folk, country, and rock. Perhaps no album on this list sounds better when running through the grass, spaced face, in your barefeet.

Released in 1996 a month after the passing of front-man Brad Nowell, Sublime's self-titled album see-saws between mellow reggae ("Wrong Way"/"Pawn Shop"/"Get Ready"/"Jailhouse") to ska-driven rock ("Seed"/"Burritos"). Each song stands alone as its own angsty adolescent anthem.

In January of 2009, Animal Collective dropped a neo-psychedelia album that would go on to become the album of the summer a few months later. The Brooklyn-via-Baltimore indie band named the album after a mid-Atlantic mecca of summer music, "Merriweather Post Pavilion." The band explained the name with a card that was inserted into vinyl copies of the album: "Merriweather Post Pavilion is an outdoor music venue in a place called Symphony Woods in Columbia, Maryland. It was designed by Frank Gehry in the 1960s, and they've been having concerts there from 1967 up through today. We used to go to shows there while growing up and have fond memories of times spent on the lawn. For most of the time we've been playing together, both in Animal Collective and the years before, we've tried to make music that would be deserving of an amazing outdoor listening experience. As both a name and a place, Merriweather Post Pavilion represents this for us." Animal Collective's "Merriweather Post Pavilion" turned out to be quite an auditory tour de force. The intricate, ethereal compositions are like something Brian Wilson would write while trapped in a seemingly inescapable MDMA binge. Despite "MPP" 's haunting and hallucinatory effects, the songs still remain grandiose and accessible to a mainstream audience, even to those who show no mercy to anyone who uproots to Greenpoint.

For over two decades now, Dave Matthews Band has been the ultimate social currency for college kids. Like singing carols at Christmas, DMB's legendary cross-country tours are synonymous with the season. Think about how many times you've either participated in or overheard an exchange like this in college: Bro at a College Party A: "Dude, is that 'Jimi Thing' I hear?" Bro at College Party B: "Yeah, Bro. Dave's the shit." A: "Word dude. I saw him at Jones Beach/Citifield/Hersey Park/Camden/Alltel/Great Woods/Caravan in July!" B: "Dude! Me Too! That show was sick, especially that "Warehouse," but not as sick as the one at Saratoga/Nissan Pavilion/Fenway Park/Shoreline/UVA/MSG." A: "Ah dude, I wish I would have been able to make it. Had to lifeguard at the club. So many babes at those shows. What's your favorite song?" B: "Don't have a favorite, but bud I hate "The Space Between" more than people who say lacrosse isn't a sport." You get the point. Though Dave has his fair share of haters, many dig his mellow crooning and jam-ready acoustic vibe. Plenty of albums in the DMB discography are worthy of attention during picnic season, but "Live at Red Rocks 8.15.95" is legendary, capturing the group's full range of talent in their prime.

The next time you're on a road-trip with your buddies, queue up "The Weight," "Ophelia," or 'Up on Cripple Creek," and count how many people in the car don't know the song's chorus. Make the one who doesn't ride bitch for the rest of the trip. With such heavy Americana influence on their sound and lyrical style, you'd never think they're a bunch of Canadians, eh?

Sadly, few people make it past the opening track on this legendary Southern rock album. Not that there's anything wrong with that -- "Sweet Home Alabama" is still one hell of a song, even after a Michigan man like Kid Rock bastardized Skynyrd's ironic riff by puking up "All Summer Long." In the tracks beyond Skynyrd's middle finger to Neil Young/declaration of Southern Pride, Ronnie Van Zant and his screaming triple guitar threat belt out bluesy, beer-soaked masterstrokes like "The Needle and the Spoon," "The Ballad of Curtis Loew," and "Swamp Music." "Second Helping" is arguably one of the most appropriate albums to soundtrack any backyard cook-out.

The Boss's 1973 studio debut might as well be an audio postcard to a Shore spot that's now synonymous with Bruce Springsteen: Asbury Park, New Jersey, home of the Stone Pony. Beginning with "Blinded By the Light," the album starts like an innocent Cyclone ride on a beach pier amusement park and, after its weekend fun at the shore, ends back in the mean streets of the city with "It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City." No album will get you more revved up on a summer Friday afternoon for weekend beach town hijinx.

Let's be straight forward here: Like cherry-cola and fresh watermelon, it wouldn't be summer in the United States without Tom Petty's distinct, smooth flavor of heartland rock. Petty's 1993 Greatest Hits album went 10-times platinum, selling gazillions and gazillions of copies. But that's not the only reason we've included this compilation on the list. Petty's "Greatest Hits" also gifted the world with the debut of "Last Dance with Mary Jane," an instant warm weather classic with a refrain about "feelin' summer creepin' in."

In May 1966, while the music world obsessed with Beatlemania and Dylan's artistic ebbs and flows, Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys set a golden bar not just for summer music, but pop music in general. Over the years, many musicians have regarded the album as a national treasure. Paul McCartney once called it "the record of the time," noting how "God Only Knows" left him "very emotional, always a bit of a choker." Whether your musical tastes skew toward urban or country, it's almost impossible to go a summer without experiencing "Pet Sounds," whether you recognize it or not.

Since its release in 1984, just three years after Marley's death, "Legend" has sold over 25 million copies. Far and away it's considered the best-selling reggae album of all time, and holds the distinction for the second-longest chart run on Billboard's album list (1000+ weeks, second only to Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon"). This compilation of reggae classics is so good that many rock critics often rank it above Marley's actual studio efforts. An instant smile-factory, "Legend" emotes the beach-friendly roots-reggae vibe that reminds us, yep, everything really is gonna be alright.