Ready to relive the last 50 summers just as the season heats up? Helpfully, Spotify has compiled a playlist of the last 50 years’ “songs of the summer,” based on streaming and Billboard chart data. Kicking things off with The Doors’ “Light My Fire” (1967) and cycling through an eclectic mix from acts like The Carpenters (1970), Prince (1984) and Nelly Furtado (2006), it’s an audio tour through genres, musical trends and popular artists of days past and present.
The trip down memory lane may get some listeners nostalgic for the kind of sentimental love songs more frequently seen in the playlist’s earlier decades, like John Denver’s “Annie’s Song” and “Every Breath You Take” by The Police (1983). Perhaps one of the biggest turning points on the summer charts was 1992’s “Baby Got Back” by Sir Mix-A-Lot, the first hip-hop track on the list — and the first in a gradual shift toward more party-ready jams. Another outlier is 1996’s “Macarena” by Los Del Río, the only non-English-language song on the roundup. (Although if Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee and Justin Bieber’s “Despacito (Remix)” continues its dominance this summer, that may very well change.)
The last decade has seen a continuation of the trend toward dance grooves and away from simple love songs. From Drake’s “One Dance” to LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem,” Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” to Katy Perry‘s “California Gurls,” there’s a definitive lightheartedness to the latest crop of summer bops. Check out TIME’s predictions for the song that will join this list next year — or, for a more customized seasonal playlist, try out Spotify’s user-specific “Your Summer Rewind.”
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Write to Raisa Bruner at raisa.bruner@time.com