How an Ice Cream Truck Inspired The Motels’ Only No. 1 Single in 1979

The Motels’ “Suddenly Last Summer” became the band’s only No. 1 single, topping Billboard’s rock chart and reaching the Hot 100’s top 10. Written by lead singer Martha Davis, the song draws on memories of loss and the feeling that a summer, and a stage of life, has irreversibly ended.

Davis said the idea came to her in the early 1970s, after her parents had died, as she sat in her Berkeley garden at summer’s end. Hearing an ice cream truck’s tune as the first cold wind arrived inspired the song’s repeating melody. Although released on the band’s 1983 album *Little Robbers*, Davis had kept the song for several years before recording it.