Music Friday: Jon Bon Jovi's Girlfriend Shines Like a New Diamond in 'Summertime'

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you sensational songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, we’re going to do our best to keep the summer alive with a fun song from Bon Jovi’s 2007 chart-topping Lost Highway album.

It’s called “Summertime” and includes this line… “I keep a postcard in the back of my mind / White sand, sunshine / And you shining like a brand new diamond.”

In the song, Jon Bon Jovi describes how his girlfriend reminds him of summertime. He reminisces about warm breezes, lazy days, beach blankets, a bottle of wine and his girlfriend sparkling like a precious stone.

“Like a first slow dance and a first long kiss,” he concludes, “there ain’t nothing, baby, better than this.”

Written by frontman Jon Bon Jovi, lead guitarist Richie Sambora and producer John Shanks, “Summertime” blended the best elements of rock and country music to create an upbeat, sing-along experience that had Bon Jovi fans dancing in the aisles. The song was featured on the Bon Jovi setlist from 2007 through 2011.

"Summertime" appeared as the second track from Lost Highway, Bon Jovi's 10th studio album. The group’s calculated maneuver into the country genre paid off big time as the album charted in 23 countries and made its debut at #1 on the US Billboard 200 Albums chart. It was the group’s first album to debut at #1 and was so well received that it went on to be nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album at the 2008 Grammy Awards.

John Francis Bongiovi, Jr., was born in Perth Amboy, NJ, in 1962. A blood relative of Frank Sinatra, the young Bon Jovi spent much of his youth skipping school to pursue musical activities. By the time he was 16, he was already playing in New Jersey clubs. A year later, while sweeping floors at his cousin Tony Bongiovi’s recording studio, Bon Jovi got the opportunity to sing on a Star Wars Christmas album. His first official credit was on a 1980 release called “R2-D2 We Wish You A Merry Christmas.”

By 1983, Bon Jovi had formed the group that bears his name. Over the past 39-plus years, the group has sold more than 120 million records and performed more than 2,700 concerts in 50 countries. Bon Jovi and Sambora were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2009.

We hope you enjoy the video of Bon Jovi’s live performance of “Summertime.” The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…

“Summertime”
Written by Richie Sambora, John Shanks and Jon Bon Jovi. Performed by Bon Jovi.

Feels something like summertime
Top down and nothin’ but time
Radio’s on and your by my side
Feels something like summertime

These days life goes like this
Wake up, check that off of some list
Gotta be a little something more than this
The bottom of my coffee cup

I keep a postcard in the back of my mind
White sand, sunshine
And you shining like a brand new diamond
It’s keeping me for giving up
Thinking like I had enough

You make me feel something like summertime
Top down ain’t nothing but time
Radio’s on and you’re by my side
Feels something like summertime

Like a first slow dance and a first long kiss
There ain’t nothing, baby, better then this
It’s like a beach blanket and a bottle of wine
It feels something like summertime
Summertime

I was a warm breeze with a cool tan
Life mapped out on the back of my hand
When I was laughing I was making plans

But I didn’t laugh when I found you
There's a heaven baby your the proof

You make me feel something like summertime
Top down ain’t nothing but time
Radio’s on and you’re by my side
Feels something like summertime

Like a first slow dance and a first long kiss
There ain’t nothing, baby, better than this
It’s like a beach blanket and a bottle of wine
It feels something like summertime
(Sum-summer-summertime)

Feel something like summertime
Top down ain’t nothing but time
Radio’s on for me and my valentine

It’s like that first slow dance and that first long kiss
There ain’t nothing baby better then this
It’s like a beach blanket and a bottle of wine (Yeah)

Feels something like summertime
Top down ain’t nothing but time
Radio’s on and you’re by my side,
Feels something like summertime
Just like summertime
(Sum-sum-summertime)
But it feels alright

Credit: Photo by Matthew Fox, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Gold Coins Found During Kitchen Renovation to Yield $290K Payday for UK Couple

Golden treasure unearthed during the kitchen renovation of an 18th-century townhouse is likely to yield a $290,000 payday for a UK couple in Ellerby, a village in North Yorkshire, about 50 miles north of Manchester.

After ripping up the kitchen floor boards and breaking through a concrete slab, the couple encountered what they thought were old electrical connections. What they actually pulled out of the ground was an earthenware vessel about the size of a soda can filled to the brim with 264 gold coins. The container had rested undisturbed for nearly 300 years.

The well worn coins were dated from 1610 to 1727 and covered the reigns of James I through that of King George I. The gold coins carried face values between £50 and £100, but when they hit the auction block at Spink and Son in London on October 7 they will likely sell for more than a quarter million dollars.

"It is a wonderful and truly unexpected discovery from so unassuming a find location," auctioneer Gregory Edmund said in the press release sent to CNN. "This find of over 260 coins is also one of the largest on archaeological record from Britain, and certainly for the 18th century period."

Spink and Son's research revealed that the "Ellerby Area Hoard," was likely accumulated by Joseph and Sarah Fernley-Maisters, who were married in 1694 and occupied the house until their deaths in 1725 and 1745, respectively. The couple was part of an influential family that traded in iron ore, timber and coal. Several family members served in the Parliament in the early 1700s.

Edmund added that the strategy of hiding gold under their kitchen floor likely reflected the couple's distrust of the newly formed Bank of England (1694) and the newfangled paper "banknote."

The auction house explained that the Fernley-Maisters family line dwindled soon after Sarah died at the age of 80, which is presumably why the coins were never retrieved.

According to artnet.com, the most unusual coins in the "Ellerby Area Hoard" include a 1720 George I guinea that reflects an embarrassing minting error. The coin has two "tails" sides. Another oddity is a 1675 Charles II guinea which misspells the King's Latin name as “CRAOLVS” instead of “CAROLVS.”

Credits: Photos courtesy of Spink and Son, London.

'Williamson Pink Star' to Headline Single-Lot Auction at Sotheby's Hong Kong

Sotheby's recently unveiled the 11.15-carat Williamson Pink Star, the second-largest internally flawless, fancy vivid pink diamond ever to appear at auction. The bubblegum pink, cushion-cut gem is expected to fetch upwards of $21 million when it headlines a single-lot auction scheduled for October 5 in Hong Kong.

The Williamson Pink Star has the potential to set a new record for the highest price-per-carat ever paid for a fancy vivid pink diamond.

The finished stone was cut from a 32-carat rough diamond unearthed at the famous Williamson Mine in Tanzania. This is the same mine that produced the 23.6-carat "Williamson" pink diamond, which centers a Cartier-designed, flower-motif brooch worn at high-profile events by Queen Elizabeth II. The gem had been given to the Queen as a wedding gift in 1947 by Canadian geologist Dr. John Thorburn Williamson, who owned the mine.

In fact, the name "Williamson Pink Star" is a nod to both the Williamson mine and the CTF Pink Star, a 59.60-carat record-breaking diamond sold at Sotheby’s in April 2017. The $71.2 million earned by the stone remains the highest price ever paid for any gem at auction.

Interestingly, Diacore is credited with cutting both the Williamson Pink Star and the CTF Pink Star.

The Gemological Institute of America classified the Williamson Pink Star as one of the rarest of all gemstones.

Noted the GIA, "Attaining a Fancy Vivid color grade with pink diamonds in this size requires a very strong inherent body color in the rough crystal. It is unusual for pink diamonds to occur with a strong depth of color or saturation in any size… In addition to its exceptional color, the clarity is Internally Flawless – a special combination. Examples such as this are some of the rarest gems ever discovered.”

Unlike yellow or blue diamonds that owe their color to the presence of nitrogen or boron in their chemical makeup, pink diamonds owe their color to the effects of intense pressure and heat while they were still deep within the Earth. These factors caused distortions in the diamond’s crystal lattice that influence the way the gem absorbs green light, thus reflecting a pink hue.

The Williamson Pink Star is currently on a world tour that began in London and includes stops in Dubai, Singapore, Taipei, Taichung and Hong Kong, where it will be offered for sale in a unique, single-lot auction.

Credits: Images courtesy of Sothebys.