That song, that summer ... HOT SOUNDS Flash back to any summer of your life and there's always one tune that defines these months. With a few weeks left, USHER seems to have a lock on 2004.

BY JAE-HA KIM

Staff Reporter

his summer has been ruled by the house of Usher.

With his hits "Burn" and "Confessions Part II," the sultry R&Bsinger with the rock-hard abs turned his breakup with TLC's Chiliinto chart-topping success.

But are these semiconfessional songs the stuff of great summersongs?

In the summer of 1966, we had the Lovin' Spoonful singing, "Hottown, summer in the in the city/Back of my neck getting dirty andgritty." Not exactly earth-shattering stuff, but the lyrics drovehome the primal heat of summer and were perfect to sing along to asyou drove down Lake Shore Drive. During the summer on 1977, thousandsof teenyboppers were …