Summertime and the livin’ is easy… They are lyrics we’ve heard time and time again. While the vessels of those words have consistently changed throughout the decades, they almost always waft to the ear as a hushed lullaby set to a soft, heat-stricken swing.
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“Summertime” is one of music’s most covered tunes with an estimated 25,000 versions, making it among the standard of all standards. It makes one wonder, Who wrote the classic tune?
Who Wrote It?
“Summertime” began with a work of literature, a 1926 novel titled Porgy. Written by DuBose Heyward, the quickly successful book, portraying a Black community in Charleston, South Carolina, was soon turned into a play by the author with the help of his wife Dorothy. The play immediately struck famed composer George Gershwin, and in 1934, he alongside his brother and frequent musical partner, Ira, in collaboration with the Heywards, crafted what would be the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess.
“Summertime” opens the opera and is reprised several times throughout the musical production, the most popular instance being when it is sung as a lullaby to a baby. The tune soon became a widespread ditty to soothe a young one and has since found its way into several other facets of music.
Listen below to the first recording of “Summertime” sung by soprano Abbie Mitchell with Gershwin on piano in 1935.
The Versions
Since hitting the stage, “Summertime” has become a standard beyond its operatic origins, infiltrating various genres and celebrity catalogs. It has been covered by so many, each new version adding to the classic song’s storied legacy.
Billie Holiday’s 1936 rendition initially made the song a chart success. It has since been taken on by the likes of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, a pairing who stuck to the song’s classic composition; Janis Joplin with Big Brother & the Holding Company, who gave the tune a bluesy tinge; and Miles Davis, whose inventive instrumental added a hearty swing.
The song has also lent inspiration to several other hits, mainly Sublime’s 1996 song “Doin’ Time.”
Photo by Evening Standard/Getty Images
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