GEORGE GERSHWIN - SUMMERTIME

Steven Wagner - Stevan Vagner, Podrum COLLEGIUM MELODIUM, World music museum in Belgrade, PEDJA and LJUBICA JOVICEVIC, present, "Summertime", an aria composed by George Gershwin for the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess. The lyrics are by DuBose Heyward, the author of the novel Porgy on which the opera was based, although the song is also co-credited to Ira Gershwin
The song soon became a popular and much recorded jazz standard, described as "without doubt ... one of the finest songs the composer ever wrote ... Gershwin's highly evocative writing brilliantly mixes elements of jazz and the song styles of negroes in the southeast United States from the early twentieth century." Composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim has characterized Heyward's lyrics for "Summertime" and "My Man's Gone Now" as "the best lyrics in the musical theater"] The song is recognized as one of the most covered songs in the history of recorded music, There are over 25,000 recordings of "Summertime". In September 1936, a recording by Billie Holiday was the first to hit the US pop charts, reaching no.12. Other versions to make the pop charts include those by Sam Cooke (US no.81, 1957), Al Martino (UK no.49, 1960), The Marcels (US no.78, 1961), Rick Nelson (US no.89, 1962), and the Chris Columbo Quintet (US no. 93, 1963). The most commercially successful version was by Billy Stewart, who reached no.10 on the Billboard Hot 100, and no.7 on the R&B chart in 1966;[ his version reached no.39 in the UK. In Britain, a version by the Fun Boy Three reached no.18 on the singles chart in 1982