Summertime (George Gershwin song)

"Summertime" is an aria composed in 1934 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 by ASCAP.[1]

"Summertime"
Song
LanguageEnglish
Released1935 (1935)
GenreJazz
Composer(s)George Gershwin
Lyricist(s)DuBose Heyward
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 blacks in the southeast United States from the early twentieth century".[2] 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".[3]

Porgy and Bess

Gershwin began composing the song in December 1933, attempting to create his own spiritual in the style of the African American folk music of the period.[4][5] Gershwin had completed setting DuBose Heyward's poem to music by February 1934, and spent the next 20 months completing and orchestrating the score of the opera.[6]

The song is sung several times throughout Porgy and Bess. Its lyrics are the first words heard in act 1 of the opera, following the communal "wa-do-wa". It is sung by Clara as a lullaby. The song theme is reprised soon after as counterpoint to the craps game scene, in act 2 in a reprise by Clara, and in act 3 by Bess, singing to Clara's now-orphaned baby after both its parents died in the storm.

The song was recorded for the first time by Abbie Mitchell on July 19, 1935, with George Gershwin playing the piano and conducting the orchestra (on: George Gershwin Conducts Excerpts from Porgy & Bess, Mark 56 667).

The 1959 movie version of the musical featured Loulie Jean Norman singing the song. That rendition finished at #52 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema.

Analysis

Lyrics

Heyward's inspiration for the lyrics was the southern folk spiritual-lullaby "All My Trials", of which he had Clara sing a snippet in his play Porgy.[7][8] The lyrics have been highly praised by Stephen Sondheim. Writing of the opening line, he says

That "and" is worth a great deal of attention. I would write "Summertime when" but that "and" sets up a tone, a whole poetic tone, not to mention a whole kind of diction that is going to be used in the play; an informal, uneducated diction and a stream of consciousness, as in many of the songs like "My Man's Gone Now". It's the exact right word, and that word is worth its weight in gold. "Summertime when the livin' is easy" is a boring line compared to "Summertime and". The choices of "ands" [and] "buts" become almost traumatic as you are writing a lyric – or should, anyway – because each one weighs so much.[9]

Music

Musicologist K. J. McElrath wrote of the song:

Gershwin was remarkably successful in his intent to have this sound like a folk song. This is reinforced by his extensive use of the pentatonic scale (C–D–E–G–A) in the context of the A minor tonality and a slow-moving harmonic progression that suggests a "blues". Because of these factors, this tune has been a favorite of jazz performers for decades and can be done in a variety of tempos and styles.[6]

While in his own description, Gershwin did not use any previously composed spirituals in his opera, Summertime is often considered an adaptation of the African American spiritual "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child", which ended the play version of Porgy.[8][10][11] Alternatively, the song has been proposed as an amalgamation of that spiritual and the Ukrainian Yiddish lullaby Pipi-pipipee.[12] The Ukrainian-Canadian composer and singer Alexis Kochan has suggested that some part of Gershwin's inspiration may have come from having heard the Ukrainian lullaby "Oi Khodyt Son Kolo Vikon" ("A Dream Passes by the Windows") at a New York City performance by Alexander Koshetz's Ukrainian National Chorus in 1929 (or 1926).[13]

Other versions

Statistics for the number of recordings of "Summertime" vary by source; while older data is restricted to commercial releases, newer sources may include versions self-published online. The Jazz Discography in 2005 listed 1,161 official releases, ranking the song fourth among jazz standards.[14] Joe Nocera in 2012 said there were "over 25,000" recordings.[15] Guinness World Records lists the website's 2017 figure of 67,591 as the world record total.[16]

In September 1936, a recording by Billie Holiday was the first to hit the US pop charts, reaching no. 12.[6] 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), Ricky Nelson (US no. 89, 1962), and the Chris Columbo Quintet (US no. 93, 1963).[17][18] 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;[19] his version reached no. 39 in the UK[20] and no. 13 in Canada. Big Brother and the Holding Company's version featuring Janis Joplin on vocals has been highly praised.[21][22] In Britain, a version by the Fun Boy Three reached no. 18 on the UK Singles Chart in 1982.[23] In 2005, Fantasia Barrino's version earned a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Traditional R&B Performance.[24]

In 1997, American ska punk band Sublime released the single "Doin' Time", which sampled the Herbie Mann recording of "Summertime". "Doin' Time" peaked at number 87 on the Hot 100 in 1998.[25]

See also

References
  1. "Summertime" at ASCAP Archived 2006-02-11 at the Wayback Machine
  2. Robert Cummings. "Summertime" at AllMusic
  3. "A Century of Creativity: DuBose and Dorothy Heyward". Loc.gov. 1926-08-02. Archived from the original on 2013-11-04. Retrieved 2013-12-29.
  4. Pollack, Howard (2006). George Gershwin: His Life and Work. University of California Press. p. 589. Retrieved 2013-12-29. Gershwin summertime spiritual style.
  5. Hyland, William (2003). George Gershwin: A New Biography. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 171. ISBN 9780275981112. Retrieved 2013-12-29.
  6. ""Summertime" at". Jazzstandards.com. Retrieved 2013-12-29.
  7. Edward Jablonski, Lawrence Delbert Stewart, The Gershwin Years: George and Ira, Da Capo Press, 1996, ISBN 0-306-80739-4, p. 202
  8. Jeffrey Paul Melnick, A Right to Sing the Blues, Harvard University Press 1999, ISBN 0-674-76976-7, pp. 129–133
  9. Joanne Lesley Gordon, Art Isn't Easy: The Achievement of Stephen Sondheim, Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, Illinois, 1990, p. 13
  10. Samuel A. Floyd Jr., ed. (1990). Black Music in the Harlem Renaissance: A Collection of Essays. New York: Westport. ISBN 0-313-26546-1., p. 22
  11. Rosenberg, Deena (1991). Fascinating Rhythm: The Collaboration of George and Ira Gershwin. Penguin Books USA. ISBN 0-525-93356-5., p. 281
  12. Jack Gottlieb, 'Funny, it doesn't sound Jewish, SUNY Press, 2004, ISBN 0-8444-1130-2, pp. 42–43. The author displays the three songs aligned to each other.
  13. Helen Smindak Dateline New York: Kochan and Kytasty delve deeply into musical past, The Ukrainian Weekly, 24 May 1998
  14. Phillips, Damon J. (2013). Shaping Jazz: Cities, Labels, and the Global Emergence of an Art Form. Princeton University Press. p. 22, Table 1.2. ISBN 978-1-4008-4648-1. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  15. Joe Nocera (January 21, 2012). "Variations on an Explosive Theme". The New York Times.
  16. "Most recorded song". Guinness World Records. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  17. Whitburn, Joel (2003). Top Pop Singles 1955–2002 (1st ed.). Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Inc. p. 914. ISBN 0-89820-155-1.
  18. Betts 2004, p. 497.
  19. Whitburn, Joel (1996). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942–1995. Record Research. p. 421.
  20. Betts 2004, p. 747.
  21. Paul Friedlander, Rock and Roll: A Social History, Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado, 1996. p. 207.
  22. Maury Dean, Rock and Roll: Gold Rush, Algora, New York, 2003, p. 248.
  23. Betts 2004, p. 302.
  24. "The Complete List of Grammy Nominations", 8 December 2005, The New York Times
  25. " 'Doin' Time': The Coast to Coast Transformation of 'Summertime' " by Sophia Janevix, smtd.umich.edu, April 15, 2020

Sources

  • Betts, Graham (2004). Complete UK Hit Singles 1952–2004 (1st ed.). London: Collins. ISBN 0-00-717931-6.
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