Summertime Blues

The song is about the struggle between a teenager and his parents, his boss and his congressman during the summer.[7]

"Summertime Blues" was recorded on March 28, 1958 at Gold Star Recording Studios in Hollywood, California. Eddie Cochran sang both the vocal and bass vocal (the "work-a-late" portions, Cochran's tribute to the Kingfish character from the Amos and Andy television series), played all the guitar parts, and added the hand clapping with possibly Sharon Sheeley. Connie 'Guybo' Smith played the electric bass and Earl Palmer drums.

Recorded four years after the Eddie Cochran original (and some two years after his death), the Beach Boys paid tribute to him on their first album, Surfin' Safari, released October 1962. Lead vocal on the track was jointly sung by lead guitarist Carl Wilson, who was not yet 16, and David Marks. Never released as a single in the US, it gained enough popularity in the Philippines early in 1966 to post no. 7 on that country's hit parade as listed by Billboard in its weekly 'Hits of the World' charts.

Australian rock 'n' roll singer Johnny Chester cited Cochran as one of his idols and had used the track when rehearsing his first band in 1959.[14] Chester released his cover version on W&G Records in 1962 and was backed on the recording by local instrumental group The Chessmen, with Bert Stacpool on piano, his brother Les Stacpool on guitar, Frank McMahon on bass guitar, and Graeme Trottman on drums.[15] In December it peaked at No. 30 on the Kent Music Report.[16][17]

Swedish rock band Hep Stars recorded Summertime Blues as a single in late December 1964.[18] It was a six-hour, consecutive session in which the Hep Stars recorded six tracks: "Summertime Blues", "A Tribute to Buddy Holly", "Farmer John", "If You Need Me", "Bird Dog" and "Donna".[19] The sessions for these were the first professional recordings of keyboardist Benny Andersson, later of ABBA fame.[18][20][21] Their manager, Åke Gerhard had booked the recording sessions, as cheaply as he possibly could get away with. He booked Borgarskolan in central Stockholm and quickly turned it into a makeshift recording studio.[22] Andersson would later commented on the sessions:

It must have been one of the cheapest sessions in the history of recorded music, we put two microphones on the stage of the assembly hall in a school and then we just played

— Carl Magnus Palm, Bright Lights, Dark Shadows: The Real Story of ABBA

Of these tracks, only "A Tribute to Buddy Holly" was released as a single in February 1965.[20] While that initially failed to chart, their increasing popularity was fueled by their March 23, 1965 appearance on Drop-In which quickly made "A Tribute to Buddy Holly" climb the charts.[23] This prompted Gerhard and his record label Olga Records to quickly issue "Summertime Blues" "Farmer John" and "Cadillac" as singles in late March 1965. While "Farmer John", "Cadillac" and "A Tribute to Buddy Holly" peaked at number 1, 2 and 4 at the same time on Tio I Topp,[24] "Summertime Blues" missed the charts all together. This was most likely due to the fact that guitarist Janne Frisk provided lead vocals on the track, as opposed to Svenne Hedlund singing it.[25] "Summertime Blues" and "A Tribute to Buddy Holly" became the Hep Stars only singles to feature Frisk on lead vocals.

While not issued on any album at the time, it, along with the B-Side were issued as bonus material on the 1996 remaster of their debut album We and Our Cadillac

"Summertime Blues"
Netherlands single picture sleeve, 1968
Single by Blue Cheer
from the album Vincebus Eruptum
B-side	"Out of Focus"
Released	1968
Recorded	1967
Genre	Hard rock[26] heavy metal[27]
Length	3:43
Label	Philips
Songwriter(s)	Eddie Cochran Jerry Capehart
Producer(s)	Abe "Voco" Kesh
Blue Cheer singles chronology
"Summertime Blues" (1968) "Just a Little Bit" (1968)

The American rock band Blue Cheer recorded their version of "Summertime Blues" in 1967 and included it on their 1968 release entitled Vincebus Eruptum. The single peaked at #14 on the Billboard Hot 100, pushing the sales of the album even higher to #11.[28] It topped the Dutch charts for one week in 1968.[29] While not as widely played or recognized as The Who's version, it certainly is more distorted. This version was ranked #73 on the list of "The 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time" of Rolling Stone.[30] This version omits the responses and instead has each band member do a quick "solo". A portion of Blue Cheer's version appears in the movie Troll. Rush did a cover of this version for their Feedback EP. The main riff from Jimi Hendrix's "Foxy Lady" has been inserted in various parts of this version.

"Summertime Blues"
German single picture sleeve, 1970
Single by The Who
from the album Live at Leeds
B-side	"Heaven and Hell"
Released	June 1970 (1970-06)
Recorded	February 14, 1970
Venue	University of Leeds Refectory, Leeds, UK
Genre	Hard rock[34]
Length	3:22
Label	Track (UK) Decca (US)
Songwriter(s)	Eddie Cochran Jerry Capehart
Producer(s)	The Who
The Who singles chronology
"The Seeker" (1970) "Summertime Blues" (1970) "See Me, Feel Me" (1970)

The Who played "Summertime Blues" as a staple of their concerts from their early days up to 1976, with intermittent appearances thereafter. It has not been played since the death of bassist John Entwistle in 2002. It was performed during the 1967 US tour, from which the first known Who recordings of the song were made, including a June 1967 date at the Monterey Pop Festival.

The first version to be released by The Who appeared on the 1970 album Live at Leeds. The single from this album peaked at number 38 in the UK and number 27 in the US.[35]

T. Rex recorded the song in 1970, using it as a standalone B-side to their breakthrough "Ride a White Swan" single. Further, "Summertime Blues" was frequently performed at T. Rex concerts from 1970 to 1972. Unlike the acoustic studio version, live performances of the song were always with electric guitars, as was the December 1970 version recorded for BBC Radio 1.

Mick Farren, former lead singer of The Deviants recorded the song in December 1969, releasing it on his 1970 solo album Mona – The Carnivorous Circus

"Summertime Blues"
Single by Alan Jackson
from the album Who I Am
B-side	"Hole in the Wall"
Released	June 6, 1994 (1994-06-06)
Recorded	January 11, 1994[39]
Genre	Country
Length	3:11 (album version)
Label	Arista Nashville
Songwriter(s)	Eddie Cochran Jerry Capehart
Producer(s)	Keith Stegall
Alan Jackson singles chronology
"(Who Says) You Can't Have It All" (1994) "Summertime Blues" (1994) "Livin' on Love" (1994)

American country music artist Alan Jackson recorded the song for his 1994 album, Who I Am. It was released in June 1994 as the lead single from the album and the song reached Number One on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart and number 4 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 (equivalent to number 104 on the Billboard Hot 100). Jackson said that he was inspired by Buck Owens' version.[39]

The song was covered in French by Johnny Hallyday. His version (titled "La Fille de l'été dernier") was released in 1975 and spent one week at no. 1 on the singles sales chart in France (from May 10 to 16, 1975).[47]

Canadian rock band Rush released their cover as a single on May 21, 2004. It was later released on their cover EP Feedback released two months later on 29 June. It appears as the first track on the EP.

Their version of "Summertime Blues" was also used as an official theme song for WWE's Summerslam PPV event in 2004.

• Hush covered the song on their album, Aloud 'n' Live.
• Olivia Newton-John covered the song in 1975 for her album Clearly Love.[50]
• The Rolling Stones recorded a version during the 1978 Woodstock rehearsals.[51]
• The Flying Lizards released an avant-garde cover of the song as their first single in 1978. Their version peaked at number 75 in Australia.[52]
• Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performed the song in concert.
• Van Halen performed the song live on their 1978 US/European tour and the 1983 South American leg of the Diver Down Tour.
• Debbie Harry covered the song in 1992 for That Night soundtrack
• The Little River Band performed a live version which appeared on the 1992 album Live Classics.
• Cheech Marin in the movie Born In East L.A. as well as in Up in Smoke.
• Alvin and the Chipmunks covered the song for "Island Fever," a 1987 episode of their TV series.
• It appears in electronic form in the Creature from the Black Lagoon pinball machine, but does not appear in the Pinball Arcade version due to rights issues.
• Bon Jovi recorded a demo tape of the song in 1983.
• Brian Setzer recorded a cover of the song for the 1987 film La Bamba, in which he played Cochran himself.
• The Black Keys recorded the song as a B-side to their Rubber Factory single "10 A.M. Automatic".
• Test parodied in Occitan this song in 1993 on their album Sea, sex and sòm[53]
• Slovenian band The Drinkers parodied this song in 1997 on their album Žeja
• Mike Love of the Beach Boys covered the song on his 2019 solo album, 12 Sides of Summer.[54]

The Prophets, Levon Helm, Guitar Wolf, The Flying Lizards, Bobby Vee, The Crickets, Buck Owens, James Taylor, Joan Jett and The Blackhearts, Jimmy Buffett, The Ventures, Dick Dale, Robert Gordon with Link Wray, Skid Row, T. Rex, MC5, Alex Chilton and Marty Wilde have also covered the song.[55]

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics