Summertime

By George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin & DuBose Heyward
1935

Often considered the finest song in the American musical theater, this is more than a song: It's an aria, composed by Gershwin using the words of original librettist Heyward to mimic the African American folk spirituals of the day. It was introduced on stage in Gershwin's operatic masterpiece Porgy & Bess by Abbie Mitchell, who also performed the first recorded version of it (with Gershwin himself on accompanying piano). Billie Holiday was the first to have a big hit with it, and it has since become a jazz standard of the highest caliber.

Lyrics:

Summertime,
And the livin' is easy
Fish are jumpin'
And the cotton is high

Oh, Your daddy's rich
And your mamma's good lookin'
So hush little baby
Don't you cry

One of these mornings
You're going to rise up singing
Then you'll spread your wings
And you'll take to the sky

But until that morning
There's a'nothing can harm you
With your daddy and mammy standing by

Recorded By:

Janis Joplin
Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong
Sam Cooke
John Coltrane
Nina Simone