BILLIE HOLIDAY - SUMMERTIME

SUMMERTIME

BILLIE HOLIDAY

SONGWRITERS: DUBOSE HEYWARD; GEORGE GERSHWIN & IRA GERSHWIN

COUNTRY: U.S.A.

ALBUM: THE QUINTESSENTIAL BILLIE HOLIDAY, VOL. 2

LABEL: COLUMBIA RECORDS

GENRE: JAZZ

YEAR: 1987

"Summertime" is na 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.

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". 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 among the most covered songs in the history of recorded music, with more than 33,000 covers by groups and solo performers.

Summertime and the livin' is easy

Fish are jumpin' and the cotton is fine

Oh your Daddy's rich and your ma is good lookin'

So hush little baby, don't you cry

One of these mornings

You're goin' to rise up singing

Then you'll spread your wings

And you'll take the sky

But till that morning

There's a nothin' can harm you

With daddy and mammy standin' by.