Uploaded July 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
From '' The Righteous Flames / Roy Richards & The Soul Vendors – You Don't Know / Summertime ''
Label: Coxsone Records – CS 7061
Format: Vinyl, 7"
Country: UK
Released: 2 Aug 1968
Tracklist
A The Righteous Flames - You Don't Know
B Roy Richards & The Soul Vendors - Summertime
Producer – Clement "Coxsone" Dodd
© 2022 Soul Jazz Records Ltd
℗ 2022 Soul Jazz Records Ltd
© 2022 Jamaica Recording & Publishing Studio Ltd. t/a Studio One
℗ 2022 Jamaica Recording & Publishing Studio Ltd. t/a Studio One
💿 [SONG INFO]
"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, and 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 African-Americans in the South-East United States from the early twentieth century".
Composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim characterized Heyward's lyrics for "Summertime" and "My Man's Gone Now" as "the best lyrics in the musical theater".
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.
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.
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 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 No.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.
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.
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 (one exception: the note B under the word "high") 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".
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.
Other prominent versions include those by:
In September 1936, a recording by Billie Holiday was the first to hit the US pop charts, reaching number 12.
The Chris Columbo Quintet (US number 93, 1963).
The most commercially successful version was by Billy Stewart, whose scat-laden R&B version reached number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 7 on the R&B chart in 1966; his version also reached number 39 in the UK and number 13 in Canada.
Janis Joplin recorded a version for her band Big Brother and The Holding Company's 1968 Cheap Thrills album. The album charted at number 1 for eight weeks on the Billboard 200 chart; however, the song was not released as a single.
In the UK, a version by the Fun Boy Three reached number 18 on the UK Singles Chart in 1982.
A version by Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald, released on their 1959 album Porgy and Bess.
🔗 [LINKS]
Available on Spotify:
open.spotify.com/track/6XHq5jwfJhOIixH8G6zHbl
open.spotify.com/track/4ljsiVTWzx4ywx3h4T0ElZ
and Deezer:
deezer.com/en/track/1803225097
#reggae
#reggaecover
#rocksteady
#rocksteadycover
#instrumentalcover
From '' The Righteous Flames / Roy Richards & The Soul Vendors – You Don't Know / Summertime ''
Label: Coxsone Records – CS 7061
Format: Vinyl, 7"
Country: UK
Released: 2 Aug 1968
Tracklist
A The Righteous Flames - You Don't Know
B Roy Richards & The Soul Vendors - Summertime
Producer – Clement "Coxsone" Dodd
© 2022 Soul Jazz Records Ltd
℗ 2022 Soul Jazz Records Ltd
© 2022 Jamaica Recording & Publishing Studio Ltd. t/a Studio One
℗ 2022 Jamaica Recording & Publishing Studio Ltd. t/a Studio One
💿 [SONG INFO]
"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, and 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 African-Americans in the South-East United States from the early twentieth century".
Composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim characterized Heyward's lyrics for "Summertime" and "My Man's Gone Now" as "the best lyrics in the musical theater".
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.
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.
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 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 No.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.
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.
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 (one exception: the note B under the word "high") 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".
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.
Other prominent versions include those by:
In September 1936, a recording by Billie Holiday was the first to hit the US pop charts, reaching number 12.
The Chris Columbo Quintet (US number 93, 1963).
The most commercially successful version was by Billy Stewart, whose scat-laden R&B version reached number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 7 on the R&B chart in 1966; his version also reached number 39 in the UK and number 13 in Canada.
Janis Joplin recorded a version for her band Big Brother and The Holding Company's 1968 Cheap Thrills album. The album charted at number 1 for eight weeks on the Billboard 200 chart; however, the song was not released as a single.
In the UK, a version by the Fun Boy Three reached number 18 on the UK Singles Chart in 1982.
A version by Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald, released on their 1959 album Porgy and Bess.
🔗 [LINKS]
Available on Spotify:
open.spotify.com/track/6XHq5jwfJhOIixH8G6zHbl
open.spotify.com/track/4ljsiVTWzx4ywx3h4T0ElZ
and Deezer:
deezer.com/en/track/1803225097
#reggae
#reggaecover
#rocksteady
#rocksteadycover
#instrumentalcover
