SummertimeWeb - All about Summertime of George Gershwin

Summertime is probably the most covered song on the world. There are more then 2600 known covers and every year a new cover is recorded.

The song is composed by George Gershwin for the opera "Porgy and Bess". DuBose Heyward has written the text of the song. In 1924 he wrote the novel "Porgy". In 1926 Heyward and his wife Dorothy made a play of the book. It should had been called "Catfish Row", but later it was called just "Porgy". Many negro-spirituals and traditionals were performed.

Since 1922 George Gershwin wanna make a (negro)-opera. Many times he wrote to Heyward that he was interested to write an opera about "Porgy", but Gershwin was too busy to work on it right a way. In 1933 DuBose Heyward and George Gershwin signed a contract with the "Guild Theatre". Together with Ira Gershwin they wrote "Porgy and Bess". The first song Gershwin composed was Summertime.

Summertime is a lullaby. Clara sings the song, she only has a supporting role in the opera. She tries to sing the baby to sleep with this song.

The song will appear four times in the opera. First as a lullaby, then a few minutes later in the Crap Game-part, where Clara sings in counterpoint of the choir (at some records, it is mixed to the summertime-song). In scene iv of act II Clara sings a reprise of Summertime. In the opening of Act III Bess sings Summertime for Clara's baby. In the duet "Bess, You is my Woman Now" Porgy and Bess sing "Summertime and wintertime". Also Sportin' Life (also a supporting role) refers to the song with:

In the beginning the opera has not much success, but the later it will turn out to be a hit. In 1955 it is performed in Moscow and Leningrad. In 1957 Samuel Goldwyn gets the copyrights for the musical. The leading parts went to Dorothy Dandridge and Sidney Poitier with Sammy Davis jr as Sportin' Life and Diahann Carroll as Clara.

In 1959 the movie gets an Acadamy Award for 'Music - scoring of a musical picture' and was nominated for 'Cinematography', 'Costume Design' and 'Sound'. Both Ira Gershwin and Dorothy Heyward were very enthusiastic about it.

The opera is still performed in many countries. It is also recorded many times. In 1976 the Cleveland Phiharmonic Orchestra recorded 'Porgy and Bess' and got a Grammy Award fot it. In 1977 the whole opera has been recorded for the first time.

The songs of the opera still inspire many musicians to record a song of Porgy and Bess. "Summertime" is the most well-known song of the opera, but also songs as "It Ain't Necessarily so", "Bess You Is My Woman", "I Got Plenty O' Nuttin" and "I Loves you, Porgy" has been recorded by many artists.

See the section Covers for more information about the many covers of Summertime and see the section Gershwin for more information about George Gershwin