Billie Holliday - Summertime. video free download

Billie Holliday - Summertime.

"Summertime" is an aria composed 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 African-Americans 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 one of the most covered songs in the history of recorded music, with more than 33,000 covers by groups and solo performers

There are over 25,000 recordings of "Summertime". In September 1936, a recording by Billie Holiday was the first to hit the US pop charts, reaching #12 Other notable recordings include those by Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald in 1957, Sam Cooke also in 1957, Gene Vincent and Miles Davis in 1958, The Marcels in 1961, The Tornadoes in 1964, Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company on the 1968 album Cheap Thrills as well as The Zombies. The most commercially successful version was by Billy Stewart, who reached #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1966.

The Doors recorded the song live on albums including Live in Boston. English singer-songwriter Nick Drake recorded the song in 1967 or 1968, and it is included on the posthumous anthology album Tanworth In Arden. In 1970, Deep Purple released their single Black Night, whose riff was based on the bassline from Ricky Nelson's recording of "Summertime". The Fun Boy Three released their fifth single, "Summertime" in July 1982. In 1998, Morcheeba and Hubert Laws recorded the song for the Red Hot Organization's compilation album Red Hot + Rhapsody, a tribute to Gershwin, which raised money for various charities devoted to increasing AIDS awareness and fighting the disease. Norah Jones and Marian McPartland has a cover at the Tanglewood Jazz Festival Aug. 30, 2003. Avi Kaplan, of the a cappella group Pentatonix, recorded a version as part of 'The Spaulding Sessions, Volume 2' on May 9th 2012.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summertime_(song)