How "Summertime" Conquered The World

I watched the documentary from BBC 4 on the Gershwin song “Summertime“ from the “Porgy and Bess“ opera and how it has transcended genres. It was shown last night, I and just watched it again on download.

There are 25,000 versions of the song, from jazz to blues, to folk, to rock and to the Latin and African worlds.

Favourite versions I know are by the following -

Billy Holiday
Ella Fitzgerald
Miles Davis
Chet Baker
John Coltrane
Albert Ayler
Mahalia Jackson
Angelique Kidjo
The Zombies
Janis Joplin
Bill Evans Trio
Ricky Nelson
B.B. Seaton - a reggae version
Billy Stewart - probably the grooviest version
George Shearing
Amit Chaudhri - an Indian version


There are other versions which I will add on at a later date.