B4 - Green Grass of Texas Billy Vaughn From '' Orange Blossom Special And Wheels ''
Label: Dot Records -- DLP 25366
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Stereo
Country: US
Released: 1961

Tracklist
A1 Wheels
A2 Orange Blossom Special
A3 Are You Lonesome Tonight
A4 Marie
A5 My Dear
A6 C'est Si Bon
B1 Lazy River
B2 The Whiffenpoof Song
B3 Sorrento
B4 Green Grass Of Texas
B5 Summertime
B6 It's A Lonesome Old Town

------------------------

"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 characterised 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.
The Ukrainian-Canadian composer and singer Alexis Kochan has suggested that he based the tune on a Ukrainian lullaby, Oi Khodyt Son Kolo Vikon A Dream Passes By The Windows, which he heard in a New York City performance by Oleksander Koshetz's Ukrainian National Chorus in 1929.
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 multiple times throughout Porgy and Bess, first by Clara in Act I as a lullaby and soon after as counterpoint to the craps game scene, in Act II in a reprise by Clara, and in Act III by Bess, singing to Clara's baby.

It was recorded for the first time by Abbie Mitchell on 19 July 1935, with George Gershwin playing the piano and conducting the orchestra on: George Gershwin Conducts Excerpts form Porgy & Bess, Mark 56 667.

Musical analysis

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 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." Because of these factors, this tune has been a favorite of jazz performers for decades and can be done in a variety of tempos and styles."

Recorded versions

There are some 2600 different recorded versions 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, Gene Vincent and Miles Davis in 1958, Sam Cooke and The Marcels in 1961, Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company on the 1968 album Cheap Thrills as well as The Zombies or Jill Scott & George Benson. 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 such albums as Live at the Matrix 1967, and Live in Boston. The Fun Boy Three released their fifth single, "Summertime" in July of 1982. The band Sublime based their 1996 song Doin' Time on Gershwin's song. In 1998, Morcheeba and Hubert Laws recorded the song for the Red Hot Organization's compilation album Red Hot + Rhapsody, a tribute to George Gershwin, which raised money for various charities devoted to increasing AIDS awareness and fighting the disease.