“Summertime” by Billie Holiday
I chose “Summertime” as my first song, not for the song itself, but I chose it for its sound and the memories that come back when I listen to it. Blues and jazz were the soundtrack of my childhood in the time before we moved from Chicago to Northern Minnesota.
My favorite childhood memories take place in my great-aunt’s and uncle’s or grandparents’ backyards. Sipping Glenrock pop, playing croquet, and taking one too many helpings of potato salad. Listening to Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Ella, Sinatra, and Billie Holiday. I may have been too young at the time to appreciate the music or remember specific songs, but I remember jazz and the joy of summer.
I feel midwesterners appreciate summer more, soak up any moment of the warmer weather that we can. Stay up until the sun goes down at 10:00 at night. Now that I live in perpetual summer, I notice that sunny days are not a big deal. To borrow a line from another song sung by Billie Holiday – we live in a place that feels like a summer with a thousand Julys. We don’t often celebrate the summer like we did in the midwest because it can always happen tomorrow.
I am also a huge fan of covers. I love when something so familiar gets stretched, twisted, slowed, or reimagined. When you can hear something old, new again.
“Summertime” is also one of the most covered songs in history. Billie Holiday’s version puts a bluesy spin on the tune, reminding me of Chicago.
Summertime performed by Billie Holiday in 1936, Arrangement by George Gershwin, lyrics by DuBose Heyward for Porgy in 1935
Here are three versions of this song that I love that are all very different from each other:
Sam Cooke’s soulful version especially when he starts the “One of these days…” section of the song.
Nina Simone version which is chillingly sorrowful
The Zombies’ waltzy British Invasion version
TOMORROW… I want my MTV!