5/22/09 – Summer Songs Pt. 1 – “Summertime”
Posted: May 22nd, 2009 | Author: Matt The Cat | Filed under: Doo Wop, Pop, R&B, Rock n' Roll, rockabilly | Tags: Friday Night Cat Fight, Matt The Cat, Podcast, Rock & Roll, Summer Songs, Summertime, Surf Music | 11 Comments »Here Comes Summer…
SUMMER SONGS
Part 1
Memorial Day Weekend starts off right as we begin our first part on the “summer song” theme. Other than Christmas, no other part of the year is better represented in song than summertime. You’ll hear a great variety of artists and styles this week including Sam Cooke, The Danleers, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince and Roy Orbison.
Listen to the show and vote for your all-time favorite version of the Gershwin classic, “Summertime” and don’t miss part 2, coming next week.
Happy Memorial Day Weekend and don’t forget the charcoal!
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Great tunes, great start to the Summer and one of the best FNCF’S.
Its The Marcels for me! And all the people who put down a comment for these Cat Fight shows have a Wonderful Summer Robin Ward Dot Records and only the ones that do the right thing have a great summertime summertime The Jamies !! If this made any sense so it goes !! YumYum
Great cat fight; I voted for Sam, but Janice did a great blues version too. Terrific Harlem doowopp show! I never cared for Harlem as a rule, but doowoop was always great, and I also love ballads from that era. It was probably the only Harlem show I listened to last year, and always wanted to hear it again.
My vote goes for Sam. I met him in 1957 and he was just as sweet as his voice suggests.
A tough choice tonight. Billy Stewart gets the nod though. That track just jumps out of the grooves at you. Matt’s copy of Cheap Thrills sounds exactly like mine; it’s been often enjoyed.
Excellent Summer Show Part 1 and great Cat Fight also. My vote goes to Billy. I had to disqualify The Marcels on what some will say is a technicality. The original writing of the tune by the Gershwins is prodominately in a minor key throughout. Call it Artistic freedom, but I just can’t wrap myself around a mostly major key performance such as the Marcels.
Yo Furry Leader
That was a great train ride into summer. I really enjoyed the trip. Now that we’re here, it’s time for all the hot tunes of summer.
All the versions of the cat fight for this week were good, but even though the key was major instead of minor, I had to go with the Marcels. I liked the harmonies, and the upbeat tempo. As much as I like Sam Cooke, the gospel feel he put to the song just didn’t quite click, and I never could stand the jack hammer in Billy stewart’s version. Janis did some great stuff, but that wasn’t one of them.
Keep up the great work, and thanks for that great harlem repeat. it was fantastic.
By the way, I didn’t forget the chahcoal.
I can’t wait to see what you’ve got for us next week. KEEP ON PROWLIN.
Guess I don’t have much artistic creativity or whatever, but the major key version of the song by the Marcels was one of the things I liked best. It stood out, and to me was just as good a rendition as any of the others. Never cared for Billy Stewart at all, and Janis is good, but her other heavier stuff suits her better than this song does. Marcels got my vote. Can’t wait for this week’s show and next; maybe I’ll download it and take it outside by the pool!
Went with Sam Cooke on this vote. Most versions I know are jazz-based though–one that sticks in my mind is the Miles Davis/Gil Evans version, and the vocalese version by Lambert Hendricks & Ross.
And believe it or not, one of the most clever versions was done by Herb Alpert and Lani Hall, on his “Summertime” album. In the Miles Davis/Gil Evans version, you hear a countermelody done by French horns answering the melody line. In the Lambert Hendricks & Ross version, this countermelody is put to words (“Summertime/In the summer summer time…and the livin’ is easy/easy livin’ every day…”). In Alpert’s version, the countermelody (with vocals based on the LH&R version) becomes the main melody, and the original melody becomes the countermelody, softly scat-sung in the background as a response. The credits on the Alpert version thank LH&R and Miles for the inspiration–it took me until last year to hear the LH&R version, then I finally “got it” and tied the three versions together.
Sam Cooke has another (and in my view, better) version of this song which is a lot slower and much more haunting. In fact, I’d never heard this semi-uptempo version before. More generally, I just discovered the website and I’m having lots of fun. Clever idea.
Hi Ted,
You are right, that the slower version of “Summertime” by Sam Cooke is def more “haunting”, but that version has only been released on LP. The mid-tempo version I used was originally issued as the A side to his 1957 hit “You Send Me” and thus is the version that most associate with Sam Cook.