I was introduced to a lot of new kinds of music while collecting versions of the song “Summertime” That was Gershwins song from “Porgy and Bess”, the “Living is easy” song.
I now have over 1600 versions of that song from these catagories, and to quote you again,
“Classical, Jazz, World, Folk, Blues, Soul, Rock, DooWop, Vocal, Country, Comedy, Holiday. etc.”
Ever hear of “Ska”? I hadn’t until I found a version by a ska band. You must get the point. One of my favorites is a Russian band performing a Reggae version while trying to sing it in English with a Russian accent overlaying their attempt of a Carribean accent.
It seems that this song is a must perform for many bands, sort of a standard. Heck, I even found a recording of President Bill Clinton performing it in a nightclub in France with Madeleine Albright in attendance.
Here is a link to The Summertime Connection with a list of thousands and thousands of “Summertime” recordings. http://www.summertime-connection.nl/
A lot of recordings of the song can now be found on YouTube.
Gotta love Ska which I keep under Reggae along with Rock Steady and Calypso.
I even include 2-tone Ska (British Beat) under Reggae which is part of World category.
Just googled and listened to LLoyd Clarke, who is classic early 60’s in dim sound and then Ska Bara
(Swedish Ska Jazz Band) who play an instrumental ska version which sounds pretty Ska to me. Both new to me.
I also listened to the classic Herbie Mann version, which was referenced as being sampled in some Ska versions?
Many many great vocal versions - Sam Cooke to Janis Joplin. I hadn’t listened to Sam or Janis with Big Brother in a while.
Young Sam Cooke with the Soul Stirrers was also great. Gospel, either Southern or Bluegrass, is another great genre.
Also came across Mungo Jerry’s “In the Summertime” again, which has a happy ska-like sound but is not Gershwin.
Happy listening. I think I can easily find 24 hours worth of Gershwin’s “Summertime” in my own collection,
but “Time Won’t Let Me”. Too much new to hear for the first time. A great tune like “summertime” is almost
like the first time every time.
One of my other hobbies is remixing/editing music for personal use.
I’ve just made up a new 46 track playlist with tunes from the chemical brothers, leftfield, daft punk, underworld and the prodigy, listening to that right now. (Yeah i grew up in the 90’s
I was about to take a nap when wifey was watching the movie “The Big Wedding” in HBO ending credits with this song that took my sleepiness away:
(sang by Christine Ebersole)
