"Summertime" by Billy Stewart (1966)
Dad's Song of the Day #87, Nov. 24, 2025
Goodness gracious…how terribly disrespectful!
What that smartass Billy Stewart has done to the great George Gershwin’s legendary all-American jazz-standard “Summertime”?!?!
Gershwin must be spinning in his grave: How distasteful!!…how shocking…how appalling!!
…How fricken’ GLORIOUS!
Even if you only listen to the first 50 seconds of Billy Stewart’s “Summertime,” you’ll be convinced this is one of the greatest vocal performances ever.
Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...uck
Chuck a-chuck-chuck (huh! yeah!)
So audacious! This is NOT the lullaby that Gershwin had written for Porgy and Bess. It’s not the jazz standard of Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Miles Davis.
It’s Billy Stewart, a largely forgotten R&B singer with an undeniable gift of voice and improvisation: Four octaves and the uncanny ability to trill and hiccup and scat…just pure dynamite.
Gershwin died a good 30 years before Billy reconstructed his lullaby into a funky, soul-drenched monster…Play this loud and Gershwin’ll be DANCING in his grave!
Spotify:
YouTube:
This series is for my two 19-year-olds, who moved off to school with the misguided belief they’d escaped their dad’s relentless nostalgia and monopolization of the car stereo. I’m very happy for anyone else to come along for the ride.
The Spotify playlist for Dad’s Song of the Day is located here:
Great tune. Weird video with the cowboy regalia. I also detect some early ska beat in there if you take out the trumpet.
Interesting choice on the version of this song. There are so many and each hits differently. This version is great and it is light years apart from Sam Cooke’s version and even further from Janis Joplin’s. This one is excellent and I was unfamiliar with it. Thanks for posting it.