Summertime is an aria from George Gershwin's 1935 opera Porgy and Bess. Composed in 1934 by Gershwin with lyrics by DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin, the song is sung by Clara as a lullaby to her baby in Act 1, with reprises later in the opera. The original recording was by soprano Abbie Mitchell in July 1935, with Gershwin at the piano. Although it comes from an opera, Summertime quickly became a jazz standard, famed for its evocative blend of jazz with early southern Black song traditions. The tune features a mellow, pentatonic-informed melody in A minor and is often linked to spirituals such as Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child, though Gershwin did not quote a specific spiritual. Over the years it has been widely covered, including Billie Holiday in 1936, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong on their 1957 Porgy and Bess album, Miles Davis on the 1958 Porgy and Bess project, and many others, with the 1959 film adaptation helping to push its fame even further.
