Summertime

Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong

Summertime, and the livin' is easy
Fish are jumpin' and the cotton is high
Oh, your daddy's rich and your ma is good-lookin'
So hush, little baby, don't you cry

One of these mornings you're gonna rise up singing
And you'll spread your wings and you'll take to the sky
But till that morning, there ain't nothin' can harm you
With daddy and mammy standin' by

One of these mornings you're gonna rise up singing
And you'll spread your wings and you'll take to the sky
But till that morning, there ain't nothin' can harm
With daddy and mammy standin' by.

***

Porgy and Bess is an English-language opera by the American composer George Gershwin, with a libretto written by DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin. It was first performed in Boston on September 30, 1935, before it moved to Broadway in New York City. It featured a cast of classically trained African-American singers—a daring artistic choice at the time. It is now one of the best-known and most frequently performed operas. The libretto of Porgy and Bess tells the story of Porgy, a disabled black street-beggar living in the slums ofCharleston, South Carolina. It deals with his attempts to rescue Bess from the clutches of Crown, her violent and possessive lover, and Sportin' Life, her drug dealer. The opera plot generally follows the stage-play.In the years following Gershwin's death, Porgy and Bess was adapted for smaller scale performances. It was adapted as a film in 1959. Some of the songs in the opera, such as "Summertime", became popular and frequently recorded.

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