Your Daddy is rich and your Mama is good-lookin
bassie
11,710 Posts
Summertime is one of my favourite 'standards' (is it considered a standard?) - my top versions are: George Benson - loose and summery, driving and tight Booker T and the MGs - so minimal, it's hardly thereSam Cooke - has a dark and sexy feel to it (this one is my favourite )Et vous?
Comments
Seriously though, for a rock-oriented interpretation, I like the Zombies version. And yes, Sam Cooke's version is pretty damn great.
and Billy Stewart and another Haitian weirdo one I can't find right now
can this man do anything badly? i don't think i've heard a turd from him yet.
Al Green's version slays as well.
I think maybe you mean Walter Bishop Jr.? GREAT version. He's done a few.
MOODYLOOPZ!!!!!!!
I have a soft spot for the Free Design version as well. I like the change up.
(Not on this album, but DAMN. Look at the guy zooming by on a magic carpet while communicating with whales!)
- J
Sam recorded this tune twice. The uptempo version is the one I'm feelin'.
Worst version: the doo-wop rendition by the Marcels (of "Blue Moon" fame). Their "Summertime" doesn't make the minor-key-to-major-key transition at the end of each verse ("hush, little baby, don't you cry"), and to me, that's the whole point of the thing. No transition, no song.
lol - I can't really say which is more uptempo - they both ooooooze imo! One has some high-pitched Yma Sumach-type background vocals here and there and the other has more frequent male oooooing and woooooing in the back...are we talking about the same two?
that line is such a classic. i love the nod on Iggy's "Girls" off of New Values. i think the pixies may have referenced that line too on surfer rosa somewhere but i'm not positive
Well, the one with the group background vocals (see below) is fairly danceable, so that's what I mean by "uptempo." The Yma Sumac-backup vox version is dead slow like a funeral dirge (not a slam, BTW, just sayin').
Yes, sounds like we are. The version I was reppin' for had the "ooooing and wooooing in the back." And Sam starts out the jam by repeating "don't cry" before gettin' down to business and singin' his song.
none taken - lol - you say funeral dirge, I say dark and sexy - are we calling the whole thing off?
...although, now that I think about, I believe the lyric is refashioned as "Your daddy is poor, but your mama's good-looking"
Also like The Shake Spears version of this tune (uptempo 1-2 beat),
and charlie mingus..
nice one.
also,
the standels.
and that bobby womack version with a whole lot of put something down on it thrown in from that red hot and gershwin joint froma few years back.