It’s summertime, and the livin’ is easy—or, if you’re in Houston, the livin’ is sticky, steamy, and stifling. Cool down with George and Ira Gershwin’s iconic blues lullaby “Summertime” from Porgy and Bess, the opening show of Houston Grand Opera’s 2025-26 season. Crooned by the character Clara to her bawling baby, the song paints an idealized picture of a lazy day in July. 

As anticipation builds for the opera’s first Houston outing in 30 years, we’ve put together ten classic covers of the song that trace its dissemination through different genres over the decades: from the first operatic Clara in 1935 to the jazz giants of the 1950s and up to the present day with Miss “Summertime Sadness” herself, Lana del Rey.  

If you’re still feeling the heat by the time fall rolls around, come chill out in the air-conditioned Wortham Theater Center to hear “Summertime” performed by soprano Raven McMillon as Clara in HGO’s production of Porgy and Bess, directed by Francesca Zambello. Your daddy ain’t rich? Don’t you cry—single tickets start at just $25, and are available now! 

THE OPERATIC GREATS 

Soprano Abbie Mitchell, who played the first Clara in 1935, was a singer and actress who performed primarily in all-Black musical comedies. This Porgy rehearsal, conducted by Gershwin himself, was recorded two months before the opera’s premiere in Boston.

In 1952, soprano Leontyne Price became a breakout success as Bess in a touring production of Porgy that traveled across the United States, Europe, and even to the Soviet Union. A decade later, Price and her husband, bass-baritone William Warfield, recorded an album of highlights from the Gershwins’ opera.

HGO’s legendary 1976 Porgy was the first major operatic staging of Gershwin’s complete score. Soprano Betty Lane joined the cast as Clara when the production toured to Broadway. The album produced during that run was awarded a Grammy for Best Opera Recording.

30 years after the last staging of Porgy and Bess at HGO, the Gershwins’ masterpiece is finally returning to the Wortham Center. This production by director Francesco Zambello will star the defining Bess of our generation: Angel Blue. The soprano recorded “Summertime” in 2014 as part of her debut recital disc, Joy Alone. But Blue has also appeared on three separate recordings of Porgy: as Clara in the 2013 San Francisco Opera DVD of Zambello’s production, as Bess in the 2019 Metropolitan Opera CD, and all the soprano leads in a 2021 highlights album.

JAZZ, BLUES, AND GOSPEL 

Gershwin revolutionized opera by incorporating quintessentially African-American genres like jazz, blues, and gospel. So it’s no surprise that, immediately after Porgy premiered, Black artists began to make the songs their own. Billie Holiday’s sultry 1936 recording was the first successful commercial cover of “Summertime.”

Scholars have theorized that “Summertime” is based on the traditional Black spiritual “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child.” For her 1956 album Bless this House, gospel vocalist Mahalia Jackson calls attention to the two songs’ melodic similarities by pairing them together on the same track.

Capitalizing on the 1959 film adaptation of Porgy and Bess, a handful of jazz musicians released their own interpretations of Gershwin’s score that same year. A standout among these albums is Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong’s record. Satchmo provides a trumpet intro to “Summertime” and decorates Ella’s vocals with some gravelly scat improvisations

The other classic jazz version of Porgy from 1959 was recorded by trumpeter Miles Davis, who collaborated with pianist Gil Evans to produce a bold new arrangement of Gershwin’s score. “Summertime” is Miles at his coolest: his smokey muted solo line is backed by a head-bobbing orchestral riff.

 ROCK AND POP 

Arguably the most unusual take on “Summertime” belongs to the psychedelic rock group Big Brother and the Holding Company, who recorded the song for their 1968 album Cheap Thrills. Frontwoman Janis Joplin’s raspy rendition is accompanied by the band’s bizarre blend of Bach and blues.

Lana del Rey added the parenthetical subtitle “(The Gershwin Version)” to differentiate this 2020 cover from her earlier chart-topping track “Summertime Sadness.” Proceeds from the single were donated to support the struggling New York and Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestras during the pandemic.