Summertime

Summertime: The Marcels Take a Classic Into Doo-Wop Territory

There is a long tradition of popular musicians treating the standards of the American songbook as raw material, something to be reassembled rather than merely reproduced. George Gershwin's Summertime, composed for the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess, had been covered hundreds of times by 1961, from jazz orchestras to blues shouters to gospel choirs. When The Marcels arrived at the song, they did what they always did: they ran it through the doo-wop filter and let it come out the other side transformed.

Riding the Wave of "Blue Moon"

By the time Summertime reached the charts, The Marcels were already stars. Their electrifying doo-wop reworking of Blue Moon had gone to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in April 1961, one of the most dramatic chart ascents of the year: from number 87 to the summit in five weeks. Labels and artists frequently rushed out follow-up material in the wake of a breakthrough, and Summertime arrived in late May, arriving on the chart on May 29, 1961, at number 90.

A Modest Run for a Bold Interpretation

The chart performance of the Summertime single was brief. It peaked at number 78 on June 5, 1961, and spent only 3 weeks on the chart before fading. Follow-up releases after breakthrough hits face an inherently difficult proposition: the audience that had made Blue Moon a sensation had already calibrated their expectations upward, and anything that did not replicate or surpass that performance was liable to feel like a step back. Summertime was not a step back; it was simply a different song with a different context and a different ceiling.

The Sound: Doo-Wop Meets Gershwin

What The Marcels brought to Summertime was the same irreverence they had applied to Blue Moon: a propulsive bass vocal intro, tight ensemble harmonies, and a rhythmic energy that transformed a lullaby into something you could actually dance to. Gershwin's original is a cradle song, slow and aching; the Marcels version is anything but slow. The production gives the familiar melody an entirely new physical quality, making it feel urgent rather than languorous. Whether you hear that transformation as improvement or vandalism probably depends on your relationship with the original.

The Marcels as Interpreters of the Canon

The Marcels' practice of treating established songs as interpretive material rather than sacred objects placed them in a tradition with deep roots in American music. Jazz musicians had been reharmonizing and retempoizing standards since the 1920s; the doo-wop groups of the 1950s extended that practice into a new commercial context. The Marcels were an integrated Pittsburgh group whose approach to harmony owed as much to R&B as to pop tradition, and that hybrid perspective gave them a distinctive angle on whatever material they touched. Summertime was less commercially successful than their signature hit, but it demonstrated range and ambition.

A Song That Holds Its Character

Gershwin's melody is strong enough to survive almost any treatment, and the Marcels' version proves that resilience from an unexpected direction. The song's familiar contours are still audible even through the doo-wop prism; if anything, the contrast between the original's gravitas and the performance's energy creates a kind of productive tension. If you are a student of how the American songbook has been continuously reinvented by each generation of popular musicians, this recording offers a vivid three-minute lesson. Press play and hear a classic become something entirely itself all over again.

“Summertime” — The Marcels's singular moment on the 1960s charts.