Summertime - Billy Stewart
While we're in the sixties, the golden age of soul, we must have one of the great soul singles: fat boy Billy Stewart's rendering of the Gershwin classic "Summertime".
The first time I ever played this at a disco, when it finished the packed English dancefloor spontaneously applauded. This is the only song I play where this, 30 years on, still regularly happens.
Legend has it that “Fat Boy” Billy Stewart was castigated for this wonderful rendition of the Gershwin classic. They said “how can you murder this anthem of black Southern American culture?” and he said “Black anthem my ass! It was written by a couple of jews from Brooklyn! I can do what the - - - - I like with it!”
And he does just that, right from the almost yodelling first note to the mind-blowing finale.