Songs About Summer Celebrate, Remember and Complain
July 22, 2013
A summer heat wave has hit the American northeast this month.
Welcome to This Is America from VOA Learning English.
Here in the northern part of the world, we are in what some call the “dog days of summer”—in other words, the hottest weeks of the year.
To ease the heat, Steve Ember and Shirley Griffith bring you some songs about summertime.
If you ask most Americans, they would say their favorite season of the year is summer. The weather is warm. They do not have to wear heavy clothes to keep warm.
Young people do not have to go to school. They can do many activities outside, like playing sports and swimming at the beach or the pool. They like the sunshine during the day and the warm summer nights.
People have written and recorded hundreds of songs about summer. These are some of our favorites.
One of the most famous songs about summer is from George Gershwin's opera "Porgy and Bess." He wrote the music in 1935.
The opera takes place in the southern United States. It opens with these words: "Summertime and the livin' is easy. Fish are jumpin' and the cotton is high."
Leontyne Price sings the song.
Here is Billy Stewart's version of the same song.
The 1950s and 60s produced many songs about teenagers enjoying their summer vacation from school. The songs are about having fun, swimming in the ocean, driving in cars.
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