Artist & Tune
Version by Anne Brown
Version by Harolyn Blackwell, Porgy & Bess (musical)
Version by Billie Holiday
Version by Paul Robeson
Version by Lena Horne
Version by Kathleen Battle
Version by Pete Seeger
About the Song
This song was composed by the Gershwins for their 1935 opera "Porgy & Bess". It was adapted from Dorothy Heyward and DuBose Heyward's play Porgy, itself an adaptation of DuBose Heyward's 1925 novel of the same name.
Porgy & Bess was first performed in Boston on September 30, 1935, before it moved to Broadway in New York City. It featured a cast of classically trained African-American singers—a daring artistic choice at the time. After an initially unpopular public reception, a 1976 Houston Grand Opera production gained it new popularity, and it is now one of the best known and most frequently performed operas.
The classically trained African-American soprano Anne Brown played Bess both in the original Broadway production & also in the 1945 film Rhapsody in Blue, a biographical film on George Gershwin.