The Hesitations – Summertime
The Hesitations
Listen/Download The Hesitations – Summertime
Greetings all
I hope the day finds you well.
Though I know that a lot of my fellow soul heads are strictly in a 45RPM bag, I find myself buying fair amount of long players when and where I find them.
This has everything to do with my natural curiosity, never-ending hunger for new sounds, and the combination of the two that leads right here to the Funky16Corners Blog.
Soul and funk LPs are often a fantastic source of undiscovered/underappreciated treasure, as well as being a great, cheap way to pick up songs on vinyl that would break the bank if sought on 45.
Few things make me happier than grabbing an LP and finding a great song that never made it onto a single, especially interesting cover versions.
The Hesitations were an Ohio-based soul harmony group that hit the charts several times in the late 60s, often with big ballads like ‘Born Free’ and ‘The Impossible Dream’.
They were also capable of some excellent, upbeat dance floor stuff like the Northern Soul favorite ‘I’m Not Built That Way’.
I pick up their records wherever I find them, and did so last year when I found the ‘Where We’re At!’ album at one of the Asbury Lanes garage sales.
The big discovery for me on that disc was the group’s absolutely searing cover of the old Gershwin/Heyward classic ‘Summertime’.
Now, the natural inclination would be to be suspicious of anyone covering that particular song who wasn’t named Billy Stewart.
His version of the song was a Top 10 R&B and Pop hit in 1966 and is as close to definitive as an cover, of any song has come.
So, when I see that the Hesitations did their own version, I wasn’t expecting a whole lot.
Silly me…
As it turns out – which you’ll hear as soon as you pull down the ones and zeros – the Hesitations version of the song is presented in a completely different (and smoking) arrangement.
Their ‘Summertime’ is an exciting, fast moving take on the song, complete with soul clapping and great harmonies (natch..).
I dig the way lead singer George ‘King’ Scott lays into the ‘TIME!’ in ‘Summertime’, over and over again, pushing the outer edges of his range.
It is a very groovy number indeed, and since the Hesitations LPs aren’t too expensive, accessible.
I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you on Friday.
Keep the faith
Larry
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Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).
Themocracy
Great version Larry