Which one is your favorite? - XI -

The song I chose for this week is one of my favorite songs of all time. I like the old versions, relatively new covers, interpretations in different genres, anything...Looks like I really have an affinity for George Gershwin.

Please keep your requests and comments coming...


Here is our song for this post;

"It Ain't Necessarily So"

"It Ain't Necessarily So" is a popular song with music by George Gershwin and lyrics by Ira Gershwin. The song comes from the Gershwins' opera Porgy and Bess (1935) where it is sung by the character Sportin' Life, a drug dealer, who expresses his doubt about several statements in the Bible. 

George Gershwin's life work culminated in the three act opera Porgy and Bess, which was based on the 1926 novel Porgy by DuBose Heyward. A jazzy fusion of classical opera and Broadway musical, the work is set in the fictional all-black slum dwelling of Catfish Row in Charleston, South Carolina. The opera tells of the disabled beggar Porgy's desperate attempts to rescue the beautiful Bess from her twin dependency upon her violent and possessive lover Crown and the aforementioned Sportin' Life.

It is said that Gershwin was largely influended by the Jewish blessings when composing the song.The first and most direct example of influence occurs at the start of the song; the melody and phrasing is nearly identical to the blessing incanted before reading from the Torah. The words "It ain't necessarily so" stand in place of "Bar'chu et adonai ham'vorach". This motif repeats multiple times in both, and both include a response from a congregation. While the phrasing of the melody in the blessing varies, it remains strictly in triplets in Gershwin's tune.The song also seems to draw from the tonality of the Jewish prayer mode Adonai malakh (God is King) by emphasizing the minor tenth, the major third, and the minor seventh.

And here are the 3 versions I chose for you;

• Bronski Beat - "It Aint Necessarily So"

• Aziza Mustafa Zadeh - "It Aint Necessarily So"

• Cécile McLorin Salvant - "It Aint Necessarily So"

Now the floor is yours, go ahead and make your comments (here, Instagram, Facebook wherever you feel like...).

nb. Please note that I intentionally do not include the original versions of the songs as it would be a little unfair to the artists covering the songs, and I am sure that sometimes you will be surprised to see that the songs you thought were the originals are just covers...