We leave Independence Day and Baseball and American-ness for a bit to cross back over the pond to England with Cliff Richard and his hit "Summer Holiday" on British Columbia Records in 1963:
A fun, poppy sound!
That British number one hit was the title song from Cliff's movie "Summer Holiday," which was released at the peak of his pre-Beatles popularity!
Cliff's backing group, The Shadows, also had a song featured in the movie and said song, "Foot Tapper," was also a number one hit:
Speaking of Larry Doby and Jackie Robinson, here's a great tribute to them in the form of the song "Robbie-Doby Boogie" by singer/guitarist Brownie McGhee on the Savoy Records label in 1948:
Love it! The time had really come!
Now, "Robbie-Doby Boogie" is not well-known these days, but Brownie McGhee had actually recorded the even more obscure "Baseball Boogie" for the even smaller Alert label in 1947:
A shoutout to Larry Doby, who on this day in 1947 became the second player (after Jackie Robinson) to break the color barrier and the first in the American League when he made his debut with the Cleveland Indians.
After his playing career, Larry became the second African-American manager in MLB in 1978 (following Frank Robinson in 1974).
A true trailblazer!
Larry was eventually elected to the Hall of Fame in 1998. Overdue, but he was still around to enjoy the honor.
This past weekend, the Cleveland Guardians unveiled a mural featuring Doby and Robinson along with pitching great Satchel Paige:
To celebrate, let's listen to the greatest Summertime record of them all: "Summertime Blues" by Eddie Cochran on Liberty Records in 1958:
I think Eddie Cochran was great and that records just two minutes of awesomeness!
That record is a classic, so naturally a lot of artists have recorded their own versions over the song years, with the records by Blue Cheer and The Who being particularly popular.
Most of those other versions don't grab me, although I do appreciate the various artists wanting to put their own spin on the song.
We have to jump all the way to 1987 for another version on "Summertime Blues" that I do dig and it comes from the soundtrack of "La Bamba," the Ritchie Valens biopic.
In the movie, Rockabilly icon Brian Setzer (of The Stray Cats) appears as Eddie Cochran and performs "Summertime Blues":
I think Brian Setzer is great, so how can you go wrong? I like how the arrangement allows room for a guitar solo.
One thing I will say is that the authority figures on Brian's version sound more like the ones on Robert Gordon's 1977 version (which isn't bad, but like the 1962 Beach Boys version just kind of seems like an album track) than on Eddie's original.
We leave the Rockabilly field for one more version that I like, which is country superstar Alan Jackson's take from 1994:
I'm an Alan Jackson fan anyway and I like how they take the song and give it the feel of Alan's earlier hit "Chattahoochee" to make it sound exactly how the Alan Jackson version of "Summertime Blues" should sound!
