Summer Time was a single by Fun Boy Three which charted on 31st July 1982 and which was in the UK singles charts for 8 weeks peaking at number 8. The B -Side was Summer of '82. It was a non album single although both tracks appeared on an extended CD version of their 1982 eponymous debut album in 2009.
I am familiar with the song which was written by George Gershwin in 1934 and which has been covered most famously by Billie Holiday and also by the likes of Sam Cooke, Al Martino and Olivia Newton John. Until now I was blissfully aware of this version by the late great Terry Hall, Neville Staples and Lynval Golding.
This may be because it was a non- album track but I suspect that there is a more plausible explanation. I turned 21 during the summer of '82 and spent the summer working as a waiter and partying in Ullapoool. This meant that I was pretty much oblivious to most new music at the time. I even missed most of the World Cup including Dave Narey's glorious toe-poke against Brazil.
Apologies for the quality of the sound on this recording. At first I thought this was down to my MP3 turntable from which it was burnt but it doesn't sound that much better on the Hi-fi. My version did not come with the picture sleeve above but with a plain white sleeve with a Woolworths price tag of 25p.
Oh to be 21 again.
An excellent purchase there, CC even sans picture sleeve. I'm biased because it's Terry Hall but this is one of my favourite cover versions of Summertime. The 12" version is even better, which has got me thinking that an FB3 selection of extended versions might be in order... thanks for the prompt!
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