Song of the Week: "Summertime", Santo and Johnny

Listen - Santo and Johnny perform Summertime.

Today's look at Summertime has us focusing on an instrumental version of the classic as performed by Manhattan-based brothers, Santo and Johnny. The two Farina brothers are unquestionably best known for their indispensable composition, Sleep Walk, a song that can make a strong argument for being the progenitor for surf music. Following the unlikely success of Sleep Walk, Santo and Johnny released Summertime as the flip-side of their next single, the foot stomping Caravan. The Farina brothers' arrangement of Summertime is centered around the slow, jazzy chord structure of the arch-top guitar and a piercing lead performed on the lap steel guitar. A simple string arrangement briefly ads to the patina of the all-too-short song. But it is the molasses-in-winter slow leads on the lap steel that make the instrumental take on Summertime so compelling. Chiming with the reverb drenched sound first laid down in Sleep Walk, the brothers make another dreamy AM radio classic. A song that would have been the perfect sound track for a hot summer night's make out session performed in the back of dad's Oldsmobile while parked at Inspiration Point overlooking Wenatchie Lake. Click here to hear Santo and Johnny's version of Summertime. We'll check back in tomorrow for another version of Summertime. Until then, enjoy.