Summertime: Willie Nelson Sings Gershwin | ||||
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Studio album by Willie Nelson | ||||
Released | February 26, 2016 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 36:15 | |||
Label | Legacy Recordings | |||
Producer | Buddy Cannon, Matt Rollings | |||
Willie Nelson chronology | ||||
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Summertime: Willie Nelson Sings Gershwin is an album by American singer-songwriter Willie Nelson. After being awarded the Gershwin Prize by the Library of Congress, Nelson recorded a set of pop standards written by George and Ira Gershwin. The recording of the album was produced by Buddy Cannon and Matt Rollings. It includes the duets "Let's Call The Whole Thing Off" with Cyndi Lauper and "Embraceable You" with Sheryl Crow.
To select the songs for the album, Nelson was inspired by the Frank Sinatra recordings of Gershwin songs. Meanwhile, he decided to name the album after the song "Summertime", based on his past election to name a previous hit record Stardust On January 19, Nelson a video of the title-track as a preview to the release. The album was released by Legacy Recordings on February 26, 2016. Summertime: Willie Nelson Sings Gershwin won the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album award at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards in 2017.
In its first week, the album sold 13,000 copies. It debuted at number one on the Traditional Jazz and Top Jazz Albums Billboard charts, becoming Nelson's third album to top the latter. Meanwhile, it reached number fourteen in Top Album Sales and reached forty in the Billboard 200. The album has sold 35,000 copies in the United States as of August 2016.