Eddie Pensier writes:

It ain’t necessarily so
It ain’t necessarily so
The things that you’re liable
To read in the Bible,
It ain’t necessarily so.

Li’l David was small, but oh my!
Li’l David was small, but oh my!
He fought Big Goliath
Who lay down and dieth!
Li’l David was small, but oh my!

Oh Jonah, he lived in the whale,
Oh Jonah, he lived in the whale,
For he made his home in
That fish’s abdomen.
Oh Jonah, he lived in de whale.

Li’l Moses was found in a stream.
Li’l Moses was found in a stream.
He floated on water
Till Ol’ Pharaoh’s daughter,
She fished him, she said, from that stream.

Well, it ain’t necessarily so
Well, it ain’t necessarily so
They tells all you chillen
The devil’s a villain,
But it ain’t necessarily so!

To get into Heaven
Don’t snap for a second,
Live clean, don’t have no fault,
Oh, I takes dat gospel
Whenever it’s possible,
But… with a grain of salt.

Methuselah lived nine hundred years,
Methuselah lived nine hundred years,
But who calls that livin’
When no gal will give in
To no man what’s nine hundred years?

—Porgy and Bess (1935), music by George Gershwin, lyrics by DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin

Sammy Davis Jr in the 1959 Otto Preminger film:

Aretha Franklin at 18 in one of her first Columbia recordings from 1961:

80’s electropop band Bronski Beat featuring Jimmy Somerville, from 1984:

Miles Davis, from his Porgy and Bess album of 1958:

Cher (!!) from a 1994 Gershwin tribute album:

Bonus: Paul Robeson, whose vocalism and artistry I worship, seems wrong for this song: his stentorian basso wrings all the sly humor out of it. Maybe you disagree.