Over the last two months, I listened to three different versions of Gershwin's "It Ain't Necessarily So" from Porgy & Bess for my Collection Audit project. A couple days after I listened to the Moody Blues' version (on The Magnificent Moodies), I realized something about the song; however, one of the sections I realized something about isn't in the Moody Blues' version. So when I listened to Brian Wilson's version (on the Reimagines Gershwin album) about a month ago, I was paying a bit more attention than I would have otherwise.
Some syllables in specific words are omitted so that words that wouldn't rhyme ordinarily do rhyme here. Liable is shortened to li'ble in order to rhyme with Bible in the lines "The things that you're li'ble / To read in the Bible," and possible is shortened to poss'ble in order to rhyme with Gospel in the line "I take that Gospel whenever it's poss'ble" in the bridge. The words that rhyme with Bible and Gospel are truncated, and doing that demonstrates exactly what the speaker/singer plainly says in the song: he takes the Bible "with a grain of salt." In the same way those words lack some syllables, the speaker/singer lacks complete faith.
In looking into this, I discovered that - of the four recordings I have of "It Ain't Necessarily So" - only one is complete: that by the Bethlehem Orchestra (apparently their 1956 recording of Porgy & Bess was only the second complete recording of the opera). Both Bobby Darin's version and the Moody Blues' version omit the the bridge ("To get into Heaven, don't snap for a seven..."), and Brian Wilson's version omits the verse about Methuselah. For what it's worth, in addition to the bridge, Darin's version also omits the verse about Moses, and the Moody Blues' version also omits the verse about Methuselah.
Looking at what version has what verses, it occurs to me that none of them have the verses in the order in which the people named in them are in the Bible. In chronological order, it would be Methuselah, Moses, David, and then Jonah. Except for the Moody Blues, who switch Jonah and Moses, the order is David, Jonah, Moses, and the Methuselah.
