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Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book

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Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book
Studio album by
Ella Fitzgerald
ReleasedMay 15, 1956
RecordedFebruary 7–9, 1956
March 27, 1956
Genre
Length118:27
LabelVerve
ProducerNorman Granz
Ella Fitzgerald chronology
Sweet and Hot
(1955) 		Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book
(1956) 		Ella and Louis
(1956)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide[2]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[3]

Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book is a 1956 studio album by American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, accompanied by a studio orchestra conducted and arranged by Buddy Bregman, focusing on the songs of Cole Porter.

Background

This was Fitzgerald's first album for the newly created Verve Records (and the first album to be released by the label). Granz decided to have Fitzgerald record well-established popular works because

I was interested in how I could enhance Ella’s position, to make her a singer with more than just a cult following amongst jazz fans. So I proposed to Ella that the first Verve album would not be a jazz project, but rather a song book of the works of Cole Porter. I envisaged her doing a lot of composers. The trick was to change the backing enough so that, here and there, there would be signs of jazz.[4]

Fitzgerald's time on the Verve label would see her produce her most highly acclaimed recordings, at the peak of her vocal powers. This album inaugurated Fitzgerald's Song Book series, each of the eight albums in the series focusing on a different composer of the canon known as the Great American Songbook. The album was recorded February 7–9 & March 27, 1956, in Hollywood, Los Angeles.

Fitzgerald's manager, and the producer of many of her albums, Norman Granz, visited Cole Porter at the Waldorf-Astoria and played him this entire album. Afterwards, Porter merely remarked, "My, what marvelous diction that girl has."[5]

Legacy and achievements

This album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2000, which is a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least twenty-five years old, and that have "qualitative or historical significance."[6] In 2003, it was one of 50 recordings chosen by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry.

In 2000 it was voted number 490 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums.[7]

Track listing

All tracks written by Cole Porter, except when noted.

Disc one

Side one

  1. "All Through the Night" – 3:15
  2. "Anything Goes" – 3:21
  3. "Miss Otis Regrets" – 3:00
  4. "Too Darn Hot" – 3:47
  5. "In the Still of the Night" – 2:38
  6. "I Get a Kick Out of You" – 4:00
  7. "Do I Love You?" – 3:50
  8. "Always True to You in My Fashion" – 2:48

Side two

  2. "Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love" – 3:32
  3. "Just One of Those Things" – 3:30
  4. "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" – 3:32
  5. "All of You" – 1:43
  6. "Begin the Beguine" – 3:37
  7. "Get Out of Town" – 3:22
  8. "I Am in Love" – 4:06
  9. "From This Moment On" – 3:17

Disc two

Side three

  1. "I Love Paris" – 4:57
  2. "You Do Something to Me" – 2:21
  3. "Ridin' High" – 3:20
  4. "You'd Be So Easy to Love" – 3:24
  5. "It's All Right with Me" – 3:07
  6. "Why Can't You Behave?" – 5:04
  7. "What Is This Thing Called Love?" – 2:02
  8. "You're the Top" – 3:33

Side four

  2. "Love for Sale" – 5:52
  3. "It's De-Lovely" – 2:42
  4. "Night and Day" – 3:04
  5. "Ace in the Hole" – 1:58
  6. "So in Love" – 3:50
  7. "I've Got You Under My Skin" – 2:42
  8. "I Concentrate on You" – 3:11
  9. "Don't Fence Me In" – 3:19 (Robert Fletcher, co-lyricist)

1997 reissue, previously unreleased bonus tracks

  2. "You're the Top" (Alternative take) – 2:08
  3. "I Concentrate on You" (Alternative take) – 3:00
  4. "Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love" (Alternative take) – 5:25

Personnel

Personnel adapted from the liner notes of CD reissue.

Release history

Date Format Label Catalog No.
1956 12" 2xLP Verve MG V-4001-2
1997 CD 2xLP (remastered) Verve Master Edition 314 537 257-2

References

  1. ^ "Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book review". AllMusic.com. Retrieved 2009-05-14.
  2. ^ Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 77. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.
  3. ^ Larkin, Colin (2007). Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195313734.
  4. ^ Maxwell, Tom (November 2016). "The Story of 'Ella and Louis,' 60 Years Later". Longreads. Longreads.com. Retrieved 21 November 2016.
  5. ^ "Ella Fitzgerald: 1917-1996" by Stuart Nicholson. ISBN 0-575-40032-3 (page 159)
  6. ^ Grammy Hall of Fame Database Archived January 22, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ Colin Larkin (2000). All Time Top 1000 Albums (3rd ed.). Virgin Books. p. 173. ISBN 0-7535-0493-6.
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