Webb died the following year, and by 1942 Ella had become a solo artist. A string of hits for the Decca label, most famously 1938’s “A-Tisket, A-Tasket,” followed. In 1935, Ella met drummer and bandleader William “Chick” Webb despite her lack of training, he quickly asked her to join his band as a featured singer. She may have been homeless when she was discovered at one of the Apollo Theater’s famed amateur nights in 1934. After her mother died in 1932, Ella lived with relatives and spent time in state orphanages. Ella and her family attended the Bethany AME Church she probably got her first singing experience in the choir there. Her mother moved her family to Yonkers, New York, in the early 1920s. Join the Great American Songbook Foundation, as we celebrate Ella with a look at the history and legacy of this iconic contribution to America's cultural history.Įlla Jane Fitzgerald was born on April 25, 1917, in Newport News, Virginia. But a set of LPs she made for Verve Records in the late 50s and early 60s – the Ella Fitzgerald Song Book records –changed her career and American jazz music forever.įeaturing definitive versions of classic songs including "I Got Rhythm", "Something's Gotta Give," and "The Lady is a Tramp," the Ella Fitzgerald Song Book records are a timeless masterpiece. A full century after her birth, “The First Lady of Song” is still widely regarded as one of the finest jazz singers ever known.ĭespite Ella’s undeniable gifts, for many years she was a struggling singer of novelty and bop tunes. Where there is love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong." - Ella FitzgeraldĮlla Sings the Songbook focuses on a celebrated series of eight albums recorded for Verve Records in the 1950s and '60s, when the respected jazz singer took a new and highly successful direction interpreting works by the most beloved composers of Tin Pan Alley, Broadway, and Hollywood: Cole Porter, Rodgers & Hart, Duke Ellington, Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin, Harold Arlen, Jerome Kern, and Johnny Mercer.Įlla Fitzgerald (1917-1996) was an artist of legendary skill, power, and talent. 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."Just don't give up trying to do what you really want to do. The album was recorded February 7-9 & Main Hollywood, Los Angeles. This album inaugurated Fitzgerald's Songbook series, each of the eight albums in the series focusing on a different composer of the canon known as the Great American Songbook. This was Fitzgerald's first album for the newly created Verve Records (and the first album to be released by the label.) Fitzgerald's time on the Verve label would see her produce her most highly acclaimed recordings, at the peak of her vocal powers. Ella Fitzgerald - "Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Cole Porter Song Book" Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook is a 1956 studio album by American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald.Īccompanied by a studio orchestra conducted and arranged by Buddy Bregman, focusing on the songs of Cole Porter.
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