Released: September 24, 1996
Polygram Records
(Now, this is strange... these songs were recorded when Ella was with Verve Records, recorded in the 50's and 60's, primarily; and here the box set is attributed to Polygram... well, not really that important, just something to note. Moving on...)
Sometime when I was a freshman in high school, my boyfriend, John Moreau, and I fell in love with Ella Fitzgerald. Maybe he was already enamored with her and he passed it along to me. Or maybe we discovered her at the same time. Doesn't signify. The point is that we loved her. Did it happen after my mom gave me The Cole Porter Songbook, full of his tunes that I could plunk out on the piano and sing to, because she knew how much I adored Kiss Me Kate? Or did that happen after the Ella infatuation? Perhaps it was after buying Red Hot and Blue, a tribute album to Porter with songs sung by the likes of David Byrne, Sinead O'Connor, Iggy Pop and Debbie Harry, whose proceeds went to HIV/AIDS funding? (That's a fabulous record, by the by. Annie Lennox's version of "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" just broke my heart.) How, when and where is less important than that it happened at all. No one sings like Ella Fitzgerald. No one sounds like her. Her catalog is immense, but the songbooks are my favorite. The ones dedicated to Cole Porter are my all time favorite, but I'd be happy listening to her sing anything.
I just read that she has a three octave range. Wow. I knew it was big, but wow. Three octaves. That explains a lot, don't you think? Isn't the average 2 1/2? I particularly love her "Miss Otis Regrets" because she brings a true sense of regret and sadness to the song. I sympathize with Miss Otis, feeling awfully sorry for the poor, wronged woman. I also read that this was a favorite for many and she often sang this song during her encores. That darn mob, they should have had more sympathy for her. How moved she is by Miss Otis' plight.
With these songs--"standards" I think they call them nowadays--fans have their favorite singers and renditions. Trying to describe why one is better than another isn't the point of this entry, nor do I feel like I could do so. I don't have a bunch of versions, I have a few. I enjoy most of those singers--the old fashioned ones, primarily-- who sang the cannon of great American songwriters of the early part of the first half of the 20th century. But Ella's voice is velvet and silk. Her take on the songs is unique and completely intuitive. I am not an authority; I can't say how much of the arrangements are hers versus the band leader's, but I bet she's very influential. Listening to her is summer. It's cocktails and hors d'oeuvres. Dancing with your love, or falling in love with someone new. Drifting along on her smooth vocals, you don't even have to be doing anything at all. Not a thing. Humming along, swaying a little... whatever makes you feel good.
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