ELLA FITZGERALD SINGS THE COLE PORTER SONGBOOK - Ella Fitzgerald

YEAR: 1956

LABEL: Verve

TRACK LISTING: All Through the Night, Anything Goes, Miss Otis Regrets (She's Unable To Lunch Today), Too Darn Hot, In the Still of the Night, I Get A Kick Out of You, Do I Love You?, Always True To You In My Fashion, Let's Do It (Let's Fall In Love), Just One of Those Things, Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye, All of You, Begin the Beguine, Get Out of Town, I Am In Love, From This Moment On, I Love Paris, You Do Something To Me, Ridin' High, Easy To Love, It's All Right With Me, Why Can't You Behave?, What Is This Thing Called Love?, You're the Top, Love For Sale, It's De-Lovely, Night and Day, Ace In the Hole, So In Love, I've Got You Under My Skin, I Concentrate On You, Don't Fence Me In

BONUS TRACKS: You're the Top (Alternate Take), I Concentrate On You (Alternate Take), Let's Do It (Let's Fall In Love) (Alternate Take)

IMPRESSIONS: This is one of those albums which can safely be called indispensable. It can also be safely said that Ella Fitzgerald had one of the most perfect voices on the face of the earth in a technical perspective. Here we have one of the greatest voices interpreting one of the greatest, deftest songwriters. Here also we find Ella connecting with the music in a very solid way so that there can be no criticism of her singing in a "detached" or "not emotion enough" way; her singing is particularly warm on this album. What's not to love in all this? And here we also have one of the most ridiculously awful album covers for one of the greatest jazz albums of all time. Just goes to show you can't have everything.

MY FAVOURITE TRACKS: All Through the Night, Anything Goes, Miss Otis Regrets (She's Unable To Lunch Today), Too Darn Hot, In the Still of the Night, I Get A Kick Out of You, Do I Love You?, Let's Do It (Let's Fall In Love), Just One of Those Things, Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye, All of You, Begin the Beguine, Get Out of Town, From This Moment On, You Do Something To Me, Easy To Love, It's All Right With Me, What Is This Thing Called Love?, You're the Top, It's De-Lovely, Night and Day, Ace In the Hole, So In Love, I've Got You Under My Skin, I Concentrate On You, Don't Fence Me In

GUEST ARTISTS: Maynard Ferguson

FACT SHEET: THE COLE PORTER SONGBOOK is Ella Fitzgerald's first album for the newly created Verve Records. Norman Granz built the label mainly in order to showcase Fitzgerald after being unsatisfied with her handling by her former label Decca Records. This album launched Ella's epoch-making series of single-composer "songbook" albums which found the singer interpreting many of the greatest songs in the great American songbook as well as presenting some of Ella's most elegant and accomplished recordings of her entire career. Buddy Bregman arranged the songs and conducted the studio orchestra. Granz played the entire album for Cole Porter at the Waldorf-Astoria after which the composer merely remarked "My, what marvelous diction that girl has." The album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2000; this award honors recordings of "qualitative or historical significance" which are at least 25 years old. In 2003, it was one of only 50 albums chosen by the Library of Congress to add to the National Recording Registry.