Lullaby of Birdland [#] - Ella Fitzgerald, Shearing, George
Too Young for the Blues [#] - Ella Fitzgerald, Jones, Biff
Too Darn Hot - Ella Fitzgerald, Porter, Cole
Miss Otis Regrets - Ella Fitzgerald, Porter, Cole
April in Paris - Ella Fitzgerald, Duke, Vernon
Undecided - Ella Fitzgerald, Robin, Sydney
Can't We Be Friends? - Ella Fitzgerald, James, Paul
Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered - Ella Fitzgerald, Hart, Lorenz
Just A-Sittin' and A-Rockin' - Ella Fitzgerald, Ellington, Duke
I'm Just a Lucky So and So - Ella Fitzgerald, David, Mack
Air Mail Special - Ella Fitzgerald, Christian, Charlie
A-Tisket, A-Tasket - Ella Fitzgerald, Alexander, Van
Baby, Don't You Go 'Way Mad [#] - Ella Fitzgerald, Jacquet, Illinois
Angel Eyes - Ella Fitzgerald, Brent, Earl
I Won't Dance - Ella Fitzgerald, Fields, Dorothy
Track Listings (18) - Disc #2
Summertime - Ella Fitzgerald, Gershwin, George
Oh, Lady Be Good - Ella Fitzgerald, Gershwin, George
More Than You Know - Ella Fitzgerald, Eliscu, Edward
Lush Life - Ella Fitzgerald, Strayhorn, Billy
Blue Skies - Ella Fitzgerald, Berlin, Irving
Swingin' Shepherd Blues - Ella Fitzgerald, Jacobson, Kenny
These Foolish Things - Ella Fitzgerald, Link, Harry
Trav'lin' Light - Ella Fitzgerald, Mercer, Johnny
You're an Old Smoothie [#] - Ella Fitzgerald, Brown, Nacio Herb
Makin' Whoopee - Ella Fitzgerald, Donaldson, Walter
How Long Has This Been Going On? - Ella Fitzgerald, Gershwin, George
Detour Ahead [#] - Ella Fitzgerald, Carter, Lou
Mack the Knife - Ella Fitzgerald, Blitzstein, Marc
How High the Moon - Ella Fitzgerald, Hamilton, Nancy
Black Coffee - Ella Fitzgerald, Burke, Sonny [Arran
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! - Ella Fitzgerald, Cahn, Sammy
Get Happy - Ella Fitzgerald, Arlen, Harold
Heart and Soul [#] - Ella Fitzgerald, Carmichael, Hoagy
Track Listings (17) - Disc #3
You'll Have to Swing It (Mr. Paganini) - Ella Fitzgerald, Coslow, Sam
A Night in Tunisia - Ella Fitzgerald, Gillespie, Dizzy
I Can't Get Started - Ella Fitzgerald, Duke, Vernon
Don't Be That Way - Ella Fitzgerald, Goodman, Benny
After You've Gone - Ella Fitzgerald, Creamer, Henry
Hernando's Hideaway - Ella Fitzgerald, Adler, Richard [Com
A Fine Romance - Ella Fitzgerald, Fields, Dorothy
'Deed I Do - Ella Fitzgerald, Hirsch, Walter
Hear Me Talkin' to Ya? - Ella Fitzgerald, Armstrong, Louis
Can't Buy Me Love - Ella Fitzgerald, Lennon, John
Day In - Day Out - Ella Fitzgerald, Bloom, Rube
Something's Gotta Give - Ella Fitzgerald, Mercer, Johnny
Here's That Rainy Day - Ella Fitzgerald, Burke, Johnny [Lyri
Something to Live For - Ella Fitzgerald, Ellington, Duke
You've Changed - Ella Fitzgerald, Carey, Bill
Jazz Samba - Ella Fitzgerald, DeMoraes, Vinicius
It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing) - Ella Fitzgerald, Ellington, Duke
This three-CD compilation of Ella Fitzgerald's years with Verve covers the period from 1954 to 1966, with a single throwback to a 1949 Jazz at the Philharmonic concert for a jam session version of "Perdido" with Charlie Pa... more »rker. The settings range from the almost spartan (intimate, beautiful versions of "Angel Eyes," with guitarist Barney Kessel, and "Lush Life," with pianist Oscar Peterson) to orchestras and big bands, while the material ranges from classic standards to bop tunes like "A Night in Tunisia" to the Lennon-McCartney "Can't Buy Me Love." What ties it all together, of course, is Fitzgerald's singular talent, her ability to find the potential in her material and expand it with her unique vocal abilities. This set is a tribute to producer Norman Granz as well, for he consistently worked to involve Fitzgerald in the fruitful collaborations that enliven this set. There are meetings with Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Count Basie, as well as excerpts from the Songbook recordings and a number of live performances. --Stuart Broomer« less
This three-CD compilation of Ella Fitzgerald's years with Verve covers the period from 1954 to 1966, with a single throwback to a 1949 Jazz at the Philharmonic concert for a jam session version of "Perdido" with Charlie Parker. The settings range from the almost spartan (intimate, beautiful versions of "Angel Eyes," with guitarist Barney Kessel, and "Lush Life," with pianist Oscar Peterson) to orchestras and big bands, while the material ranges from classic standards to bop tunes like "A Night in Tunisia" to the Lennon-McCartney "Can't Buy Me Love." What ties it all together, of course, is Fitzgerald's singular talent, her ability to find the potential in her material and expand it with her unique vocal abilities. This set is a tribute to producer Norman Granz as well, for he consistently worked to involve Fitzgerald in the fruitful collaborations that enliven this set. There are meetings with Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Count Basie, as well as excerpts from the Songbook recordings and a number of live performances. --Stuart Broomer
Kevin G. (kkg-ct) from NEW FAIRFIELD, CT Reviewed on 1/23/2015...
If you were in doubt as to what defines the purest Jazz female vocalist, look no further. A saucy set that convinced me that all hold music should be converted to Miss Ella because no one would care how long it took. The consistency of the perfect sound is truly remarkable. The verve of truly live performance with stunning tonal range and inflection.
Why dissect it? just lay back and groove....
CD Reviews
If you only get one Ella boxed set...
loungelizard7 | 08/11/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Ella Fitzgerald was simply the best. No two ways about it; that's the best way to describe her. And this boxed set showcases nothing but her very best recordings, pulled from the best years of her career at the Verve Jazz label. Starting in 1949 and going through the late '60s, there are three CDs and nearly twenty years of pure perfection to enjoy here. All the ones you've always heard about are here. Her heartbreaking "Angel Eyes," "April in Paris" with Count Basie and His Orchestra, and the untouchable recording of "Summertime" with Louis Armstrong. You can't listen to that one and not think, "Wow." Satchmo and Lady Time do one of the greatest duets in jazz with "Can't We Be Friends." Her "Lady Be Good" is included, with the brassy classic "After You've Gone." The two best tracks from her concert set with Duke Ellington at the Cote d'Azur, Jobim's popping "Jazz Samba" and Duke's rowdy "It Don't Mean a Thing," are present also; listen to how saxophone-like she sounds in her scat session on "Samba," and how she wails like one of the trumpets and becomes one of the band on "Don't Mean a Thing." "Let it Snow" represents her 'Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas," one Christmas CD every jazz fan should own; and yes, the legendary live Berlin version of "Mack the Knife," where Ella forgets the words halfway through and goes through a mean scat before launching into her crowd-pleasing Louis Armstrong impression, as well as the unbelievable scatting on the track that followed it, "How High the Moon," which sealed that song into Ella's repetoire along with "Mack."Good helpings of Ella's 'Great American Songbook' series are here. Her treatment of Cole Porter's "Too Darn Hot" matched with that great arrangement is jazz perfection. From her kingly Duke Ellington Songbook album, "Just a Lucky So and So" is one of Ella's best, bluesy and soulful, with letter-perfect solos by Duke and the marvelous Johnny Hodges. She has great fun on "Get Happy," and the beautiful arrangement of Arlen's "Heart and Soul" (you know, the song from 'Big'), with its heavenly waterfall of strings in the intro, gives Ella just what she needs to make this one a keeper. Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies" is Ella at her finest, swinging free and easy, as the song starts off light and builds to a screaming climax.Along with the famous ones, this set is also notable for so many great Ella recordings that cannot be found on CD elsewhere. This includes the stomping eight-minute-plus Jazz at the Philharmonic All-Stars version of "Perdido," with Roy Eldridge, Charlie Parker, and a bandful of greats backing Ella, a gorgeous live "Lullaby of Birdland," a Latin cover of "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" from the 1950s, the breezy "Swingin' Shepherd Blues," and Ella's superb "Don't Be That Way." Other not-so-well-known treats are a smooth, poetic "Night in Tunisia" that rivals Dizzy's wild original; Ella blowing every other version of "Black Coffee" out of the water; sugar-rush scatting on "Air-Mail Special"; the blues with Wild Bill Davis on organ with "Hear Me Talkin' to Ya"; and a seductive and swinging "Hernando's Hideaway," with lyrics set to the tune of the popular tango melody. Ella's "Makin' Whoopee" is, I guarantee you, one of the funniest songs you'll ever hear. It goes on and on, drawing bigger laughs with each verse, and Ella sings it with a wink and milks it for every laugh, especially that last verse! Perhaps the best, and most sadly little-known, recording here is Ella wailing through a bold, brassy arrangement of "Can't Buy Me Love." While Ella's reading here is nowhere near the golden treatment she gave it on 'The Ed Sullivan Show' in 1964, the arrangement never fails to stun, and is still one of the best jazz arrangements I've ever heard.There will never be another Ella. Buy this set, and see just why."
Superb
Michael J. Muller | Queensbury, New York USA | 02/22/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Your rating system does not have enough stars available to rate this collection. The sound of Ella's voice, the music selected to make this compilation and the engineering that has re-mastered her earliest recordings is just simply ten stars!"
You'll Be Begging For More!
Todd Bartholomew | Atlanta, GA USA | 06/08/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
""First Lady of Song" is a great starting point for Fitzgerald looking for sampling of her work while on the Verve label from 1956 to 1966; probably her most seminal and memorable work, not to slight her Decca recordings in the decade before. Verve gave Ella the freedom to do what she wanted and Ella pursued that with a vengeance, releasing a series of landmark recordings covering the "Songbooks" of American Pop Standards that may never be equaled. Ella covered them all, Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, Rogers and Hart, Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin, Harold Arlen, and Jerome Kern. "First Lady of Song" covers all those songbooks and whole lot more including her recordings with Louis Armstrong, Nelson Riddle, and others. While this is a great sampler it's more of a survey of what Ella was up to at Verve and if anything only whets your appetite for more. Her vocal prowess, agility, and versatility are neatly showcased here and it makes you wonder if there was anything she couldn't sing. I frequently found myself wishing to hear more of Ella in particular style, be it Ellington, Porter, or even her very swinging Christmas record. True, Ella lacked the drama of Billie Holiday, the sass of Sarah Vaughn, but she more than made up for it in a willingness to take gambles and risks that more often that not paid off. This collection will leave you begging for more!"
Fantastic
mistermaxxx@yahoo.com | usa | 04/05/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Ella Fitzgerald Has One Of The Richest Voices ever To Hit The Human Ear.This is a Grand Overview of Her Great Voice.These Songs are Quality with A Capitol Q.She Shines all the Way Here.She was a True Legend she Broke Down So Many Doors.She had Her Own Style&Great Range.These Songs are Musical Treasures."