| Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book | |
| Type: | Studio |
| Artist: | Ella Fitzgerald |
| Cover: | ellaportersongbook.jpg |
| Released: | May 15, 1956 |
| Recorded: | February 7–9, 1956 March 27, 1956 |
| Length: | 118:27 |
| Label: | Verve |
| Producer: | Norman Granz |
| Prev Title: | Sweet and Hot |
| Prev Year: | 1955 |
| Next Title: | Ella and Louis |
| Next Year: | 1956 |
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book is a 1956 studio double 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.
This was Fitzgerald's first album for the newly created Verve Records (and the first album to be released by the label). Norman Granz, Fitzgerald's manager and the producer of many of her albums, decided to have her 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.[1]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 and March 27, 1956, in Hollywood, Los Angeles.
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."[2]
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."[3] 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.[4]
All tracks written by Cole Porter, except when noted.
Side one
Side two
Side three
Side four
1997 reissue, previously unreleased bonus tracks
Personnel adapted from the liner notes of CD reissue.
Performance
Brass and woodwind members
(on tracks 1.1–2, 4–5, 8, 10, 13, 16, 2.2–3, 5, 8–13, 15)
Additional members on 1.7, 11, 15, 2.1, 6
Additional members on 1.12
Additional members on 1.12, 2.7 & 14
Rhythm members
(on all tracks except 1.3, 8, 2.2, 8, 12)
Rudimental string members
(on tracks 1.1–2, 5, 7–8, 11, 13, 15, 2.1–2, 6, 8–13, 15)
Technical
Reissue
| Date | Format | Label | Catalog No. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1956 | 12" 2xLP | Verve | MG V-4001-2 | |
| 1976 | 12" 2xLP | Verve | VE-2-2511 | |
| 1997 | CD 2xLP (remastered) | Verve Master Edition | 314 537 257-2 | |
| 2017 | FLAC 24-bit/96 kHz | Verve Records |