Happy Birthday, Ella Fitzgerald (LINKS FIXED)

[PalJoey]

Happy birthday to my greatest musical love.

Ella by Annie Leibovitz

Here's a little journey with Ella, in live performances from the 50s, the 60s, the 70s and the 80s.

First, 2 songs from Amsterdam 1957, the year after she began the Songbook series with the Cole Porter Songbook

1. "Dancing on the Ceiling"

2. "April in Paris"

http://youtu.be/Ug_cH3W4Nlc

In 1959, Ella appeared on Frank Sinatra's TV show. Here's a very-fun arrangement of "Can't We Be Friends," in which Ella works in more imitations: Pearl Bailey, Dinah Washington, Lena Horne and Della Reese:

https://youtu.be/CPQwHt3f8Yo


Eight years later, in 1967, she appeared on another Frank Sinatra TV special, and they performed this classic duet to "The Lady Is a Tramp."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQwRhMn6D2U


From the same special, they sing "Going Out of My Head" and it's clear that he adores her:

http://youtu.be/h16CGUpGWn0


Ella responded to the changes in music in the 1960s, a little awkwardly but with great enthusiasm. Here are 2 groovy songs from Montreux 1969:

1. "Hey Jude"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qslZff3ypvM

2. "Sunshine of Your Love"

http://youtu.be/IkkMJo0P408


For Namo (if he clicks on this thread), Ella and a very sexy Tom Jones sing "Sunny" from a 1970 TV special:

http://youtu.be/TnkWBmhVj2Y


From 1975, one of Ella's most exquisite performances: "Cry Me a River" with Joe Pass on guitar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAoABuJS1MA


And here , from 1979, an ultra-rare trio featuring Ella with Pearl Bailey and the divine Sarah Vaughan, singing a medley of songs they sang with big bands. The first time I saw this clip on YouTube, I was at my office and I screamed out loud, "Oh my GOD!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfGiUQ1DgLU


From 1980, an poignant medley between Ella and Karen Carpenter: "The Masquerade"/"I'll Be Seeing You"/"As Time Goes By"/"Don't Get Around Much Anymore"/"I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jquc8iFj6sY


From the 1983 Grammy Awards, Ella and the Manhattan Transfer do a fun rendition of Ella's classic scat version of "How High the Moon":

http://youtu.be/JyARr0cefMM


As Ella got older, operations on her eyes caused her to wear thicker and thicker glasses, which would get fogged up when she sang. But as her voice lost its purity and suppleness, her love for music and her audiences became more and more transcendent.

And finally from a 1987 concert in Italy, sings "Give Me the Simple Life" and "God Bless the Child":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy2ijymraqw

Happy birthday, Ella.
 

[NYadgal]

Indeed! Happy Birthday to her.

I have my Ella playlist on at this very moment!

[Reginald Tresilian]

Ella's music is truly a gift that keeps on giving.

Happy birthday!!!

[spiderdj82]

Besides Etta, Ella is my second baby's mama. LOVE HER

[PalJoey]

Reginald Tresilian reminded me that today is Ella's birthday.

Love.

[CarlosAlberto]

Happy Birthday Miss Ella! I love me some Ella Fitzgerald! Her songbook series is on constant replay on mi iTunes. Those are some gr8 links PalJoey....thanks for sharing!

[PalJoey]

Happy birthday to the First Lady of American Song.

[After Eight]

Her songbooks are treasures.

[PalJoey]

Some of those links are no longer good. I'll delete them and put up others. Meanwhile, here the full video of her wonderful duet with Sammy Davis Jr. on an Ed Sullivan show:

http://youtu.be/nBRsKerbHVs

[JoeKv99]

It had completely slipped my mind- but I did fire up the R&H songbook Sunday while i did laundry in honor of her!

[PalJoey]

her Rodgers and Hart is one of my favorites of her songbooks. I love the way she sings "There's a Small Hotel"--including the little-known verse!

And her version of "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" was the first time I ever heard all the verses Lorenz Hart wrote for the song. She's not the greatest actress or interpreter of lyrics ever, but the way she sings it, a character unfolds.

She sang this two-minute version on the Nat King Cole Show around the time the songbook came out. But it's only two minutes--the version on the songbook is seven minutes.

http://youtu.be/96UbVbNqRSE

[JoeKv99]

I agree on both counts. I actually discussed this with a "jazz fan" friend of mine who was trying to analyze how she can say so much by doing so little. Small Hotel is amazing- it seems like there's no inflection at all, but repeatedly listenings give you a picture of a girl who's only playing an innocent, coyly setting up a rondesvous with yet another man.

I can't remember which song it is but there is one verse to some standard she sings about being in her little velvet panties that caused that same friend no end of wonderment.

[PalJoey]

It's the opening verse to the Gershwins' "How Long Has This Been Going On?":

As a tot, when I trotted in little velvet panties,
I was kissed by my sisters, my cousins, and my aunties.
Sad to tell, it was hell, an inferno worse than Dante's.
So my dear I swore, "Never, never more!"...

But Ella doesn't sing those words. That was the verse Ira Gershwin wrote for the boy. Ella sings the second verse, the girl's verse:

'Neath the stars, at bazaars
Often I've had to caress men.
Five or ten dollars then I'd
Collect from all those yes-men.
Don't be sad, I must add, that they
meant no more than chess-men..."

[JoeKv99]

There's some recording of her singing about her panties- I used to play it at Tower.

[JoeKv99]

I think it's on "Ella Fitzgerald- Best of the Songbooks- The Ballads" on Verve. I used to play that all the time- and sell piles of it.

[PalJoey]

"Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" has the lyric "Those ants that invaded my pants, finis"...could that be it?

[PalJoey]

Found it!

It's not the version on Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Songbook, which uses the "girl's" verse:

http://youtu.be/b_sQwwG2lg8


It's this one, from the album "Like Someone in Love," which uses the boy's verse that begins with the line you remembered "As a tot, when I trotted in little velvet panties...":

http://youtu.be/lVDvWwYpDGA

[JoeKv99]

There you go! That's the problem with having about a hundred Ella Fitzgerald CDs- you can't find the one you need when you need it .

If this exchange has inspired anyone to check out some of Ella's songs- try anything on Verve. She didn't really release any clunkers there.

[thetinymagic2]

If Only....this happened!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-N9gEMkmqKA

[PalJoey]

If Judy's series had run another season, I bet she would have had Ella as a guest.

Maybe even had Count Basie back and it would've been Judy, Ella and Basie.

You can tell how much Judy loves Count Basie when her throat opens up with "And the greaaaaaaaatest band in alllllll the world is playing RIGHT HERE for me!":

http://youtu.be/gRo9C3_6oHM

[PalJoey]

Happy 97th birthday, Ella.

Someone just posted these color clips of you on YouTube.,

http://youtu.be/GvgMDBbN_FI

[PalJoey]

Happy 99th birthday, Ella! You still fly me home.

 

 

[MichelleCraig]

Happy birthday, indeed! She was absolutely amazing. I may have posted this little story on here before, but it's worth repeating:

A friend of mine took her father to see Ella at the Hollywood Bowl towards the end of her life (Ella's, not my friend's). Ella made her entrance, tripped and fell over a tiny step. You could hear a pin drop. The audience was in shock... Ella, pulled herself up and managed an a Capella rendition of "Since I Fell For You" before launching into her planned set list...

[PalJoey]

She always had a song snippet handy.