Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook is a 1956 album by the 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. 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 Songbook series, each of the eight albums in the series focusing on a different composer of the canon known as the Great American Songbook. Fitzgerald's manager, (and the producer of many of her albums), Norman Granz, visited Cole Porter at the Waldolf-Astoria, and played him this entire album. Afterwards, Porter merely remarked, "My, what marvelous diction that girl has".
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." In 2003, it was one of 50 recordings chosen by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry.
Recorded February 7 – March 27, 1956, Hollywood, Los Angeles:
Ella Fitzgerald – Vocals
Pete Candoli – Trumpet
Harry "Sweets" Edison
Maynard Ferguson
Conrad Gozzo
Milt Bernhart – Trombone
Joe Howard
Lloyd Ulyate
George Roberts – Trombone (Bass), Trombone (Baritone)
Bob Cooper – Clarinet, Oboe, Saxophone (Tenor)
Herb Geller – Clarinet, Saxophone (Alto)
Chuck Gentry – Clarinet (Bass), Saxophone (Baritone)
Ted Nash – Clarinet, Flute, Saxophone (Tenor)
Bud Shank – Clarinet, Flute, Saxophone (Alto)
Robert LaMarchina – Cello
Edgar Lustgarten
Corky Hale – Harp
Barney Kessel – Guitar
Joe Mondragon – Double Bass
Paul Smith – Piano, Celeste
Alvin Stoller – Percussion, drums
Buddy Bregman – Arranger, Conductor
