Ella Fitzgerald ‘Sings the Rodgers and Hart Songbook’ Set For Vinyl Reissue
The legendary singer’s 1956 release has been recognized as one of the greatest vocal jazz albums of all time.
A new vinyl reissue of one of the greatest vocal jazz albums ever is in the works. On Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Rodgers and Hart Songbook, legendary singer Ella Fitzgerald applied her talents to the works of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, backed by a studio orchestra arranged and conducted by Buddy Bregman. A new 2LP vinyl pressing of the record is coming Nov. 21 through Verve’s Acoustic Sounds Series.
Acoustic Sounds releases feature transfers from analog tapes and remastered 180-gram vinyl in deluxe gatefold packaging. Previous releases in the series this year have included titles from Billie Holiday, the John Coltrane Quartet, Roland Kirk, Buddy Guy, Sonny Rollins, Diana Krall, Peggy Lee, Stan Getz, John Lee Hooker, and more. The Fitzgerald release is available for preorder now.
In the waning days of August 1956, a few months after releasing her collection of Cole Porter songs, Fitzgerald brought her incomparable voice to the music of Rodgers and Hart, one of the most beloved and acclaimed songwriting teams of the early 20th century. Recording once again in Los Angeles with Bregman and producer Norman Granz—head of the newly founded Verve label—she cut a slew of classics like “My Funny Valentine,” “It Never Entered My Mind,” “The Lady Is A Tramp,” “You Took Advantage of Me,” “Blue Moon,” and “Isn’t It Romantic?” Players on the album include some of the finest session musicians on the West Coast at the time: Maynard Ferguson on trumpet; Milt Bernhart on trombone; Herb Geller, Ted Nash, and Bud Shank on reeds; Barney Kessel on guitar, and Alvin Stoller on drums.
Spanning 34 tracks in total, the album is a milestone in vocal jazz and has been recognized as such, including induction into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999 and inclusion in author Colin Larkin’s fan-voted 1994 tome All Time Top 1000 Albums. In a five-star review, All Music Guide noted that Fitzgerald “manages to swing the medium-tempo numbers and give sensitivity to the ballads,” concluding that it’s unsurprising the album was a hit.
