The First Lady of Song!
Ella Fitzgerald started out in the mid-’30s, releasing duets with male singers.
Her first hit came with drummer and bandleader Chick Webb and their song A-Tisket, A-Tasket. It became one of the biggest-selling records of the ’30s and brought them nationwide success.
After Chick passed away, Ella continued with the band, now renamed Ella and Her Famous Orchestra. They recorded 150 songs until 1942 when Ella decided to go solo.
Most recordings in the ’30s were novelty stuff, as the ’40s rolled in with Bebop, Fitzgerald took to this style and started performing her famed scat-singing solos. Most successfully in collaboration with Dizzy Gillespie.
She described it as “I just tried to do (with my voice) what I heard the horns in the band doing.”
Lost in Bebop until 1954, Ella reached a breaking point, she said:
“I had gotten to the point where I was only singing be-bop. I thought be-bop was ‘it’, and that all I had to do was go someplace and sing bop. But it finally got to the point where I had no place to sing. I realized then that there was more to music than bop. Norman Granz felt that I should do other things, so he produced Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book with me. It was a turning point in my life.”
Indeed it was, it was the starting point of a concept she would keep up for almost a decade.
The name of each album says it all: Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter (56), Rodgers & Hart (56), Duke Ellington (57), Irving Berlin (58), George and Ira Gershwin (59), Harold Arlen (61), Jerome Kern (63), and Johnny Mercer (64) Song Book.
In many ways, Ella’s versions made these songs. Most music journalists love to praise this body of work when they talk about the great American songbook and how it’s a gift to American culture.
One thing is certain, if you want to play jazz, you have to look into the songs Ella Fitzgerald performed as she pretty much sang them all!
Between 1950 and 1988, Ella Fitzgerald released 61 studio albums and 25 live albums. She is The First Lady Of Song.
Ella Fitzgerald Tunes | Related Pages
Angel Eyes
You can learn how to play Angel Eyes by Frank Sinatra using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, and Spytunes video guitar lessons.
| Am Am/G Am/F# Am/F | Am/E Am/Eb |
Try to think that love’s not around…
Baby Won’t You Please Come Home
Learn how to play Baby Won’t You Please Come Home by Clarence Williams using chords, lyrics, and a Spytunes video guitar lesson.
| D7 | B7 | Em7 | A7 |
Baby won’t you please come home, ’cause your mama’s all alone…
Dream A Little Dream Of Me
You can learn how to play Dream A Little Dream Of Me by Mama Cass using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, and Spytunes video guitar lessons.
| C Gbdim7 | Ab6 G |
Stars shining bright above you…
Get Ready
You can learn how to play Get Ready by The Temptations using chords, lyrics, TAB, backing track, and Spytunes video guitar lessons.
| F5 | Bb | G5 | C |
And I’m bringing you a love that’s true so get ready, so get ready…
Misty
You can learn how to play Misty by Ella Fitzgerald using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, TAB, and the original recording.
| Bbmaj7 | Fm7 Bb7 | Ebmaj7 |
Look at me, I’m as helpless as a kitten up a tree…
My Funny Valentine
You can learn how to play My Funny Valentine by Chet Baker using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, the original recording, and cover versions.
| Cm | Cmmaj7 | Cm7 | Cm6 |
My funny Valentine, sweet comic Valentine…
Over The Rainbow
You can learn how to play Over The Rainbow by Eva Cassidy using chords, lyrics, TAB, chord analysis, and Spytunes video guitar lessons.
| Gsus2 /F# | Em /D | Bm7b13 | G7 Amadd4 /B |
Somewhere over the rainbow…
Summertime
You can learn how to play Summertime by Billie Holiday using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, and the original recording.
| Bbm7 F7b9/C | Db6 F7b9/C | Bbm7 F7b9/C | Db6 F7b9/C |
Summertime and the living is easy…
Sunshine Of Your Love
You can learn to play Sunshine Of Your Love by Cream using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, and Spytunes video guitar lessons.
| D blues scale riff | D blues scale riff |
It’s getting near dawn…
Ella Fitzgerald on the web
Artists & Bands
Behind every single tune you learn, there’s an artist or band with an entire catalogue of music, waiting to be discovered.
Find out more about these great Artists & Bands, and let their tunes guide you to success.
About me | Dan Lundholm
This was an article about Ella Fitzgerald tunes, by Dan Lundholm. Discover more about him and learn guitar with Spytunes.
Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar through playing tunes, not practising scales, and studying theory in isolation.
