Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, intonation, and a "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing.
After a tumultuous adolescence, Fitzgerald found stability in musical success with the Chick Webb Orchestra, performing across the country but most often associated with the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem. Her rendition of the nursery rhyme "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" helped boost both her and Webb to national fame. After taking over the band when Webb died, Fitzgerald left it behind in 1942 to start her solo career.
Her manager was Moe Gale, co-founder of the Savoy, until she turned the rest of her career over to Norman Granz, who founded Verve Records to produce new records by Fitzgerald. With Verve she recorded some of her more widely noted works, particularly her interpretations of the Great American Songbook.
While Fitzgerald appeared in movies and as a guest on popular television shows in the second half of the twentieth century, her musical collaborations with Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and The Ink Spots were some of her most notable acts outside of her solo career. These partnerships produced some of her best-known songs such as "Dream a Little Dream of Me", "Cheek to Cheek", "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall", and "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)".
In 1993, after a career of nearly 60 years, she gave her last public performance. Three years later, she died at the age of 79 after years of declining health. Her accolades included fourteen Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Links to Peel[]
Ella Fitzgerald was still a highly-acclaimed artist when Peel made his name in the 1960s, but she tended to appeal to an older record-buying public and therefore didn't feature in his playlists of that time. Later in his career, however, Peel played a few of Ella Fitzgerald's 1940s recordings on his shows and included one of them, "My Happiness", in both his Peelenium 1948 and the Pig's Big 78.
She never seemed to be a Peel favourite but did influence singers of later generations, especially through her 1950s "Song Book" albums of pop standards. They even included Mick Hucknall of Simply Red, whose 1987 hit version of Cole Porter's "Every Time We Say Goodbye" was closely based on her 1956 recording of the song. It received plenty of airplay on Radio 1 (Ella Fitzgerald records were usually considered Radio 2 material) but none from Peel, who by then had fallen out with Hucknall and disliked SImply Red.
Shows Played[]
- 14 September 1999: My Happiness (Peelenium 1948)
- 2001
- 15 February 2001 (& Ink Spots): I'm Making Believe (v/a CD - 1927-1946 - Heartbreakers: Blue & Lonely) Trikont
- 2002
- 05 September 2002: 'My Happiness' (Brunswick) - Pig's Big 78