Get Happy

Read About This Recording

She earned the title of "The First Lady of Song" and was known worldwide by her first name. Ella Fitzgerald had one of the great voices of the 20th century, there was always a special joy to her interpretations, and no one could out-swing her. For nearly a half-century, and especially during 1940-80, she was untouchable.

Ella was born in 1917, growing up in poverty. Her situation changed permanently during 1934-35. After winning an amateur contest at Harlem's Apollo Theater, she passed an audition with Chick Webb's orchestra and soon became Webb's biggest attraction although she was still a teenager. While her early repertoire included a lot of juvenile novelties (including her big hit "A-Tisket, A-Tasket"), she already sounded quite mature on ballads. After Webb's death in 1939, Ella led his orchestra for two years and then launched her remarkably successful solo career. By the mid-1940s, when she became a masterful scat-singer, she was really on her way and in the 1950s she was at the peak of her powers.

Get Happy has Ella in the late 1950s digging into such songs as "Somebody Loves Me," "Moonlight Becomes You," "St. Louis Blues" and "Blue Skies;" the latter has some of her scatting. With arrangements by Nelson Riddle, Frank DeVol, Russ Garcia and Paul Weston, Ella Fitzgerald shows throughout this CD and the previous two why she was always ranked not only at the top of her field but in her own special category.

—Scott Yanow

Extended Article

Ella Fitzgerald's illustrious recording career lasted more than 50 years, but her undeniable peak came nearly halfway, in the late '50s, when she produced her best Verve songbook LPs.

This 1959 LP doesn't confine her to one composer (or arranger), so she sings Berlin, Gershwin and Mercer — and Van Heusen and Handy — and her stunning voice reminds us again how beautiful these songs are. In addition to the original LP's selections, two bonus tracks have been added; one previously unissued.

Contents

Remastered!

Somebody Loves Me; Cheerful Little Earful; You Make Me Feel So Young; Beat Me, Daddy, Eight to the Bar; Like Young; Cool Breeze; Moonlight Becomes You; Blue Skies; You Turned the Tables on Me; Gypsy in My Soul; Goody-Goody; St. Louis Blues; A-Tisket, a-Tasket*; Swingin' Shepherd Blues*.

(*Previously unissued/bonus track.)

Ella Fitzgerald with the orchestras of Frank DeVol, Russell Garcia, Marty Paich, Nelson Riddle and Paul Weston.

CD Special Features

By Request...

A new, specially priced reissue series from Verve

On CD for the first time

Original cover art and liner notes

96 kHz, 24-bit digital mastering

Bonus tracks