A fun track from 1963's Ella Sings Broadway, this fluffy little number from The Pajama Game is juiced up with a smoky, vamping, almost bebop-style Marty Paich arrangement that lets Ella play around a little. A good example of how she could take a song that had no business being taken seriously on a vocal jazz record, and make it somehow work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cn94wt2CK_o
BONUS: Look below for a live recording from nearly a decade earlier - 1954, the year The Pajama Game premiered on Broadway - done in the same style, but by a small combo, with Raymond Tunia on piano, Ray Brown on bass, Herb Ellis on guitar, and J.C. Heard on drums.
In this Jazz at the Philharmonic performance, Ella does something that became a running hallmark of her live shows: changing lyrics to give shout-outs to fellow musicians she respected, much in the same way rap artists do in the modern era. Listen to her casually name-check the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Billie Holiday, Charlie "Yardbird" Parker, Woody Herman and his "Thundering Herd," Count Basie, Oscar Peterson, and even her devoted manager, who was also JATP's founder: "Just knock three times and say by chance / That you were sent by Norman Granz..." elicits a wave of appreciative laughter from the audience.
She also throws in a special mention of one of the singers she loved most: "The blues are really sung by Dinah Washington," a sentiment she expresses in more than one live track. On a later date, we'll discuss another instance, in which she follows the praise by breaking into a salty Dinah impression to raucous effect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwyVRh6YU5I
Ella 101 is a daily look at 101 essential recordings by Ella Fitzgerald, who was born 101 years ago this month. Tune in to Equinox, Monday nights from 8 - 11 p.m. on WYSO, to hear Ella and more great jazz with host Duante Beddingfield.
