1. Ambulatory Suite
2. Prelude
3. Sam And Delilah
4. But Not For Me
5. My One And Only
6. Let's Call The Whole Thing Off
7. I've Got Beginner's Luck
8. Oh Lady Be Good
9. Nice Work If You Can Get It
10. Things Are Looking Up
11. Just Another Rumba
12. How Long Has This Been Going On
13. It's Wonderful
14. Man I Love
15. That Certain Feeling
16. By Strauss
17. Someone To Watch Over Me
18. Real American Folk Song Is A Rag
19. Who Cares
20. Looking For A Boy
21. They All Laughed
22. My Cousin In Milwaukee
23. Somebody From Somewhere
24. Foggy Day
25. Clap Yo' Hands
26. For You For Me For Evermore
27. Stiff Upper Lip
28. Boy Wanted
29. Strike Up The Band
30. Soon
31. I've Got A Crush On You
32. Bidin' My Time
33. Aren't You Kind Of Glad We Did
34. Of Thee I Sing
35. Half Of It Dearie Blues
36. I Was Doing All Right
37. He Loves And She Loves
38. Love Is Sweeping The Country
39. Treat Me Rough
40. Love Is Here To Stay
41. Slap That Bass
42. Isn't It A Pity
43. Shall We Dance
44. Love Walked In
45. You've Got What Gets Me
46. They Can't Take That Away From Me
47. Embraceable You
48. I Can't Be Bothered Now
49. Boy What Love Has Done To Me
50. Fascinating Rhythm
51. Funny Face
52. Lorelei
53. Oh So Nice
54. Let's Kiss And Make Up
55. I Got Rhythm
56. Somebody Loves Me
57. Cheerful Little Earful
Curse you Ella Fitzgerald, you came oh so deliciously close to derailing my blog, as well as my stable way of life. This album turned me from a diligent updating man into an alcoholic wreck, a mere shell of my former self. Just look at the track list! I can't imagine buying this thing in 1959. It must've taken up like 6 LPs! It's 3 hours long, for Chrissakes!
I'm not even sure how to start off reviewing this album. It's....consistent? Sure, there were a few duds, but when you're dealing with a monolithic set of 57 songs they all seem to get dragged together into one well orchestrated muddle. After listening to all these vocal jazz albums I've got to be a certified expert of 30s-40s pop music (Aren't I supposed to be in the 50s??).
Naturally, since there's so many of these songs they're about all sorts of topics. Most of them are about romance, obviously, but some of these songs are just strange, like 'Cousin from Milwaukee' and the nice bit of cheerio-jolly-good-pip-pip British stereotyping of 'Stiff Upper Lip'. I was particularly amused by 'Treat Me Rough', a swingin' 1930s ode to BDSM (well, almost).
At the end of the day, this album is just too unlistenably vast to give a truly fair review. Ella sings the songs well, though I expected a bit more sass coming off that Sarah Vaughan album. And I do have to give her credit for the scope of this project. Unfortunately, the scope was so vast that this album is rather a chore to get through. 5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment