0234. Ella Fitzgerald
Sings The George And Ira Gershwin Song Book
This shit's starting to annoy me. As you know I base the selection of albums on the list in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die in a sort of review of the book's selection. And this far they've done a, well, kind of acceptable job, but every so often they've been sloppy with their facts and info. Mostly it's been on albums like this, black artists from the fifties. And today is no exception:
1001 Albums... claim Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Gershwin Song Book was released in 1959 and is over three hours of music, but no such album exists (not even on Ella's offical homepage. While there is an album called Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Gershwin Song Book Vol. 1 released in 1959 it's definitely not over three hours of music.
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George And Ira Gershwin Songbook, however, is a five-album box set that contains, well, fifty-nine of Ira and George Gershwin's songs, which makes it over three hours and actually released in '59. So that's the one I'm gonna review. She did win a Grammy for it back inna day when this kind of jazz was considered pop, y'know.
And well, times have changed a lot since this album was released. Today I'd more expect the line "Why are people gay / all the night and day?" to be in a hatefilled dancehall-track than in a loveable tune like Love Is Sweeping The Country, but there it is, and it doesn't sound as cheezy as when read in today's context. Cause with Fitzgerald's voice caressing each of Nelson Riddle's arrangement of the songs it's a treat to listen to.
But the downside in my approach to this list becomes clear with this one, cause listening to a three hour album makes me lose a bit of my focus. Listening to it twice is almost impossible when there's other things to do that day.
Even the most delightful meal can get to be too much.
