19. Ella Fitzgerald - Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Song Book (1959)

 Top Tracks:

- But Not For Me

'- Nice Work If You Can Get It

- They All Laughed

- Treat Me Rough

- Isn't It A Pity?

-Boy! What Love Has Done To Me!

- I Got Rhythm

B+

[I've eschewed a full track list on the grounds that this album runs to three CDs, and I don't feel like typing that much out. For similar reasons, I only listened to this once even though I've been making a habit of listening to the albums on this list two or three times to get a feel for them and give them a fair chance].

I like Julie London. I like Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan. I like Chet Baker and Peggy Lee and Frank Sinatra. But for some damn reason something about Ella Fitzgerald just pisses me off. Then again, this is the only album of hers I've heard, and it's possible she's better on other releases. And to be fair, she's pretty good here. It's just one of those things - an irrational annoyance with someone that we all experience sometimes. I feel the same way about Seth MacFarlane's face. And really, on a lot of these songs it kind of sounds like Fitzgerald is phoning it in (although the extent to which a singer of her calibre can phone things in is I suppose up to debate).

Luckily, George and Ira Gershwin wrote pretty great songs. There are only a couple here that don't really work, and that could be a problem with interpretation. Add to that that you have the marvellous Nelson Riddle providing stellar arrangements, and I was able to overlook Fitzgerald's irritating tone for the most part and enjoy this album just as a piece of music.

That said, aside from a few standouts this is still just "funny love song" territory. They are frequently very funny love songs, though, filled with goofy rhymes and wry observations. And every now and then you get a real gem like "Isn't That A Pity", which is a beautiful song about two lonely hearts that met late in life, or the timeless "Embraceable You". There's also the remarkably cheeky "Treat Me Rough", which is pretty much about exactly what you'd expect, and sees Fitzgerald throwing herself into the lyric with all the sexiness she can muster. But then you have something like the truly awful version of "They Can't Take That Away From Me", which murders both the rhythm and the melody. So it's a mixed bag.

One thing that did bug me a little was that apparently Fitzgerald was urged to rein things in and perform slower versions of a few tracks. That's annoying, as her no-holds-barred rendition of "I Got Rhythm" shows that this could have been a very different, much more passionate and swinging album. There's also no version of "Summertime", although apparently she had recorded that previously. Oh well.