This pick is easy: Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook. Ella’s velvet voice simply glides over Porter’s witty lyrics. If you are not familiar with Fitzgerald, start with Begin the Beguine and shuffle from there. This is a great access point for the American Songbook, which Fitzgerald’s voice canonized.
One might also begin with the song I am in Love, which contains one of my favorite lines by Porter: “Should I order cyanide or order champagne?”
I suspect Ella will appear again and again as a pick, but really, how could she not?
Leave a Reply