Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Johnny Mercer Songbook

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Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Johnny Mercer Songbook
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Johnny Mercer Songbook cover
Studio album by Ella Fitzgerald
Released 1967
Recorded October 19-21, 1964
Genre Jazz
Length 59:48
Label Verve Records
Producer Norman Granz
Professional reviews
Ella Fitzgerald chronology
Hello,Dolly!
(1964)		 Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Johnny Mercer Songbook
(1964)		 Ella at Juan-Les-Pins
(1964)

Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Johnny Mercer Songbook is a 1964 (see 1964 in music) studio album by the American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra, focusing on the songs of Johnny Mercer. This was Ella's fifth and final collaboration with Riddle during her years on the Verve label.

The album is notable as Ella's only songbook to concentrate on the work of a lyricist.

Riddle's lush arrangements interact most beautifully with Ella on ballads like 'Midnight Sun' and 'Skylark'. Ella's impeccable swing is most evident on 'Something's Gotta Give' and 'Too Marvelous for Words'.

[edit] Track listing

  1. "Too Marvelous for Words" (Richard A. Whiting) – 2:31
  2. "Early Autumn" (Ralph Burns) – 3:51
  3. "Day In, Day Out" (Rube Bloom) – 2:49
  4. "Laura" (from the film Laura) (David Raksin) – 3:43
  5. "This Time the Dream's on Me" (Harold Arlen) – 2:54
  6. "Skylark" (Hoagy Carmichael) – 3:12
  7. "Single-O" (Donald Kahn, Johnny Mercer) – 3:19
  8. "Something's Gotta Give" (Mercer) – 2:33
  9. "Trav'lin' Light" (Jimmy Mundy, Trummy Young) – 3:47
  10. "Midnight Sun" (Francis J. Burke, Lionel Hampton) – 4:55
  11. "Dream" (Mercer) – 2:58
  12. "I Remember You" (Victor Schertzinger) – 3:38
  13. "When a Woman Loves a Man" (Bernie Hanighen, Gordon Jenkins) – 3:51

All lyrics by Johnny Mercer, composers indicated.

[edit] Personnel

Recorded October 19-21 1964 at Radio Recorders Studio 10-H, Hollywood:

Tracks 1-13

The Complete Ella Fitzgerald Songbooks
Cole Porter (1956) | Rodgers and Hart (1956) | Duke Ellington (1957) | Irving Berlin (1958) | George and Ira Gershwin (1959) | Harold Arlen (1961) | Jerome Kern (1963) | Johnny Mercer (1964)