The Gershwin Songbook

Buena voz. De cuando se apreciaba la voz de una buena cantante.

Oozes with class

but not for me is a banger bambi spring scene type beat

Don't know how I'm going to listen to 3 hours of this. Amazing voice. These songs are everywhere and these feel like superior versions. V.good It's very nice indeed.

My first day at this, and quite an intimidating entry. The music was perfectly fine, but surely this is not meant to be enjoyed as an album per se, but rather sampled occasionally?

Reminds me of my Grandpa John and Grandma Helen along with Linda Ronstadt partnering with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra. That's really just a sentimental way of saying the album made me want to start smoking cigarettes. If I'm being honest, there are other singers and interpreters from her era who have a greater impact on me. This isn't to discount Lady Ella's legendary status, and it could be a way of showing my Gen X colors, but I prefer Ronstadt's voice to Ella Fitzgerald's. And that lucky bastard Nelson Riddle worked with both of them. I didn't listen to the 3+ hour box set version of the album, but I don't think that would have affected my rating.

She is not my styl but she sings like a angel. The best: i got rhythm.

Schön, aber halt n komplettes kompendium…

Ich weiß dass das ein ungerechter Vorwurf ist und es großartige Musik ist herausragend gesungen. Aber es ist einfach zu viel Bigband

Lovely but not entirely my cup of tea. Gershwin and Ella are legends for a reason though!

Honestly just a beautiful voice songs of love and hope always down

Smooth …. great songs … great voice … they feel clever rather than moving

música de radio de fallout

It was a good album for what it is. I always love her voice and the way she carries the music she sings. Very lulling which might make it seem a little boring.

Fond memories of dinner with my grandparents. I think every song on this has probably been done better but no one matches her consistency.

Lovely compilation.

Easy listening…pleasant. First time listening to Ella for an extended period.

Pre 60's Disney music, very soothing voice 7/10

Ella Fitzgerald has a great voice and I appreciate the jazzy swings on Gershwin Songbook. It's just a record I would not consider listening to again, as I do not think I will ever be in a mood to like it as much as I should. 3/5.

Love it.

great singing, just some corny songs.

Some are great, others, not so. As an album, too long for me!

This retro soul album was a delight to explore. I enjoyed listening to it but I would probably never play it again.

Fine. Hard to truly remember any individual songs, but a nice, relaxed vibe.

Lovely, but too much at 44 minutes. Trim off ten minutes and it would have been a ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Het doet me af en toe denken aan de klassieke Dinseyfilms. Niet slecht.

Deze kon mij net iets minder bekoren

Ella is an amazing singer and this is shown throughout (OK I didn't make it through all 73 songs but it's safe to assume this didn't change). Great music and orchestra. A strange thought is there were too many good things and fewer instruments would be less distraction from the main event. Of course I never think this when listening to Pavarotti so my POV is likely due to my being used to her having smaller bands. 

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Thank you Ella this was beautiful

This is great isn't it? Floats along effortlessly driven by one of the voices of any generation. Jazzier than I was expecting which is a good thing. Great morning listening. maybe gets a little samey in the second half, would prefer a few more etta jamesy upbeat songs. 3/5

It's good to hear Ella in her prime. And how can you not like those Gershwin Bros. lyrics> Why did I have to succumb-bah To that rhumba? Can you imagine anything dumb-bah?

Good, relaxing music, quite calm!! Same sound like Mauritus Island!

Was nice

Just One Of Those ThingsElla Fitzgerald 3:32 2 SummertimeLouis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald 4:58 3 Night And DayElla Fitzgerald 3:06 4 The Way You Look TonightElla Fitzgerald

I'm not a Gershwin fan nor this era of big band sound, but I must say that no one has a voice as silky smooth as Ella.

Très relax, lounge-style

That was a much younger Ella than I had heard before

Beautiful voice but the tunes didn’t interest me.

Not my type

At first it didn’t resonate with me but the latter half of the album resonated more with me. The songs themselves were kind of awful in the beginning and her crooning wasn’t enough to save them but then there was some synergy once it got a bit more upbeat.

Lovely voice but the songs all start to sound the same

Ella is amazing but not liking all of the Gershwin catalogue

Very pleasant but not really my style. Has a relaxing by the fire kind of feel a lot of the time.

You can't beat Ella's voice, and paired with Gershwin.....classic. But as an album to listen to, I prefer her soul or blues stuff. For me that's where her voice comes into its own.

Not necessarily bad, but not so much my style, definitely not for 3 hours.

Not a big fan of jazz but I did enjoy some songs on the album. 3h 14m though is wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too long...... what the hell. + I don't understand the last disc

Was interesting to listen to music from that era but at the end of the day, it didn't do much for me, decent

She’s got a great voice, super chill album

Just no. I drowned in the sea of strings and was unable to finish this snoozer.

Not my thingbreally.

09/21 Good music but the album itself is WAY too long!

Snoozefest

Call the whole thing off really frustrated me. I find it extremely unrealistic anyone calls their parents “mater and pater”. I just don’t like it. If you were to replace the lyrics of any given song with another song of hers, nothing about the feel of the song would change. The emotion of the music isn’t tied to the sound and it makes it feel purposeless. Feels like jazz slop. Not to say she isn’t talented, I certainly like her voice, but it just feels like slop. especially with such a long list of songs for three hours? This “album” doesn’t feel like a thoughtfully crafted piece of art, rather a slog of senseless jazzy noise

I lived through the Lawrence Welk era and don’t enjoy reliving it.

I get it: Fitzgerald can sing. But that doesn't mean that I have to enjoy listening to what basically is three hours of the same song.

Over 3 hours... No, I didn't listen to it all. She has an iconic voice but it's not a proper album, just a giant box set of recordings. Shouldn't be on the list.

I like Gershwin and Ella. This was slow and a bit dull

Jag vägrar, av princip, att lyssna på 3 timmar i sträck av denna typ av musik. Fräckheten att inkludera denna samling på listan. Ofattbart. Kan inte vara annat än pretentiöst. Lyssnade på första skivan. Det får räcka.

Tom & Jerry music. Incredible voice and obviously good but not something you’d actively listen to. Nothing too memorable musically or lyrically. Also really fricking long

Ihan liian pitkä

Ахуеть какой долгий релиз , и песни в основном похожи, хотя к самой Элле у меня претензий нет

Boring and too long 5/10

Amazing singer, has to be said. Nothing terrible here, happy to listen to it but very much of its time in terms of arrangements and orchestration, it can get repetitive to the ears, and the schmaltzy, overly sentimental style of the arrangements, starts to drain having to listen to this in its totality. If a song popped up on shuffle it would be a nice change of pace but hard to take this in one bout of active listening when you are familiar with recorded music since 1959… I'm not the target audience for this but can appreciate that this has an all time voice backed by top musicians. 4/10

It’s alright but just not something I would listen to since it just sounds a little too old fashioned for me but I did end up finding another song by this artist which wasn’t on the album that I liked.

It seems the dear old Project never wants to let me go, so it's given me an absolute monster for my final day. Three and a bit hours of quite pleasant but boring jazz standards, I mean it's hard to know what to make of it. She's got a great voice, there's nothing unpleasant, but I was delighted to get through it.

I love Ella Fitzgerald, but not 3 hours worth. Just complete overkill, recording an entire songbook and forcing the audience to come along on the journey. Could only manage a quarter, as it started to sound the same after a while. Who put this on here?

Like Call the Whole Thing Off. New to me, Rhumba and Real American Folk were fun. Not disagreeable, like the peppier ones better, but why so long?

Baustelle, Gerstetten, Deutschland. Stinklangweilig.

I absolutely don’t have a spare 4 hours to listen to this. I’ve listened to volume 1, I’m sure the rest is just as lovely

Bra stemme men litt kjedelig og 3 timer, hørte ikke hele

If we're including this, then I'd argue we should also be including variois other compilations, and by extension, instrumental albums both by classical artists and from movie/tv/game soundtracks. The inclusion is warranted because of the importance of both the Gershwins and Fitzgerald. But in reality, the Gerswhins weren't great songwriters, Fitzgerald was a fine singer who sang just like everyone else did at the time, and the arrangements are dull to unlistenable, what with dreary strings and brass which is precisely either warbling or sudden parps. Plus, every twat and their dog was singing these exact same songs throughout the 40s and 50s - you could listen to any of them and achieve the same impact. Until artists began writing their own shit and challenging each other, popular music was, for lack of a better term, balls. Take any 10 songs from this - there's no need to hear the whole thing.

Charming but every song sounds the same and it is way way way too long

This is too long....

Makes me want to drive around with a fedora and cigar taped to my driver's side window so everyone passing by can experience the Driving Crooner. THEY'RE TRYING TO MAKE IT LOOK FAKE!!!

not my kinda of album

loooooong!!!

A three and a half hour compilation album. I am not sure how this qualifies for a list that very purposely left off compilations. Ella obviously has a legendary voice, but 3 and a half hours? really? put it on at a cocktail party so people feel fancy but this is not an album everyone needs to hear.

I made it about 25% through this marathon of a selection, stopping when I realized I couldn't tell the difference between the last 3 songs. Beautiful voice, great performance, just not for me

Seemed okay. 6 disc's. 3 hours. I don't have time for that.

Me aburroooooo

Couple of stars for a great singer and the songwriters. Minus the rest of the stars for the length. Great for when you have a dinner party with the fancy dishes and don’t want to curate a whole playlist.

its fine but 60 songs is crazy

mmm not really into jazz …

Fabulous voice. Superbly written songs. It's just...a bit much, especially when you consider this was one of EIGHT albums dedicated to what were the great American songwriters of the time. Of the time, of its time.

listened to the first songs and decided it was a bit boring haha

Honestly a 6 disc compilation of songs my gran would have listened to is a bit much

A Beautiful Voice Trapped in a Three-Hour Slog Look, I see the value in this record. Ella Fitzgerald has an absolutely gorgeous voice and the arrangements are undeniably well-crafted. I get why people love this. But honestly? This type of music bores the ever-loving shit out of me. It's fantastic background music. Perfect for a fancy dinner or a cocktail house party. But as an album to actively sit down and listen to? It's a goddamn slog. Most of these songs sound the same and are about love. After about 10 tracks, you get the whole picture. The biggest issue is the length. Three and a half hours of old-timey jazz standards is a unique experience, but is it a good experience? Is it worthy of listening before death? For me, not really. I've got about 40 minutes of tolerance for most music recorded before 1965. This record had me checking the tracklist every few songs wondering how much time was left. To be fair, I wish I could like music like this. But I can't. It's just not my vibe. What I value in albums is a story and a point of view. I like openers and closers that act as strong bookends, variety in the tracklist, a cohesive sound, and experimental moments that make the record stand out. This is an anthology, not a carefully constructed album with personality. It would have been a 5 or 6 if it ended after a third of the runtime, but over three hours of the same vibe is just too much. Rating: 4.5/10

The vocals were good but this was too insanely long to be enjoyable. It was also a slower pace, quieter album, which made it hard to push through at work.

Fint dette. Men 3 timer med det!? Ble gammelt etter 30 min. Nei takk. Trekker et poeng for lengden.

It's too much. I don't have time to listen to the whole lot. She's great, but not all of these 6 discs at once.

Uffff, una infinita película de navidad donde el aburrimiento prima y la trama se trata sobre nada. No lo disfruté. Seré una inculta? Probablemente

Very theatrical and old timey sounding. She’s got a fantastic voice though. SUPER long tracklist. Not sure if I listened to a deluxe or original release, but wow… it’s long. 2.4/5.0

3 hours! I think, yes, there were a couple good songs in this, but a lot of the album was frankly unnecessary. I just found it boring after only a couple songs in. So as a whole, I give this album a 2/5

Who has time to listen to a 3+ hour album?

Going into this, I knew that three hours of Ella Fitzgerald was going to be a challenge, and I honestly thought this might be the first album in the 1001 challenge that I wouldn’t finish. By 9pm, I finally got there. That said, I do think this is slightly unfair to judge in the same way as a normal 30–40 minute, 10-track album. This is really more of a box set or collection than a traditional album, and I think that matters. You don’t really sit down and consume all of this in one go in the same way you would a standard studio album — it feels more like something to dip in and out of over time. In that sense, it was easier to get through because it works well in the background. I found myself dropping in and out of it throughout the day rather than actively listening to every second. The collection moves through so many styles — cabaret, jazz standards, Disney-style vocals, pop and more — that it can feel a bit all over the place. My biggest question is simply whether it needed to be this long. There were moments I found genuinely beautiful and interesting, but there were also large sections that drifted into the background or felt a little dull. A lot of it, if I’m honest, passed by without leaving much of an impression. One thing that absolutely has to be said, though, is that Ella’s voice is wonderful. Even when the material wasn’t connecting with me, her vocal talent was impossible to ignore. The warmth, clarity and effortless control in her singing are remarkable. This collection isn’t really my thing overall, but there are undeniably beautiful moments throughout. Favourite tracks: “But Not for Me” and “Nice Work If You Can Get It” were both enjoyable Least favourite tracks: So much of this went by without fully grabbing my attention Album artwork: Cool album cover

This is just too damn long. I can’t in good conscience give this a 1 because all the songs are good. Fitzgerald is likely a top 5 greatest singer of the 20th century. Nelson Riddle’s arrangements are excellent. But when you have them for over 3 continuous hours it just becomes a slog.

Too much jazz

Nice voice, pretty easy listen. But a 6-disc, 59-track, 3 hour and 15 minute album on this list?? Probably 3-star material if broken into segments, but any album longer than the “Titanic” movie gets at least a 1-star deduction

Og

How can I be civil when hearing this drivel?

Too long

I'm sure I should be high brow, but I struggled with this album. It was alright in bursts but if I'm being honest I was rather bored throughout the album.

I am committed to listening to this list in its entirety so this is the crux of the whole process. On this day, I have listened to 2 of the 6 discs so I’ll chip away at the rest of it over the coming days. It’s a compilation so shouldn’t be on the list and that is factored in my rating. She obviously has a great voice so all due respect but this isn’t really my thing.

I can't do the full 6 discs of this. One is enough. She's got a lovely voice but this gets dull pretty quickly.

Only listened to the 45 minute long "best of" - which was more than enough.... She's a legend, but 3 hours of show tunes is too much for anyone...

Why is it 3+ hours long?

Ella’s voice is as smooth as silk, but I just don’t like this kind of music.

Was a box set really necessary? Music was enjoyable, but a bit bloated. Actually 2/5 changed my mind.

Tror vurderingen av dette albumet kan variere litt ut fra hvor god man er til å porsjonere det ut. Det er jo mye bra her, og åpenbare klassikere, topp musikk og absolutt viktig, men det er for mye av det. Stundvis glemte jeg at jeg hørte på et album. Så måtte jeg ta en pause og plutselig hørtes albumet bra ut igjen, men å avslutte med rene instrumentaler var seigt. Scoren får 2 basert på at det ikke er mulig å høre på dette som 1 album. At den gruppa her misliker dobbeltalbum er en ting, og da sier det seg vel selv hvordan et sekstuppelalbum gjør det.

So long! But is a six disc boxset so know not meant to be listened to like this. Didn't hate, good voice, but samey, boring and long. Did listen to all. Last disc is total crap

I want to say that, for the record, I listened to this entire thing. All 194 minutes of it. And I truly cannot understand why this is on here. Yes she has a great voice, yes the instrumentation is fun, but like this is THREE HOURS LONG, and from what I've seen it's the only compilation on this list, so I just don't get why it needs to be here. I'm sure Ella Fitzgerald has plenty of really amazing albums that could be here in the place of this one, I don't see why we need this one. Favorites: The fun ones

Couldn’t quite make it through the full 3+ hours

Some of the songs are entertaining and Ella Fitzgerald has a beautiful voice don't get me wrong. This is mostly just boring slop from an era that isn't timeless for my generation.

Stunning voice, of course. But I'm not sure this music was even designed to be marathoned across 3+hours so it seemed a bit of a challenge to get through.

Ella is obviously great. Album is obviously long. I did listen to all of it, but was fairly zoned out halfway through the second disc. Tipping the scales against this, as an ALBUM, is the fact that disc 6 is just instrumental stuff that isn't even Ella singing? I got a couple songs in before I had my wtf? moment. Ella=great, album to showcase her=ok, but has some issues.

sorry i cheated and only listened to disc 1. and i did like it, i like ella's voice, more of the songwriting i wasn't fond of. maybe i'll come back one day to do the other discs...

She could definitely sing but I ain't listening to 3 hours of this.

Too many songs. Also basically just one song.

TLDL

59 songs? funny.

Would've been nice if it didn't take five business years to listen through.

Again, I'm not listening to albums that are nearly 60 songs long that's absolutely ridiculous.

Very talented but not really my thing

I mean it is what it is, but it's not for me.

Some fun songs, but way too much album to get through on one sitting!

This album triggered a deep reflexion on what I appreciate in Music and how to approach these reviews. Are artists interprets/actors or do they own their art ? If a singer sings generic songs really well, is it good music or good singing ? I'm just rumbling nonsense at this point. I'll be using this template from now on to help me structure the whole thing : What I liked : Amazing voice, overall great production What I didn't like : Generic songs, the lenght, lack of theme Unmissable tracks : ??? Short personnal view : I understand that in this era, people were used to a catalog of songs free for all to interpret. However lyrics and their link to the artist are important to me, here I couldn't care about anything because of this. Also 3 hours ?? That's not an album it's more of an attempt at a compilation, so besides the point of this list... Rating : 4/10

Fuck me. This took forever and more than not was boring as fuck.

Ella is great. Gershwin songs are hit and miss. Three hours is much too long

I know she is a legend and has a nice voice but it's not that interesting. I was surprised how white she sounds. Maybe I would appreciate her more if she did songs in another genre and time. The Gershwin music turns me off. Cheesy songs with Nelson Riddle swing/big band arrangements blasting horns in between lyrics. All sound the same. Impossible to listen to 3+ hours of this. I had to keep skipping after a minute or so.

My god this is long…. Amazing voice but half an hour is plenty, not 4 hours… was on in the background all day. It’s a 1.5

Inoffensive background music for when you need 9 hours of music but can't change the track as there's a certain slug sat on your phone

Not really my thing. Perhaps nice to have on in the background at a dinner party or playing a board game but I couldn't really get into it just sat at my desk.

Nice

A box set is not an album. She’s a great singer. The source material is not.

From the Vault #8 (March 12, 2026) Greetings. I'm back for another pre-written review of a long album. After working my way through 69 Love Songs, which I had assumed was the longest album in the book, I assembled a list of albums above one hour in length for if I ever had time to kill in the future. It's mighty convenient that the 1001 Albums book includes the runtimes of every album, lemme tell ya. Lo and behold, it was revealed to me that this album is actually the longest on the list, being 15 minutes longer than that of 69 Love Songs. Needless to say, I have to vanquish such evil from my list before it had the opportunity to catch me off guard. I'm not sure what this album could be other than a hoity-toity vocal jazz album by going off of the year of release and album cover. Here goes. Okay, COME ON. I am two hours and my quintillionth song into this album, and this broad is still bloviating about love. Contrary to popular opinion and the many peer-reviewed disserations which have been written on the subject, I am not a lover of men, so I couldn't relate to this album all that much. I think Ella Fitzgerald has made herself unlovable. It's quaint listening to all of these songs about how much she loves her current partner, yet she's always up and looking for love within the next few tracks. It's difficult to say why her relationships always fall apart given what we know about them, but I think "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" provides an important insight into the dynamics. In the song, Fitzgerald relentlessly nitpicks her partner for pronouncing English words differently to her. She weighs up the possibility of whether she should leave her partner, to which she backs down over fear of being alone. To even have such reservations is indicative of deeply uncompromising, selfish and insecure behaviour. I recommend that she seek professional help and takes the zombie pills or whatever it is that psychologists do these days. She also pronounces "oysters" as "ersters", so I'm thinking institutionalisation may be in order. Book time. Fitzgerald has an "unassailable" reputation, apparently. A good pairing of singer and songwriter. "It is the best of the Song Book albums, and the definitive collection of the works of perhaps the definitive American songwriters." Wait, there's multiple of these? There's eight, apparently. The average length of which is about an hour-forty in length. A box set compiling all of these albums is just over 15 hours long. That's fucked up. I suppose I don't question Fitzgerald's prominence as an artist. She was going nuts with all of the albums that were being put out at the time. Wikipedia says this album belongs to "...what is possibly Fitzgerald's greatest musical legacy..." I.e., the songbook series. The article said it was only "possibly" her greatest musical legacy, so there's still a chance we switch this album out. It was well-received by critics, though to be fair there's only four ratings. I mean, surely there's an album equivalent in quality to this one which also isn't three fucking hours long, right? I switcharoo this inclusion. ================== Kablammo. Me from the present here to say that it feels mighty good to instantly vaporise this album from the list. I wasn't expecting it so soon, however. I definitely thought I'd roll 69 Love Songs before this album, if only for the fact that I've known about it longer. This website should honestly relegate the long-as-fuck releases to the last hundred-or-so albums (save for maybe the White album). It'd certainly make the final stretch of this list more dramatic and treacherous.

No thanks. I could have died and not listened to this.

This'd be three stars if it was three hours long.

Dit album heb ik niet afgeluisterd. Het duurt mij te lang er. Er staan veel nummers op die ik ook al ken van andere artiesten of van Ella zelf samen met Louis Armstrong. Na anderhalfuur wist ik het wel. Als het daar was gestopt had ik het misschien nog wel 3 sterren gegeven. Maar ik was het daarna wel echt zat

This wasn't a songbook. It was a set of songs encyclopedias. It's all good, but it's all also roughly the same. And it's just too goddamned long.

Voice of angel. Album was so long I actually died and she greeted me.

April 14 Tuesday 2026 Not my usual cup of joe Prefer Chet bakers cover of “not for me”

only listened until the 3rd disc.

the princess and the frog vibes, undeniably strong voice however not for me

Dobra purva pesen everything else mid/bad

Way too long to listen to in a single sitting. Disc 1 was good.

I can go out, grab a few drinks, get something to eat, get back home, and this will still be playing. I know because I did all of that. At least 69 Love Songs was fun, this is just old people music

Lmao casi 4 horas nose si I’m gonna do this shit La primera cancion me ha parecido strangely sexualll slow down delilah Goofy aaaa song la 4a

Beautiful voice, but this was 3:15 of the same song

What a struggle…worse than listening to Rush..if it wasn’t for Ella’s beautiful voice I would have stopped with the first song…my god 3h and 15mins of these songs…words escape me.

The length alone is so off putting I cannot lie. 😭😭 I got through it, but the following morning as I had to take a break. I can appreciate Ella Fitzgerald and her contributions to Jazz and music as a whole, but this wasn’t it for me.

Too long, started off good tho

No es mi estilo

this is like an endurance challenge

Just more of the same old jazz—I'm sick of it; it sounds just like any other jazz from back then

There was too much similarity between each sign in tone and quality.

para tenerlo de fondo y estar tranquilo es bueno, claramente no lo terminé pero para ser mi primera vez escuchando jazz está bien

This is the wrong way to listen to the Gershwins and Ella. More than three hours of continuous listening makes it all blur together. It would be better enjoyed mixed with other pieces to break up the monotony.

I might have liked this on a Saturday night, smoking a cigar and drinking a large glass of whiskey... Not now though. It's a gloomy Thursday :( 2/5

I’m sorry but there were a lot of exciting current albums being released today that I really wanted to listen to and I didn’t have 3 spare hours so let’s assume from my short sampling it’s a 2

i liked „lets call the whole thing off” and even though i dont usually listen to this genre this album was really nice for my study session :) but i didnt listen to the whole thing (only disc 1 and half of disc 2)

Great voice but 4 hours of basically the same stuff over and over and over again is not my bag.

Perfect voice, perfect arrangements… and kind of boring.

This was just...too fucking long. I'm sure it's a masterpiece, but did we really need to hear the entire songbook?

Personally did not enjoy, it was ok tho. Very jazzy, mom or dad would probably enjoy.

Honestly, I'm kind of embarrassed giving this a rather low score, as Fitzgerald is top-notch here, and the music is so lovely. Clearly, Gershwin wrote so many amazing songs, and he himself hadn't realized how good his stuff was until Fitzgerald sang them as she did here. But what's it doing here? It was never an album—it was a box set on day one—and yet this one gets the free pass on "no comps," but nothing does from, say, Billie Holiday, James Brown, Thelonious Monk, Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Bill Evans, and countless other greats from this time period? This is where I don't understand what really goes into the list. I'm sorry, but I can't listen to over 3 hours of Fitzgerald singing Gershwin in one sitting and feel satisfied. Imagine waiting for your dental appointment, but instead of 3 minutes, it takes 3 HOURS. This is existential dread that I could not fathom experiencing before this album. Only Dimery knows what's going on here. Maybe there's a secret message regarding the Illuminati or the answer to the question of life, the universe, and everything if you play a number of these songs backwards. In any case, we demand answers.

#886. This is over 3 hours long. I'm going to tell you right now I'm not doing that. 2/5: maybe it's great, maybe I don't care

Ella Fitzgerald is a fantastic artist with a beautiful voice. She was highly influential and shaped the jazz movement. I can appreciate this choice, and I understand why it was included. It’s an important album. That said, just like with Ellington, I can’t make myself listen to any more than about an hour and a half of this. I liked what I heard, but I’ve heard enough.

3 hours is a big problem. I didn’t listen to all of it because it lasts 12% of the day

Look I get that Ella Fitzgerald is a legend and she sounds great on this album and all but my word 3 hours and 15 minutes? Guys that’s egregious. I don’t want to listen to anyone for that long unless it’s a concert. Also the instrumental stuff at the end? What’s that about? If you loved this good for you I guess but holy moly that was a slog.

This shouldn't be eligible as it's a box set, therefore I listened to disc 1 only (plus the start of disc 2 as it contained a song I already know) and have marked down accordingly I actually own 4 of her albums but I generally prefer her live stuff. She has an incredible voice but I find this to be a bit overly orchestrated compared to something like _Ella in Berlin_, and their more stripped back, quartet arrangements. That album also contains a Gershwin song that isn't on here that everyone will know. Perhaps more famously sung by Billie Holiday but Ella also does a great version, which is _Summertime_.

Good album I just dont like older music or that genre

Not my thing.

Mdrr c’est quoi ce traquenard, un album de 6 disques qui dure 3h15 ?

1.6 Okay so I lasted about 45 minutes by my reckoning. Firstly, this should not be included on this list. It's a 5-album compilation box set. I'm 992 albums in, and this is the first time this has appeared on this list. Why Ella Fitzgerald and no one else? Why at all more importantly. Give me an album, not 5 albums. It's not 1,005 albums to hear before you must die. Such an odd choice. Secondly, the music is pretty shite.

Not my type of music and won’t be after this challenge but I’m still glad I listened to the whole thing!! Though I haven’t listened to any other releases from her Complete American Songbook series yet I suspect this was probably not the best choice for this list, if only for its inaccessible form - there are EIGHT albums in that collection and every one bar this is single LP length, why would the editors choose this as essential listening?? I also don’t personally care for most of the Gershwin compositions here and my 21st century British ears were quite tired after 3+ hours (albeit I listened in about three chunks which helped a bit w/ the burnout :]). still I v much appreciate this was before the album era and I am probably listening to this under very different circumstances to its original audience. Ella does a fantastic job with the material though. 2.5/5

Definitely has some Frank Sinatra flair to it. The lyrics are pretty dopey at times, but that all just adds to the vibe. Dropping this a star because it's just so unreasonably long and arguably not an album.

the premise of listening to an album a day makes this big jumbo set out to be really obnoxious. not rushing through it and just taking it a few songs at a time, it wasn't as much of a chore as i thought it'd be. still a chore though. overall it's just a whole lot of lovely tunes about love on top of a jazz orchestra. i left with a lot of great songs--could probably cut it down to a strong 3 star twelve track album--but that's still only like 20% of the collection. but yeah important piece of american canon or whatever. i was having the most fun when they were picking up the pace a little bit, or sampling other genres, like Just Another Rhumba or The Real American Folk Song. favorite song is probably He Loves And She Loves

Rating: ?/10 I don't even know what score to truly give this collection of music at the moment, which is over 3 hours of this legendary vocalist singing to part of her career long project of playing the entire canon of 'The Complete American Songbook'. It was best group background music which gave me the chance to listen to it in full in the background but not enough of a chance to really take it in and give a firm opinion on. Looking at some of her other released albums of her singing to standards, I definitely think they could have just added any of the other ones that are much, much shorter instead.

As my fellow 1001 peers have noted, the length of this box set makes it stand out in a daily listen format. Unfortunately the length does not translate to a plethora of smash jazz hits. Twas a different time twith different standards for music. Favorite lyric: Banana banana, Havana Havana. 4 Havana Lizards out of 10 Wizard Lizards

Boring after a few songs. Nice background music at a steakhouse. Great voice, nice songs, but just not for me.

While the start of the compilation has a few good songs I found it became very repetitive to the point where I somewhat disassociated myself from listening intently. However, it was not bad to the point of being unbearable and I did quite enjoy the first disc or two. But lacked substance at least after disc 1.

Vocal Jazz. There's no doubt that Ella Fitzgerald has a great voice, the problem is that I just don't like this style of Jazz and find it boring.

(2.5) Adore her, but I really don't know a if 6-disc box set belongs in this list period- Especially when the whole basis of this project is that it includes literally everything from the Songbook, regardless of how good/known/influential it was? The feat itself is impressive, and certainly notable in a music history capacity, but the end product isn't much to write home about. Beautiful because it's Ella Fitzgerald, of course, but in practice not suitable for much more than background listening.

Završila sam sve. Sve i jednu pjesmu. Gdje mi je orden i novčana nagrada? Ne pretjerujem. Od početka radnog vremena do pauze me p(r)atila. A zaista ništa posebno ni vrijedno 200 minuta dosađivanja, Ali nije stravično loše pa eto neka jadna dvica se može udijeliti.

(gets on high horse) I don't think compilations, best ofs, live albums, or box sets belong on the list. So regardless of how I feel about Ella Fitzgerald or the Gershwins, I have a bias against this. I love Ella's Christmas album, but three hours of big band jazz vocal is very much not my thing. I can appreciate her voice and the orchestra, but this is never something I would reach for even if it was proper album length.

Vackert och behagligt men väldigt tomt. Ger betyg för vad det ger MIG.

Vraiment pas mon truc, j'ai toujours l'impression de regarder de vieux Disney...

Ella Fitzgerald has an amazing voice, crystal clear and iconic. As much as I like to listen to her this album was almost 3 hours long and was a little bit too much Ella Fitzgerald for me. Probably great for a dinner party but not for listening back to back.

Coraz bardziej poddaje w wątpliwość, czy ktoś na poważnie zawarł niektóre te płyty w tym zestawieniu. Nie będę katować tym przez 3h jak 10 minut trwało jak wieczność

You Like Tomato And I Like Tomahto 1001 Albums Generator 220 (2/4/2025) The Gershwin Songbook is part of a larger project that Ella Fitzgerald finished during her life, where she aimed to sing all (or most) of the Great American Songbook. That total compilation is just over 15 hours long, but even just this portion of it is a little over 3 hours long. I really try to listen to every album I get on this list twice, but that doesn't work for an album of this length as a daily album. Unfortunately, I also have no connection with this music, because I have no familiarity with 30's and 40's musicals. So there's a lot working against this album for me. I found the first couple discs to be kind of interesting. For example, the big band and almost oriental sounds on Just Another Rhumba are so cool. Let's Call The Whole Thing Off is really fun. I'm not a big fan of the slower songs, but Aren't You Kind Of Glad We Did? and Someone To Watch Over Me are quite pretty. The last disc, which is the shortest, features instrumental compositions by the Gershwin brothers, and is thus probably the weakest just by virtue of not having Ella's beautiful, powerful voice. Maybe if the instrumental pieces were spread throughout the album, they would stand out more. Yeah man, it's 3 hours long. 2/5 I guess?? I feel so bad about that but it's just not for me. Favs: Let's Call The Whole Thing Off Just Another Rhumba The Real American Folk Song Least Fav: IDK..... probably one of the instrumental ones on the last disc

Now my type oft music but i understand why people listen to it

Likes: Easy to listen to, very well produced for its time Dislikes: Too much… I get that it’s a valuable listen, but why is a three hour boxset on the list when there is surely a more concise way to hear these songs or this singer. It all blends together, and nothing stands out. Overall, not bad and a didn’t mind it at baseline, but it’s just too much. If it was three hours of compelling material, that would be one thing. But it’s just not, unless you’re already a big fan of Ella or the Gershwins.

3+ HOURS?!?!?! Ella is not the problem at all on this but there’s no way I’m finding time to do that

- ok i know Ella Fitzgerald is iconic and I love her powerful voice but im not listening to 3 hours of this - c’est un album que je mettrais en musique de fond en étudiant dans un coffee shop

The compilation was rudely long. Ella fitzgerald has a great voice but this just isn't my style and went on forever

59 "American standards" performed by a jazz singer and a jazz band is incredibly mean to me in particular.

Such kind of music made me think that all jazz is like that and I was hating it for a long time. Soulless “white” music pieces

Ella’s voice is flawless - I have no complaints there! But this is too much and not at all an album anyone _needs_ to hear. I hear there’s a shorter version with ”highlights”, which might be great. But I’m reviewing the whole 3+ hour thing here… I have better things to do (and listen to).

4 - BAD

Meh

GOING IN: Quite hopeful LISTENED WHILE: having morning coffee FAMILIARITY: Know a few songs SKIP RATE: Gave up entirely REPLAY VALUE: Might come back to it DISCOVERY CURVE: Slow burner this one ALBUM ARC: Pretty even, consistent VERDICT: Fair enough BODY'S VERDICT: Sitting nicely - Motionless appreciation FAVOURITE TRACK: My Rating: 2 She doesn't start singing until track 3. Up until then it's all a bit Tom & Jerry.

Has that classic sound that sounds a bit old hat now. I’m not particularly fond of any of the songwriting at all, but Fitzgerald’s voice is absolutely stellar here - I’m not sure it’s enough to save it completely though. Songs like ‘let’s call the whole thing off’ and ‘s’wonderful’ have stood the test of time but I don’t particularly enjoy, likely because they are a bit close to musical theatre. Much prefer Fitzgerald when singing anything other than Gershwin I’m afraid.

Obviously her voice is beautiful, she’s a legend. Got a bit monotonous as every single song was about a man or wanting a man.

Waaaay too long lol.

Not my type of music. Maybe it it was the 50's

love her but in the big picture i’ve got to put other albums higher (for now at least!!)

2

I got so far as to potato >< potato and then I couldnt anymore...

I just can’t do it - the majority of songs except two I find draggy and torturous.

Nicht durchgehört, dass ging fast 5 stunden. insgesamt sehr ähnlich alles und ich habs nicht so genossen. Aber natürlich eine schöne stimme.

Don’t care how good Ella Fitzgerald is, this is way too long for the casual listener.

Damn that’s a long ass album. Luckily I had some lines to wait in in Disney world so I got through the over 3 fucking hours of jazz and show tunes. Jeez. The like show tunes vibe of a some of the songs ain’t really my vibe but I will so in general it’s a good album just not for me. Pretty impressive she can come up with this many songs I guess. Also their is 3 preludes but not one overture on here so weird.

Quite pleasant and by all means not "bad" BUT when it comes to the album experience, it's just far too long to rate it highly.

I've roughly worked out that I have around 9,000 hrs of music listening time left (I hope it's more). I'm not wasting 4 hrs and 13 minutes of it with these 73 tracks!! Heard before ❌️ Listened this time ❌️ one track Revisit ❌️ Default ★★☆☆☆ (4/10)

This is 3 HOURS LONG. The first time I just stopped listening to one of these albums. Just not my kinda music at all.

Great voice that works its way around the melodies beautifully for a powerful perfomance, but this style of stringy jazz is too schmaltzy to bear.

Honestly just the first disc. Fine but I prefer the sad sacks.

Ella's a legend of course. This is pretty tired though, probably slapped in 1959. Slapping was far more normalised back then. Also 3+ hours?! No chance.

This is bullshit. This isn't an album. Its a compilation. Great voice.

Hans probiert aber ich glaube mini ohre chönd nüd wükli toll finde wo vor 1960 gmacht worde isch. Sorry Ella, nöd dini schuld. Zwei schwarz-wiisi puntos

Gid mir wiehnachts vibe. Hät biz potential aber doch einiges zu alt gebacken und lngwillig. Schadens

Ella Fitzgerald has a beautiful voice. However a chorus of angels or a singing elephant could be singing these songs and I'd be looking for a way to escape half an hour in. Does anyone pronounce oyster "erster"? I don't think so. What were they saying about the squawky woman from Milwaukee? Clearly the sound of the words are much more important than the meaning of the lyrics.

Her voice is beautiful but 3+ hours of this is so much

Jamais été un grand fan de jazz. On se fait un peu chier imo.

(50/100)

Not for me

Ella’s voice? Pure velvet. No complaints there—she could sing the phone book and make it sound classy. But after an hour of this sprawling box set, I started to feel like I’d wandered into a never-ending 1930s cocktail party where every song was about a woman either chasing a man, losing a man, or dramatically declaring she’ll never love again (until the next track). The orchestration is lush, but also a bit like musical wallpaper—elegant, but it all blends together after a while. By track five, I was half expecting Fred Astaire to tap-dance through my living room. Gershwin’s melodies are iconic, sure, but the lyrical themes feel like they were written by someone who thought emotional stability was a sign of weakness. In short: Ella’s voice is a gem, but the material feels like it’s stuck in a loop of romantic despair and orchestral déjà vu. Oh, and nobody has ever pronounced 'potato' as po-tah-to!

She has a fine voice, but I'm not going to listen to 4 hours of show tunes.

Love her voice but this way too long and the songs are pretty boring. Decent background music though. Not sure how to rate this or if I can finish it by tomorrow. If you condensed it down to a normal album length selecting the best tracks it would easily be a 4 star album.

mellow

This ain’t it

It's as if I have been placed into the world of the princess and the frog. Not great. Songs are really slow.

Ok, aga on paremaid

I dont like oldtimey music anymore

She has a nice voice. Wasn't my favorite type of music and there was a lot of it.

Baggrundsmusik til en meget lang middag. Ville være op mod 4 stjerner hvis det var et dobbeltalbum i stedet for 5-6 stk. virker sindssygt at der er så mange sange af Gershwin og så Summertime ikke er en af dem?

It all sounds the same.

Not my favorite Bit boring Cute

Note to admin: a box set is too much to cope with in one day 😏 I'm sure this sounded wonderful on the gramophone back in the day but it is soooooo dated now, both stylistically and lyrically, that it's hard to appreciate.

Sorry Ella, but this is not the kind of music I want to listen to 3 and a half hours of in one go.

Quite a slog at 3 hours but Ella has a beautiful voice so that definitely helps. Favorite track: The Man I Love

Meh

I get it, Ella Fitzgerald has great voice. She really does! But why is this album on the list? I know the songs are very old, but they just feel corny to me. I feel bad that this is how she's using her talent. And the length... it's like the listmakers didn't want to actually research and include jazz music, so they were like "Ah just put the long one on there, that'll cover us." I was really geared up to like this, but nah, wouldn't revisit.

Obviously, the vocals are lovely...but the old-timey stuff here is not my jam.

The big band music is a bit much for a full album but some classic songs and she has a lovely voice.

I had an 8 hour delay at O'Hare and that wasn't enough time to finish this album

Took me nearly 4 months to finish this one, what a slog. The 6th disc was completely unnecessary

Mate the Album is 3 hours 15 mins... the first few songs were very much of the era, but its not my thing and I ain't listening to all that.

2 out of 5. Ran too long for my liking but powered through. She has a wonderful singing voice that helped carry me through this album.

2 because of the 59 tracks.

I kind of feel like compilations are against the spirit of this list. This is very long - 6 disks on Spotify and well over 3 hours. Ella Fitzgerald is great, and these songs are timeless, but this is a lot to get through. I am recognizing some songs which is cool, but this really isn't something I would choose to listen to, even if I wanted to hear Ella Fitzgerald.

Too slow and chill

Long ahhh Songs individually were fine but 70 songs is crazy

I'm not a jazz head. this isn't my thing, but I can recognize that its a good rendition of "not-my-thing."

One album. Not six CDs. Cmon.

5/10

Kinda boring

Thats not really my vibe at the moment. But I can imagine this would grow onto me and then I would probably play it in certain situations for the vibe

Ella Fitzgerald’s voice is smooth as silk and this glides through the first three tracks and then we hit a track i actually recognise in ‘let’s call the whole thing off’ and i hate to say it but the vocals are just too clean for my liking. This track feels like it should be sang by a more lived in voice. (I’ve got) beginners luck gets up back on track and we’re swaying along like I’m watching an old film at my grandparents in my childhood. I’d have given the first lp/disc a 3/5 but fear my tolerance for this is already seriously waning and i’m only just started the second set. The Real American folk song is a real pick me up with a lively piano offering a welcome bit of variety to the general floaty big band numbers. End of disc two and everything’s still generally pleasant, but now definitely feels there needs to be more variety. Clap yo hands at least raises the tempo, a bit to more of a swing like tune This is just toooooo loooonnnnngggg. Disc 4 is too one dimensional with Slap that Bass being the stand out due to it at least punctuated the dreamy sleepiness of the rest of the music. Other than that ‘shall we dance’ almost adds some life to proceedings, but not quite. By the time i reach the 5th disc ‘i cant be bothered now’ feels worryingly self aware. I got rhythm at least ensures it ends on a high. Good moments that could have been edited to a great album. Whilst i applaud the ambition of the project it is just too long to enjoy as a single album

Ella Fitzgerald clearly takes her brief very seriously, because when it says she sings the Gershwin songbook, I assume they mean every, single song given this album comes in at a whopping 3+ hours. I’ve heard infinitely worse albums so far while doing this project, but this was just totally unnecessary.

respectfully, I cannot I made it halfway through album 3 and thats as much of my day that I am willing to sacrifice to these shenanigans

3h 15m... Maybe if it was a concept album I would have listened to it all

She's got a very beautiful voice, it's very smooth and clear. Not my genre but really cool. Didn't realise she was the potato potato chick. 2/5 stars.

Far too long

Whoever put a 3+ hour box set of jazz on this list needs to take a long, hard look in the mirror. I get it, Ella had an amazing voice and was a jazz pioneer, but there are a few tracks on this compilation that sum up my feelings about today's pull: Who Cares? I Can't Be Bothered Now Suffered through this in hopes the 1001 Albums Gods smile upon me tomorrow.

Probably too old for my taste. Didn't enjoy it, didn't despise it either.

'let's call the whole thing off' is annoying the hell out of me. It just keeps going. How did she find so many things to pronounce? Boring and too long but 1 star feels too harsh.

J - 2/5 Best Track - "Let's Call The Whole Thing Off"

Ella has a great voice and the Gershwin‘s wrote wonderful songs. Standards are standards for a reason, right? Put this album was too long, the songs began to run together, and I don’t even think I ever knew there were as many verses in ‘Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off’.

Wesh c’est baaaaad long heureusement c’était le week-end

Ella Fitzgerald, great voice. Gershwin, some fantastic music! Put them together and what do you got??!! Ella Fitzgerald singing covers of Gershwin........ This album isn't ground breaking or influential in any way, it's literally just a bunch of covers. I actually listened to the full 3 hours, after a while it all started to sound the same. Is it good, sure. Is it great, no way.

Ella reallly bring life to these often quite silly Gershwin songs. Quite enjoyable background music, except for the horrible instrumental section that started the album. Ella ***, instrumental songs *

I don't like this but I respect this. Respect gives star number two

This is music I don't mind listening in an elevator or shopping mall, it doesn't get an emotion out of me. Music that makes me go *shrug* This type of big band show jazz is really not my cup of tea. It's not particularly off putting, rather I feel it's kind of neutral or bland music, wouldn't call it muzak tho since it's rather well excecuted. I've got so much new music to sift through, that I don't feel good about loosing daylight to something I've no feelings what so ever towards.

Lovely voice... unfortunately not enough to appreciate listening to it for 3 whole hours.

película newyorkina de navidad

What the fuck am I getting myself into? 3 hours and 15 minutes is a box set not an album. She has a lovely voice. Let's Call The Whole Thing Off is one of my favorite jazz standards. (I've Got) Beginner's Luck is really good. Oh, Lady Be Good is beautiful. Some of these lyrics are ridiculous. Just Another Rhumba's torturing of standard pronunciation to rhyme is ridiculous. How Long Has This Been Going On? is good as well. One disc of six done. My god, this is going to turn into torture. This is not meant to be listened to in one sitting. A third person self-reference in By Strauss. Someone to Watch Over Me is a great song. The Real American Folk Song is terrible, rags are not my cup of tea. The lyrics are like what a ten year old would write, My Cousin in Milwaukee is so bad. People in the early part of the 20th Century had a lot to contend with, but the Gershwins' lyrics might have been one of the worst. Disc two, done. I wonder if Nora Ephron or Gary Marshall just listened to this album and stole their movies from it...because I would believe they did. There's just too many songs. They could have made on amazing double album; four sides, six songs each. Instead, it's ten sides. Treat Me Rough is about rough sex and I'm here for a swinging, jazzy Closer. Two of the bigger songs in this back to back in They Can't Take That Away From Me and Embraceable You done well by a genius. There's a lot here and you realize that she's more talented in her way than the Gershwins' are in theirs. Her performance is spot on every song, even when the material leaves something to be desired. They close out the Ella portion of the album with I Got Rhythm which is way overrated. An album of showtunes and now a bunch of intermission filler and overtures. What is the point of tacking these on at the end? One on each side I get, but six in a row on their own record?

Favorite: Love is Sweeping the Country I love the orchestral music at the end of this album. Ella Fitzgerald was undeniably a crucial and impressive person in the music industry however this album was slow, not very musically interesting, and way way too long.

Stunning album. Ella’s voice is so beautiful and smooth. I feel so comforted listening to her music. Solid 7.5/10. It was originally almost a 9 but the major drawback is most of her songs are singing about men and longing for them. Obviously she is allowed to sing about men but because it was released in 1959 it feels like that’s all she was allowed to sing about. If not the patriarchal brainwashing certainly got to her poor thing. If she just wanted to sing about men that’s okay too but just not my jam.

A clear, strong vocal and an impressive feat - yet I learnt long ago to loathe musical theatre for bringing us MTs. Ugh

Did not finish.

I didn't give this one a real shot. Not because I hate Ella Fitzgerald, but because it seems so long for an album that was made in the 1950s and is on the boring side of Jazz Music as it would become. Goin with a fairly blind 3/10

this was mid to ok and all blended together; the fact that this was a surely a 3hr 15min four LP box set is a bit much and i am annoyed at the list for pulling this nonsense. 1.5

Wow, for a few days there I almost didn't give myself credit for making it through this. I already thought double albums were on thin ice and I can't imagine what makes five discs necessary for this list. There was no better representation of Ella Fitzgerald OR Gershwin? A slog only barely rescued by being decent background music most of the time.

2.5. A lovely album. Gershwin is a little saccharine for my taste

Hyvää laulantaa, pari hyvää, mutta en haluaisi kuunnella uudelleen. 2

I enjoyed this album (I just listened to the best of album, rather than the full 4-disc box set) but this style of jazz is not really my cup of tea. It was okay background music while I worked.

Well done to anyone who got through this. Or even as far as ‘I can’t be bothered now’ as they lasted longer than me before I couldn’t be bothered anymore. I get Ella can sing and the Gershwins can write songs but surely no-one wants to sit through over 3 hours of the same sounding songs over and over again?

The site linked me to some 40min version which is probably a blessing. Yeah her voice is amazing, and the music has a certain charm and class, however these songs just don’t excite me one bit. Zoned out after 3 or 4 songs.

Escuchado por encima esta bien me gusta el jazz pero tampoco tanto como para escucharme tres horas y media de album paraaaaa tamos locos?

Six discs of Gershwin and no Summertime.

Long and plodding. It reminds me of rainy Sunday afternoons. How Ella and Louis or Porgy and Bess gets overlooked for this archival behemoth is nothing short of absolutely mental. The hit rate is low, but it's not unpleasant. I wouldn't dream of ever listening it to again, nor any of the other songbooks.

Hva skal man si. Den er i hvertfal ALTFOR LANG.

Just too long to listen to. A handful of pretty good songs, but by the end I just wanted it to be over. 2*

I'm sure this is a masterpiece but I don't ever plan on another listen

Long album, some good songs, I can respect it

Who on earth thought a 4 disk collection of songs that mostly sound the same was a good idea to include in the 1001? I've never been a huge fan of box sets to begin with, even for bands I love. Now take a genre that I appreciate but don't love and have it go on...and on...and on... Sure, she sounds great. The band is excellent (if schmaltzy). The music is all high quality, but it's fundamentally the same style throughout. I'm sure I would rate a single album of this music much higher, but I just didn't need four albums of the same thing. I was particularly irritated when I hit the fourth disk and was hearing the same songs again. Enough. Favorite tracks: I'm not even bothering to focus enough to pick out specific tracks. Sad that this made me regret my commitment to listening to every album on the 1001 at least two times before rating.

Respect to everyone involved but this does nothing for me. I'll give it two stars because it's not BAD, just not something I have any interest in.

I really tried with this, but it's 3 hours long. Way too much.