The Gershwin Songbook

Through two fulltime days I've only been able to listen to the first half, got a few tracks into Disc 4. Ella Fitzgerald. Absolutely stunning. Very groovy, especially with her band behind her. Very cool album. Pitch so perfect that her own band members would tune off her voice. Cool album, very neat

Ignoring the length and whether or not this is a best of compilation... This thing is very good. As one of the reviewers mentioned it is an anthology of the Gershwin Songs performed by Ella Fitzgerald who seems to have the perfect voice for these songs. I'm not sure how these tracks were remastered when converted to digital but regardless this is some of the best quality 50s music I've ever heard. The clarity is impeccable, and the songs are classic's classic's. Songs like Let's throw the whole thing out are so far deep in my brain, listening to it intentionally feels like digging up a dead cat and shining a strobe light on it. The tunes hold up well and the whole thing, which I tried my best to work through over the day, is completely listenable. My only critique is that I don't think this is my favortie music coming out of that era. There was a lot of funky and more emotional stuff coming out at this time in a similar style that I think have aged better. That holds it back from being a 5 star album because there are times where it feels a little too sanitized and reserved. But overall I'm happy to have listened.

Listened to all 6 discs(not in one sitting) and I still dig it. Not sure how many other albums/musicians where I could do the same thing without getting sick of it.

uuuwhat good, is sitting, alone in your room? Come here the music plaaaayyy! Life is a cabar-oh fuck me! What were you just doing? What? Nothing! Oh no, don't tell me nothing, you were just singing a show tune! You're crazy, I'd never do that. You can't be suicidal if you're singing show tunes! I am suicidal. You're not even depressed! Of course I'm depressed, look at me! I'm very fucking depressed! You fucking poser! Hey man, I'm not a fucking... You're not even British!

This was long and not my bag. Her voice is amazing, the old timey music is a little dull. Let's call the whole thing off.

Stimm & Diktion nöch bi Perfektion. Findi super. Big Band tight, musig natürli au super geschriebe. Einzig d Text hani so heteronormativ-cringe gfunde dassi würkli nume gwüssi Lieder ha chene lose.. sust wer's für mich locker 5 stern

Hammer Stimme, Hammer Musik, nothing more to say.

Episches Album von der Länge her. Manche Songs fand ich richtig cool und mit der richtigen Atmosphäre ist es definitiv ein Album was man stundenlang laufen lassen kann. Bei der Arbeit nicht so ganz treffend immer :D Dennoch 4 Sterne!

In der richtigen Stimmung find ichs richtig toll :-) Songs der Playlist hinzugefügt: Keine

Bliss.

Listened to The Very Best of the Gershwin Song Book as it was only 45 mins and not 3+ hours Songs were ok, vocals were great But not for me Someone to watch over me

Alvorens ik alle 60 nummers individueel ga bespreken wil ik eerst een shoutout geven naar de artistieke albumhoes. Ik denk dat je vocale jazz het best kunt beschrijven als een expressionistisch schilderij, en dus draagt de cover wel echt bij aan de totale vormgeving. Wel moet ik zeggen dat ik over het algemeen ietsjes blijer keek tijdens het luisteren dan de klassieke resting bitch face op de hoes. Al begon m'n gezicht na een slordige 100 minuten wel echt gelijkenissen te vertonen. Misschien is dat ook wel het verhaal achter dit schilderij, en is de titel: ''Woman being exposed to 200 minutes of increasingly boring jazz''. Dat gezegd hebbende, het is natuurlijk gewoon te lang. Niemand, zelfs de grootste Ella fan niet, zou dit durven te ontkennen. Maar los van dat feit, wat logischerwijs wel echt meegenomen wordt in de beoordeling van het album, vind ik haar stem en gevoel voor ritme wel echt fascinerend. De muziek slaat ook wel aan, zeker in dit seizoen. Het voelt als een Disney kerstfilm, en zelfs ik kan niet ontkennen dat dat een pluspunt is. Het mocht een onsje (lees 3 a 4 CDs) minder, maar vóór ik mezelf identificeerde met de albumhoes was het zeer aangenaam. 6,5/10

Mooie stem. Lekker sfeertje. Kerststemming. Vette hoes. Veels te lang. Niet afgeluisterd. 6,5/10 Highlights My One and Only

Nice voice but I can’t stomach 3.5 hrs of this. I got halfway and skipped through the rest. It reminds me of cartoons and being off school and mum has the radio on.

Great if you only have time for one album in the whole day! How long?!?

At first when seeing the album was 59 songs and 3 hours long, my immediate thoughts were that I'd give it a go, and see how far I got. The reality was that I started listening 1t 11am on a Friday morning and have been listening all weekend. What a beautiful voice! Simpler times that comfort today.

The combined strengths of Ella Fitzgerald’s incomparable performance and the Gershwins’ pop sensibilities make for one enjoyable listen. At almost 4 hours in length (the deluxe version) there’s plenty to sink your teeth into. That said, yet another album that requires a specific mood that I’m rarely in.

Amazing voice. Way way way too long of an album to keep my interest. I reckon if u pick the top 10-12 tracks of this on their own you would have a 4-5 star album.

I find it challenging to rate this collection. While it may not be advisable to listen to all three hours of music in one sitting, it is a delightful set of songs featuring interesting and engaging orchestration by Nelson Riddle. I truly appreciate Ella Fitzgerald and her incredible voice as she navigates the Great American Songbook, ensuring that all these (re)recorded songs will be preserved for posterity. Jazz and the Great American Songbook are closely intertwined. The songwriters, especially the Gershwin brothers, as well as Irving Berlin and Duke Ellington, clearly understood the genre. You can hear the strong connection between Fitzgerald and the Gershwins—this is perhaps the best way to appreciate their vast repertoire. However, as others have noted, this is a collection consisting of a 7- or 8-LP box set rather than a single album. Maybe listen to 1 LP at a time.

A Classic

- Ella Fitzgerald = Legende - "Holy Fuck, oh nooo" war mein erster Gedanke, als ich die Laufzeit gesehen habe - (Ich will ehrlich sein, ich habe nicht die vollen 3:15 Std. gehört, aber ich glaube genug um mir ein Bild von der Platte zu machen) - Ich fands einfach richtig schön, hab direkt Weihnachtsfeelings bekommen. Sehe sofort irgendwelche Filmszenen von Leuten, die in New York City durch den Schnee hetzen, um die letzten Geschenke zu kaufen. Love it. - Also eigentlich die perfekte Platte, um die mal so zu verschiedenen Anlässen im Hintergrund laufen zu lassen - Tolle Stimme und angenehm warme Aufnahme - Insgesamt aber natürlich ein bisschen lang, um das so mit anderen Alben zu vergleichen, zumal nicht viel besonders rausstach Rating: 3,25-3,5/5

- sehr entspannt, schön jazz-ig - viel zu lang für eine aktive Hörsession, eher mehrere oder als Hintergrundmusik perfekt

Here it is. I've been waiting and I can't believe it took so long. It's not that this is bad; she's got amazing talent and much of this is timeless. But why 3.5 hours? And why cheat? Compilations shouldn't count. So I refuse to give it better than 3 stars. But yes, I listened to most of it. It consumed my day .

I could listen to her any time anyplace and all day.

There is a very small list of albums which I knew would appear at some point. And I dreaded the day they came up. 69 Love Songs was one of them, but thankfully I got that out of the way before I had a job and real responsibilities in life. One of the others was this particular Ella Fitzgerald record. It is, in fact, her only appearance on the list. I’ll preface this review by saying that technically I haven’t heard this entire album. I tried as hard as I could, but given my schedule throughout the day and things I have going on, I physically wasn’t able to hear this all the way through. To those unaware, this is over three hours long. It’s the fifth entry in her career defining series of recordings spanning nearly a decade that tackle the Great American Songbook. So this material she is working with is not original, but it is some of the most classic and timeless music ever written in the English language. Of course, my biggest complaint is going to be the length. After hearing multiple records this long, I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t think albums need to be this long. Unless the artist can somehow find a way to justify that length. But 69 Love Songs couldn’t do that, even with its decent amount of variety. I’ll state what I love about this box set, at least from what I’ve heard. Ella Fitzgerald has one of the best voices of any female singer ever, point blank. It transcends the generation she dominated in, and can be appreciated by almost anyone. The nickname “Queen of Jazz” is very fitting. I can’t think of one moment I heard where I thought she genuinely sounded bad. She is seemingly on point in all 59 songs. The arrangements, on the other hand, are also generally pretty stellar. From the first song I was really struck by how good they are. Easily some of the best I’ve ever heard from the time period. They go from dreamy and entrancing, like one of the old, hand-animated Walt Disney films, to slightly more energetic jazz-affiliated instrumentation. All of my issues with this record lie in its length and its similarly massive track list. After a certain point, it just becomes exhausting to hear dozens of songs that all sound relatively the same. As badly as I wanted to hear this entire thing and really see the best it has to offer, unfortunately it wasn’t achievable for me in one day. Rating: 5/10

hun er flott

Ok the first hour was lovely. How can you not love Ella? However. 3 hours is a bit much. And it’s Gershwin. It’s corny romantic cheese. In a good way. But there’s only so much you can listen to in a sitting. So Ella deserves a 5, always. But this 3 hour compilation is just toooooo muchhhhh

Listen, I know Ella is great and these songs are classic but… this shit is too long

Nice orchestration

This album was the perfect choice on this foggy November day, it put me in the right mood for the coming Christmas time soon. Perfectly written, produced, sang and performed songs, and this saying while I am not particularly into American jazz music. Ella Fitzgerald was amazing and this was such a great listen. I usually don't rate compilation albums high but this is an exception. I could listen to this for three more hours!

This is yet another covers album from the 1950's. The Gershwins wrote songs, someone else arranged them and Ella sang them. All did their job great. I'd probably call this a Gershwin album with an invited singer. The result is an album that is great in its genre - except it's not mine. The songs are great for cliché rom-coms or in some cases children's cartoon movies. I'll give it a 3 because I gave Ray Charles ("The Genius", ahem) a 2 and this album got on my nerves much less - the big band arrangements are much less annoying here - and Ella IS an amazing singer (rather than a musician).

Did not listen to much. Way too long. Not a jazz fan.

Great album, beautiful voice, lovely songs

Didnt listen to the full thing because it’s loke 3 hours long but liked the vibe of most of them, great voice

2024.11.06 first time listening to E.F

Ella Fitzgerald has a great voice. Gershwin made great music. After listening to too many musicals in my youth, they now get on my nerves. I also can't listen to Gershwin's music for more than 3 hours. And that also applies to this album. After one and a half CDs, I'd had enough. I probably won't listen to the remaining two and a half CDs. It‘s enough. 3/5

Please, don't!

Listened to the Very Best of the Gershwin Song Book. As good as Ella's voice is, I can't imagine listening to a three and and quarter hours long album. Not super memorable.

Who has time to listen to an album that's over 3 hours long? Ella's voice is so velvety and warm, though. A nice, jazzy, cozy vibe.

Ella Fitzgerald is amazing, Gershwin is one of my top composers. This is not an album, it’s a songbook box set, I’m not listening to all of this.

GREAT voice! but good gracious what a crazy compilation this is - it's just humungous and too much to take in. I'm happy to have heard these excellent recordings of a truly special vocalist, but narrowing this down to a handful of greats would have been much better than 3 hours of musical theatre tunes which devolve into a feeling of listening to the same Christmas-song-that's-not-about-Christmas over and over again.

I finished! It was mostly lovely background noise. Really put me in the mood for Christmas

an absolutely breathtaking album that is perfect for the workday. Just so beautiful and fun

Maybe not all of Gershwin's lyrics were worthy of being produced, did they think of that?! Gosh. I mean it's great background music, but I went through the 9 Circles of Hell listening to this whole album. 1 Star for Ella Fitzgerald because she is amazing, and 1 star for the only good song in the entire 59 song album: Let's Call The Whole Thing Off. It's a nice piece of information to know that Ira Gershwin is the original writer of the famous potato/po-tah-toh lines.

Almost protesting the generator system with this one as it clearly wasn't meant to ve listened to in a day. Becomes formulaic very quickly.

When I started this project, I vowed to myself that I'd listen to every single album all the way through, not matter who it was by or how much I hated it. That was before I saw this one was over 3 hours long. Yeah fuck that. If it's any good I'll listen to the majority of it, unlikely it'd be good enough to reach the 2 hour mark. She's got a great voice but it's the same as most other jazz records from that time. I can listen to a few tracks before I get incredibly bored. Definitely not sitting here for an hour, let alone three.

I tried but I couldn’t do it. Way too long and too repetitive. This is a box set. Not an album. I don’t have time to listen to any single artist for multiple hours just to give a score on this goddamn site. Especially when most of the songs sound nearly the same. She has a ton of albums and picking any of them from the 40s or 50s would have seemed more fitting for this site. No one else tha I have come across in over 500 albums has been represented with a box set here. I don’t know why the author thought he could get people to go along with this. The reviews show that most people did not listen to the whole thing. Seriously, replace this with 2 other album entries from her and there would be less complaints. As is, picking something this long is doing her and the jazz genre a disservice on this site.

General impression: beautiful, classic, essential, but not for three hours straight. Or even two. Detailed review: I’m keeping this in my library because I do feel like it’s an essential document of a powerful time in American cultural history. One of the greatest American singers performing songs by one of the greatest American songwriting teams. The production is lush and lavish. If you’re at all inclined to appreciate older forms of popular music, what’s not to like? It’s pristine, it’s classy, it’s got so much personality. It’s just that this is a long-ass collection. It’s hard to imagine anyone loving an entire 3.5-hour listening session of this without getting bored or losing interest in some way. 5 for the quality of the music, and 2 for the listening experience of the album. Deeper thoughts (context): if you don’t like this, you are not historically minded and/or you have no patience. Score: 3 Number of albums left to review: 968 Number of albums from the list I’d consider “must-listens”: 18 Albums from the list I won't include in mine: 15 (including this one)

extremely long album, took me like a week to finish, good vintage sounding songs overall although a lot did sound similar, good to shuffle play if you like the sound

I’m pretty certain there’s nothing in the last hour that’ll blow my mind more than anything in the first two. I’ll finish it one day but as good as it is it’d be better if it was only 12 tracks.

Artiste connue, mais c'est la première fois que j'écoute un album entier. Enfin que j'essaye. 59 morceaux c'est beaucoup beaucoup trop. Et même si j'aime beaucoup le jazz, je ne suis moins intéressé par le jazz vocal (même si je reconnais que EF a une voix exceptionnelle [+1]), je préfère largement les morceaux instrumentaux. En plus dans ce cas je ne connais aucun des morceaux, et l'instrumentation orchestrale me rebute. C'est dommage que ce soit le seul album de EF qui ait rejoint la liste. J'ai arrêté en cours de route. =>2/5

Wow. Now this is music. She's like the female version of Nat King Cole. Smooth jazz. Cozy 50s vibes. Big mood. I could listen to this all day. Thankfully, it's over 3 hours long, so I can do exactly that.

5 stars, pre-listen. No notes.5 stars, pre-listen. No notes. I spent the last two days listening to this and it's good to listen to people who are at the tip top of their art form, ya know? The next album better be strong or it's going to suffer for coming second.

It's almost criminal that this app allows you to give The Gershwin Songbook anything less than four stars.

I'd like to start by saying I took short breaks after each disc as the album is very long. Ella Fitzgerald has a nice voice, and the songs are mostly calming background music and occasionally sound like something from an old Disney film. The album can be a little bit similar, but as I took breaks, I was able to avoid getting bored of it. I will give this album a 4/5 as the music is very nice to listen to.

Nice, but didn't finish

There’s a lot to love and laud about both Ella Fitzgerald and the Gershwins. Still, at over three hours, this album questions just how much of this one needs in their life. Pleasant, but would I buy this if I found it in the bargain bin? Probably not.

What a timeless voice!

Ja, kann man sich anhören.

Great album. A bit long but, enjoyable.

I like Ella more than George

Wonderful background music. Ella Fitzgerald is a gem. I can't say a liked all of the songs. And there are lots of them. Too many.

I will not listen to three hours of this

Damn it. I tried. Listened to all 3 hours and 14 minutes in one go. I could have broken up the listening time, but taking multiple days to get through one album just doesn't interest me. And I don't think I'll be compelled to listen to this again, broken up or not. Obviously Ella Fitzgerald has such a clear, expressive, timeless voice. And I truly respect the effort of this passion project. But I've heard other Ella songs I thought were far more interesting than the ones from this collection, and I hope there's another of her albums in this 1001 project.

DNF. Four hours long. Great classics though. Recognized more than a few. Would be nice to have on in the background at a party

This is three hours and fifteen minutes long. Yes, I listened to the entire thing. It took me several days to get through because I enjoyed it that much. I guess there were like 7-8 tracks to me that were really standout and the rest were nice background music, but I'll definitely come back to it, mainly because it's really nice lounging/cleaning music to put on.

I love Ella Fitzgerald and I love her renditions of the Gershwin songbook. When I was younger, I went through a When Harry Met Sally phase that was accompanied by an obsession with 1940s-50s vocal jazz classics. I’ve attended regular Fridays with Frank parties and learned how to swing dance. That said, I’ve never sat down for a 3+ hour session all at once. The great songs are great! But honestly not all of the songs are worth listening to. Ella Fitzgerald herself taps out of the final 6 songs and leaves us with jazz ballet. I'd give a pared down song book - a "best of" album, if you will - a 5, but I'll subtract a star for each of the extra hours included on this version.

A 4- or maybe even 5-star album if it was cut down. At this length, it is reduced to background music or simply a historical record of the Gershwin’s songs.

It's not the Ella album I would have picked, but I understand that it was part of a turning point in music. When you look up scatting in Wikipedia there's literally a picture of Ella. It's a pity that we don't hear any of that until the last song on the fifth disc - and the sixth disc is entirely instrumental. Real glad it was assigned on a Friday.

Exceedingly pleasant. I apologize, but I did not listen to all 3 hours and 15 minutes of this selection.

Full confession: I did not listen to all 4 hours of this, but I did listen to enough to know that Gershwin and Ella Fitzgerald are a winning combo.

Some reviews on here complain about “Why does Ella Fitzgerald get a box set?” “Why is this so long?” From what I can tell, these songs were recorded for this release, so I can accept it as being considered an album in the way we think about what an album is. That being said, this is THREE HOURS and someone can’t be expected to listen to the entire thing in one sitting. But I did. Ella is fantastic. These songs are great. The sound is good. But, I don’t think you can expect anything to maintain 5 stars for three hours. In the past, an album length alone has dragged some albums down a star. I think here the length causes there to be songs that took this down a peg. That this album is so long and still gets a four from me says a lot. You could make one or two five star albums out of this by selecting the best tracks. The rest is still very good. She’s a legend for a reason. I’d love to have this in my vinyl collection just to listen to a random side of record every now and again.

Gold.

Over 3 hours of music. I like Ella Fitzgerald but sitting through 3 hours of her is a lot. This record is compromised of 6 discs. The first 5 are that typical Ella Fitzgerald sound. A lot of the same sounding songs. But they are beautifully sung, as expected. Disc 6 is all a composer, Nelson Riddle. Not my style of orchestration. I didn't care for it to be honest. I think this is kind of ridiculous to be on this list. As these records that were made in this era were typically short records. I feel this is Ella's whole discography. Compilations should not be on this list. It makes no sense. Anyone can slap a few songs together that are popular. But it defeats the idea of an album. It doesn't capture that moment in time. At least that is how I feel.

Good, but not my style.

Buenísimo. Parece que el link con YouTube music envía a un álbum extendido, tenía 59 canciones...demasiado.

I’ll finish this over time and Ella’s voice is beautiful. Would also like to hear different singers but what an amazing songwriter he was.

Well, it's Ella Fitz. How does one judge this? It took me days to get through. It was definitely good, but I wouldn't call it a good album in the traditional sense. This more like an encyclopaedia than a novel. Instead of having an overarching artistic theme, this serves as a reference guide to the Gershwin brothers' music as it should be listened to. Still, Christ, over three hours.

It's amazing!

Hm ja, sehr gut. Aber halt auch irgendwie schon über 60 Jahre alt.

Rating based on the first hour (I ain’t listening to all that). This would probably be a 4 if it was December (and shorter).

clocking in at over three hours, obviously this is more of an encyclopedic document of songs and performances than an actually intended Album Listening Experience. i did still listen to the whole thing in one sitting! and not even out of obligation necessarily...when i saw it was divided into discs, i was like "okay after each disc ill give myself the chance to stop", but i ended up not rly feeling the obvious need for a break at any point. definitely bad for its intended function As an encyclopedic document, as the sheer volume of songs and performances is just too much information to properly parse in a row, but i super enjoyed myself. if ur going to listen to anyone sing for this long, i think its gotta be ella fitzgerald...she's just this steady ray of light thats constantly inviting to Have In Ur Ears (esp cuz she still retains a fun and involving swing), and her diction is so clear and readable and comfortable that u never have to struggle to see the artistry of both her and whatever song she's singing. all the choices she makes are firmly in favor of The Song, a very humble approach that still leaves it self evident that ur listening to quite possibly the Objectively Best Singer humanity has ever seen. even the final stretch of instrumentals is a nice way to wind down to the finish line after a titanic experience. and ur telling she's got a whole separate album with louis armstrong for the porgy and bess material? wowie!

not my jam

stile anni 20 americani.. forse è proprio di quel periodo. Voce bellissima, però 4 album di fila è un pò too much!

First 2 sides are Chad. Not listening to 3+ hours of this.

Good

Beautiful voice, but the album is too long. I skipped around to the most popular songs. Would be a great album to have in the background for a long event. 4/5

The serendipity of getting this box set on the day of a cross-country flight for myself. In almost any other setting, the 3 hours would grate on me eventually. But this is perfect. She is perfect. The songs are perfect. I'm so happy right now.

I feel like this album is not meant to be listened to in the course of a single day. I want this on vinyl and want to listen to it over a weekend or even a week while I am in the right mood for it. a huge disservice to get through 3 hours of music in a single day. That being said, it's Ella fricken Fitzgerald. She's OBVIOUSLY amazing, and she's one of the all time greats. It feels a disservice to rank this anything less than a three, even with talking about length of the album. This is meant to be a whole collection of Ella's primo work. 8 months of work and recording went into this, and it deserves to be viewed through a different lens. This may a bit of an odd album to rank, but it stands as greatness in my book. i just wish I had gotten to listen to it under different circumstances.

I like the style - brings me back to my musical theatre days. The songs are cute and witty, and her voice is great and captivating. It all started to sound similar by about the middle of the album though. 3 stars for Ella.

I like Ella Fitzgerald, but for most of her songs, I would rather it be Billie holiday singing. That said, if you took the 8 best songs off of this and made that into an album, I would have ranked it higher. Whether it’s because of the sheer length or consistency, I don’t feel as if there are any standout songs. I don’t find her as cringeworthy as the Frank Sinatra album in terms of lyrics, but they were comparable. I liked it to begin with, but it was a chore to finish. With how I have been grading the list, I can’t give it more than a star - it shouldn’t be on the list. Pick an album that isn’t 3 hours with better songs and get a good taste of Ella.

I fully understand the importance of this combination between vocalist and composers, as well as their importance in the evolution of music, but releasing the whole songbook is a bit much. Ella’s voice is and always will be incredible, and listening to it while sipping coffee on the first chilly morning of fall was delightful, so those are the only reasons this album gets a three.

I want to give a round of applause to everyone who listened to the entire album. I don't know you, and you don't know me, but we both went through the same experience together. I don't know how you call this an album. For some bands, it's an entire discography. 3h 15m is just too long. That being said, I really enjoyed it. Ella Fitzgerald's voice is amazing, and I will always love a big band! Every song sounds the same, but I'm not necessarily upset with that. It's a beautiful sound that you can come in and out of. I listened to this on a road trip with my toddler in the back seat. She is terrible at sleeping in the car. I am pleased to say that Ella Fitzgerald's sultry voice lulled her to sleep for a 2 hour nap, and I will forever be in her debt.

Unfair to 1) throw this among a bunch of rock albums and call it essential without mentioning the rest of her Great American Songbook entries and 2) select the longest chapter in her Great American Songbook as the representative one. Ella Fitzgerald and Norman Granz put a much larger and more ambitious package together, and in this case there should be a "selections from the Great American Songbook," a sort of greatest hits from these albums that should be considered. Gershwin is easy to listen to, but five disks of it is a long slog. Boil this whole body of work down to maybe 2-2.5 hours of music would be a far fairer assignment. All that said, Ella Fitzgerald was a fantastic singer, but she's not my favorite. She hits notes a little too perfectly; she lacked the soul of Sarah Vaughan or the swagger of Lena Horne, not to mention a whole world of soul singers who followed after her. I just get kinda bored of so much Ella.

Legend. Never gonna prob sit and crack thru this entire thing, but many many classics

Time capsule more than enjoyable like the Ray Charles country album

Ella's voice... I can listen to it for hours and hours

Simply fantastic - there's a reason this is the sound we use to represent its time

Listened to disc 1. Everything is good enough but holy I'm not listening to 3 hours of it. Will I listen to again: 0%

Had the album been simply "The Best of George and Ira Gershwin" --containing itself to, say, 16 songs -- it might have fared better. Not every Gershwin song is a classic, nor is every arrangement here worthy of the material. The producer needed to separate the wheat from the chaff. The bright spot in "The Gershwin Songbook" is Ella Fitzgerald's amazing voice and style. She was truly one of the greats.

Like a sunshine ski through mountains of lush velvet. Gorgeous.

Pleasant. I can see my 90yo Dad delighting in this if he were still around. I'd say great, truly great for then, for now, ok. 3 stars. Unlikely to listen again, but nice to hear her work in this way.

Has that classic 1960s vibe that instantly puts you into a homey vibe. Of course, with a total runtime of more than 3 hours, there are "meh" songs here and there, but for the most part, I enjoyed this album.

Sooooo long. Some nice songs, a bit sleepy after a while listening

Could not go further than a few seconds for a few songs

Loooong... and quite repetitive. I don't hate the vibe though. Could work as a background in some occasions

Not into it unfortunately

Yep, this is exactly what I expected it to be. Ella has a lovely voice, all the orchestration is superb. And it's all totally boring. Nice for background music I suppose. Just not for me.

3 hours of this is actually crazy

Fun bit of big band sounding jazz. Wonderful voice. Many of the songs would make for good background music, but Ella's version of Let's Call the Whole Thing Off was really really good. Again, her voice is great. Raw, pure talent.

I listened to this but cant tell you anything about it

I really enjoy this style of music but unfortunately it's such easy listening for me that I zoned out during a lot of it while I listened at work. There were a few moments that stood out to me when the big band would come in louder. I think in summary this just makes really good background music.

Beautiful voice, beautiful music. Ella Fitzgerald is the embodiment of a special and unique time in American music. I didn't get through all 3 hours of this.

2.5 Listened to 10 songs, skipped through the rest. Im sure there is some brilliance in there. Ella is one of the best. Too much of a good thing

Look, there's no way I could approach this behemoth of an album without a massive amount of enthusiasm. (OK, it's technically a "box set.") George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" is my favourite classical(-esque) piece ever, which I've seen performed live twice. I grew up playing and learning about classical music and loving musical theatre (and wishing I was talented enough to sing/act/dance/perform on stage without crumbling to pieces), and it's pretty clear from this project so far that my favourite albums include all the jazz ones I've gotten. If an AI were to spit out a list of albums that it "thought" were my favourites based on my interests and life, this album would definitely be on that list. Yes, this "box set" is over three hours long and is certainly overkill. And sure, the editor of the 1001 List could've chosen an actual, curated album of of Ella Fitzgerald's for the list. But maybe he had a difficult time deciding which one to pick and went with the one that would give the listener the maximum amount of Ella in one work. Of course, I didn't listen to the entire thing in one go - I listened to each volume separately and that made it a lot more digestible. Ella Fitzgerald is simply stellar on this: truly the Queen of Jazz. She's such a phenomenal vocalist and performs all of these songs to perfection. I loved the orchestration, and I thought it sounded great, considering it was recorded in 1959. Ira Gershwin, famously, was impressed by how good Ella made their songs sound, and who am I to disagree with him? This is an album I'd love to own on vinyl. If I was the type of person who threw fancy dinner parties, I'd put this on in the background while my guests and I are eating our bread, salads, and casseroles, or whatever people eat at fancy dinner parties. Since I'm not that kind of person (and I'm not going to spend time/money looking for an out-of-print vinyl), I'll listen to this through my phone while sitting on my couch eating chips, the way I'm sure Ella, George, and Ira intended.

Its a nice little collection of songs and fitzgerald has a generation defining voice, but its much too long to finish all the way through and this kind of easy listening music wears thin after a while

Respectfully it was good but one and done for now.

Lempparit- Disc 1-2 Vähiten lempparit- Disc 3-6

Love the songs and her voice. Way too long. Would be nice to come back to later

It’s fine, Ella Fitzgerald is a legend for good reason, but just not for me.

I love her voice.

Lovely voice, but I’ll repeat what I’m assuming every review has said, way too long. Completely unnecessary as you’ll get the full experience after disk 1

Lovely listen for puttering about the house. This somehow reminded me of the Christmas holidays.

I can totally see why this is considered a great. Not quite for me, but Ella Fitzgerald truly has such an enchanting voice, and I could just listen to it all day. That alone gets points from me. There’s something really sweet and lighthearted about the lyrics on this one (“Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off” stood out for this especially) but ultimately it’s a soft, gentle thing that has my full respect, but not necessarily something I’d return to again now that I’ve heard it.

Like an old sweater, this album provides a warm hug of familiarity. The songs will be recognisable to almost everyone, and Ella's voice is always wonderful. However, it's just too smooth. There's no real bite to any of it, so it just washes over you...almost like elevator muzak. It's better than that... but I'm unlikely to feel the need to relisten.

This one was an undertaking that I took the time to do in a few days. I did an album a day essentially. I did not listen to the 4th album in full, just the songs that weren't alternate arrangements. I'd say the first album was a 4, the second was a 3, and the last was a 5. I am not fully sure if it was that each was better/worse than another or if I was just particularly in the mood for it on the third day. Maybe a bit of both. Ella's voice is definitely incredibly beautiful. It's a joy to listen to. Clear and warm. The music could be a little hit and miss but when it hits... wow! The average score for all the albums is a 4, so I think that is what I will go with. I do absolutely understand why some do not have the patience to listen to the whole thing. But I also think that is a shame since I like the last section most. I would recommend breaking it up because that is A LOT for one sitting. Beautiful classic album though, very worth a listen at least once in life.

Too long and too much filler but it has some gems

Very pleasant, swingin' old timey dinner party music. Reminds me of my grandma, in a nice way. I like and know several of these songs from my own choir days. But this doesn't need to be 3 hours long, pretty repetitive after a while. I probably only made it about halfway through. Ella is a wonderful singer and I'd be happy to listen to her music, but since I'm rating the album, unfortunately I'm knocking this down to a 2.4/5

Classic

didnt finish it but i love ella. some super good tracks on this!

You've got Ella Fitzgerald, one of the greatest jazz vocalists ever, singing songs written by George and Ira Gershwin, two of the most iconic songwriters in American music history. Honestly, what’s not to like? Every track feels like it belongs in a black-and-white movie or echoing from an old record player in some smoky lounge. Ella’s voice is smooth, effortless, and classy. The arrangements are sharp, and the songwriting still holds up decades later. Even if you're not big on show tunes or jazz standards, it's hard not to appreciate the sheer talent on display here.

Her voice is amazing, and the recording on this is spot on. But I don't want 3 hours of her amazing voice in one go.

i love Ella but this isn’t her best album. I hope there will be others

Good for easylistening. Not really my thing.

What a voice. So smooth. You can't go wrong with Ella. Gershwin, on the other hand, is a bit like Marmite. It feels a bit dated, markedly so, and definitely has that mid-20th century feel, but at the same time, it also has that timeless charm. I don't know Gershwin's work too well at all, and thus don't really connect to the songs. But if I was sitting in a coffee shop, and this was playing in the background, some of these tracks would feel quite lush and indulgent. This is 6 CDs worth, so it might get a bit 'samey' after a while.

I didn’t finish… it was 3.25 hrs long… but what I heard was good

I get the hate on this one - it’s a compilation and that alone should be enough to disqualify it. Equally, the overall style is more than a little passé nowadays. But that being said, I generally quite enjoyed this one. And I slogged it out through all three hours of it. The jauntier numbers are the ones which really standout from the more turgid affairs - both Fitzgerald and the Gershwins shine when the tempo isn’t trudging along the ballroom floor behind them. As for the sibling songwriter extraordinaries, I’m a bit ambivalent about them. They are super composers and some of their arrangements are undeniably timeless. The embryo of modern pop music can be gleaned if you listen closely, and that’s not insignificant. But, in objective terms, they represent a curious period of music history when songwriting was a ringfenced affair instrumentalised in the interests large corporations - and the Gershwin’s weaker material exposes their ideological place on the conveyor belt of cultural fordism. It’s a shame, since it becomes a symptom of a more pervasive shortcoming in their songwriting: the lyrics. Leaving aside the obviously circumscribed subject matters they broach, every single song seems to be a cringe-inducing pun excessively laboured over two or three minutes. The rhymes begin to approach ”dad joke” territory, no matter how recondite the inter-textual references they draw upon (see “By Strauss”). The preludes and instrumentals by Nelson Riddle at the end of this mammoth 3 hour listen are completely forgettable - at best, they come across as deep cuts from the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang soundtrack (and that’s not a compliment). With all that in mind, on a really base level some of these songs just resonated with me when I listened to them on a sunny stroll around my home city. They put a smile on my face and that’s more than can be said for some of the other pish I’ve been subjected to. It’s a product of its time, but like all great albums it has a timeless quality that prolongs its value as an album worth listening to. But maybe go for the abridged version.

Surprisingly good. Did not realize how chill and actually kinda good 50s jazz stuff is. Positive surprise for sure.

Really amazing. And long. I'd much rather listen to this as four or five separate albums instead of 3.5 hours straight. Especially since I already had an album this week with more than 60 songs. That said, it doesn't take away from the brilliance of the writers, the musicians and Ella. They are all some of the best in the world in their fields. Often, that combination makes for too many cooks (too many cooks!), but here it combines for a solid five star album.

Zangeres op haar top zingt muziek van de grootste jazz componist. Geweldige combinatie, het album is zeker te lang, maar wat een werk!

Absolut nicht mein Genre. Als Nächstes kommen dann Bach, Beethoven und Tschaikowski. Oder Hörbücher?

This is difficult. I mean I don't know. There's nothing inherently wrong with this... Box set... It's not really an album. Or is it... I don't know. It's super long. Too long. I didn't hate it though. I mean it did end up feeling like work going through the whole thing. But it's not bad in anyway. I did like the music. But it's just WAY TOO LONG.

6 discs, over 3 hours. All the familiar songs you would expect, plus some beautiful instrumentals on the final disc. Great soundtrack for a long drive.

This was too much

Not my thing. It's obviously beautifully crafted, but the sentiment and melodies are cloying. I enjoy one or two songs at a time, no more. Great cover.

Oof. They really could've picked a shorter album for this.

How Long Has This Been Going On? I Can't Be Bothered now Oh, So Nice But Not For Me

This is a long album that is also what the subreddit is saying. Overall I kind of enjoy Jazz and apparently Gershwin is a real pioneer when it comes to writing these songs. They seem like I have heard them before but the whole day ive velt I am living in old timey America. Listening to this jazz reminds of how I feel when I listen to Frank Sinatra.

Hard to rate this album. Over three hours in length. Beautiful singing, and wonderful music, but after a while you start to lose track. An album meant for a full day.

Ella, you’re great singer, but I don’t want to listen to three hours of this. I’m sorry.

Like death and taxes, Ella Fitzgerald’s The Gershwin Songbook awaits us all. I don’t think I’ve ever listened to any of Ella Fitzgerald’s work before, and I honestly don’t know much about her (oops, I do know her version of “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve.” My wife and I got married in December of 2020, and we were planning on having that as our first dance at our reception, but COVID dashed our reception plans, so I played it and we danced to it on our first New Year’s Eve together as a married couple). As far as the Gershwin’s go, I’m familiar with “Summertime” from Porgy and Bess, but I think that’s it. When I found out about this album, I’d decided that I was going to listen to the whole thing, and not an abridged version. I won’t have time to listen to it all in one go, so my review is going to be broken up into sections by disc, as they’re separated on Spotify. I’m just going to list a few bullet points for each disc, and then have an overall summary at the end. Disc 1 -The vocals are great, and the orchestra playing is incredibly rich. The balance between her voice and the arrangements is fantastic, no one is upstaging the other. -It turns out I know “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off.” I love the way she sings this. It’s playful, but sophisticated. -The strings on “Oh, Lady Be Good” are fantastic, just beautifully arranged. -“Things Are Looking Up” was a lot of fun. The horns are great, and the band hits those loud notes at the perfect time. -I wanted to hate “Just Another Rhumba” because when it started off, it was really jarring because of how different it sounded from the other songs, but it was actually really good. -So far, I’m really digging this. I’m plugging away on some tasks at work and pounding coffee. My will to live is currently very high. Disc 2 -Alright, I took care of the aftereffects of my coffee, had lunch, made some phone calls, and now I’m back at it. -Three songs into this second disc, and while the singing is still great, it feels like the arrangements aren’t as rich on these songs so far, and it’s a touch boring. -“By Strauss” broke up the monotony of the first three songs a bit. I love how clearly Ella sings, and her precision on her pronunciation. -Oh wow, “The Real American Folk Song” is great. I love how this song starts off like the rest of these songs, and then goes full-tilt into a ragtime sound. I was completely caught off-guard by that shift. -“They All Laughed” is great, those Gershwins sure know how to write a song. -I didn’t enjoy this disc as much as disc 1. I don’t think it was a drop off in quality, but a lot of the songs were pretty similar in terms of sound and lyrical content. My will to live is still high, but that’s enough for today. Disc 3 -Alright, it’s been almost a week, and I’m getting back on this train. -After the first four songs, I’m not really wowed, and while these songs are nice, there’s not really much going on yet, and all the songs are pretty much the same in tone and overall sound. -The lyrics of “Boy Wanted” were fun and clever. -My final assessment of disc 3 is that it’s pretty bland. The singing and orchestra are still great, but not much here stood out to me. My will to live is still high, and I’m soldiering on to disc 4. Disc 4 -This disc is off to a much better start. It might just be me, but these songs feel a lot jazzier than the previous disc. -The lyrics on “Love Is Sweeping the Country” and “Treat Me Rough” are great. I love that there’s a little bit of innuendo to both of them. -Oh wow, “Love Is Here To Stay” is great. I love the singing here, and they lyrics are really good too. -“Slap That Bass” was kind of a letdown. The bass part was good, but I expected something a little more upbeat and higher tempo. -“Shall We Dance?” and “Love Walked In” somewhat made up for my disappointment on “Slap That Bass.” -Not a strong finish to this disc, but overall, it was more enjoyable than discs 2 and 3. I think this is a good stopping point, and maybe I can finish this bad boy up tomorrow. The will to live is still strong. Disc 5 -It’s now officially a week since I was assigned this album, and I’m going to try to wrap it up today. We’ll see if I succeed. -I really like the orchestra playing on “They Can’t Take That Away from Me.” Beautifully arranged. -I like the songwriting on this disc. The Gershwins are incredibly clever when it comes to their lyrics. The tempo of Ella’s singing is great, there’s pauses in all the right places. -Things kind of fell off from “Lorelei” to “Let’s Kiss and Make Up.” It’s not bad, but it’s just kind of bland and sounds a lot like the rest of the album. -I had really high hopes for “I Got Rhythm,” but it was just okay. -This disc was fine overall. It started off strong, and then petered out a bit. My will to live is still high, and I’m going to move on to the last disc. Disc 6 -Oh, this is just a few instrumentals. This is a nice little way to end this album. Overall Well, I managed to listen to all of this in a week, and I think that’s a pretty decent accomplishment. It was tough not to burn myself out on this album. It’s really good, but it’s the sort of thing I’d prefer to listen to while kicking it around the house. This album reminds me of things that my wife loves, like old movies, and in a way, it makes me want to slow down life for a bit, to appreciate the simple things. I think it’s really cool that Ella Fitzgerald recorded all of this, and that all of these songs exist in one place like this. I don’t know that it necessarily belongs on this list, since it’s a compilation, but it is a cool badge of honor to say that I’ve listened to it. The orchestra and Ella’s singing are both really great, and this was a nice listen.

Amazing voice. Kind of dull lyrics. Almost every song is about falling in love with a man. That’s great but when the backing music and her voice barely change, it’s like listening to the same song over and over. My favorites were the songs not about falling in love with a man. 6/10 *I guess I only listened to part one of the box set? I couldn’t make it through three hours of this…*

I have access only two a best of these recordings, so was only able to listen to 44 mins instead of three hours. But how can I not love Ella.

A bit long for an album. Many very good songs

This is impossibly long.

She could sing the phonebook, and she just might have on one of those discs. 4.

I could listen to Ella FItzgerald sing a telephone book. Personal enjoyment: 5/5 Relevance to this list: 5/5

People that knock this album due to its length are the killjoys of our society. Just enjoy life and enjoy a good tune. It's like the people that complain the White Album is too long. Maybe it's listeners attention deficit disorder that's the issue?

vocal jazz at its best. her timbre is so sharp yet so smooth. happy to have listened to these classics.

Beautiful voice

I liked what I could hear of it (40-50 minutes). Ella Fitzgerald's voice is so beautiful and sunny. Potayto potato song is such fun. But honestly I don't think I can listen to it for 3 hours. So I'm just gonna give it the website average.

Not really my thing, but very nice singing.

not really my thing tbh, nice voice tho

Eine wunderbare Sammlung mit Klassikern und ein paar Exoten. Über Ella braucht man nichts mehr zu sagen.

What a beautiful voice!

Lovely music, loads of standards with fantastic production and Interesting performance decisions by Fitzgerald. But 59 tracks across 200+minutes of music is too long

The more I listened the more I enjoyed (and the more I added to my liked tracks). Some really stellar renditions and lots of new ones for me. Had to take a detour a few times to listen to other artists versions of some tracks (Chet Baker “Not For Me” & Billie Holliday’s “The Man I Love”). But I got thru it!

When I pulled this album up and saw it was 3 hours, I laughed. We'll see if I make it all the way through. There's no shot I finish this whole thing, I feel like I'm living in a loop. Too long and repetitive for me- it's a shame because I know how good Ella Fitzgerald is.

Some of the all-time great songs sung by one of jazz's greatest singers. What's not to love. Fantastic orchestral backing.

All sound about the same.

There is no way I am going to listen to 3 hours of this. It's fine in small doses but it should be illegal to put a 3 hour, 5 disc compilation on here. I only made it through disc so my rating is more of a "why the fuck is this on here?" than rating the content.

We'll start at 3/5, the rating of an average album. -1 for album length. Listen, I'm all for a compilation album, but not on a list like this one. You might as well put in compilation albums by other greats, like the Beatles' "1", Led Zeppelin's "Mothership", Queen's "Greatest Hits"... but those would (in some cases) also be too long, and for that reason I'm glad they aren't included. Ella Fitzgerald doesn't get a pass. In fact, out of protest, I only listened to 40 minutes of the album on shuffle, and the rest of the review is dedicated to those 40 minutes. +1 for gorgeous vocals. Ella Fitzgerald's singing is smooth, lilting, well enunciated, and just all-around fantastic. She's definitely material for a "top 10 vocalists of all time" list, even if lots of online critic articles seem to disagree. -1 for bringing nothing new to the music scene. By the late 50s, rock, skiffle, and experimental jazz were experiencing revolutions, and in terms of sheer creativity, Fitzgerald's style of music can't quite compete. It doesn't help that nearly all the songs on the album are in the same style and mood. Add to that the fact that none of these songs are originals, and you have a set of material that's not quite deserving of a spot on a list of the 1001 most important albums. +1 for atmosphere. There's something so indescribably charming and beautiful about soft brass, a laid-back rhythm section, and jazzy harmonies and melodies. You can all too easily lose yourself in the music if you're not careful. It's hypnotic. 3/5 Key tracks: The Man I Love, Embraceable You, They Can't Take That Away From Me

Too long

Eins manns roadtrip frá Boston til New Jersey var fullkominn tími til að hlusta á þessa plötu. Hún er frekar löng. Ok. Mjög löng. Þrír klukkutímar og verður svolítið endurtekningarsöm en í réttum fíling eibs og ég var í bílferðinni er hún frábær. Ég set hana örugglega aftur á en þá aldrei í heild sinni og síðasta disknum má alveg sleppa

Wow, that is a long one. That’s what she said!! I got through it all though. It was tiring but not because of the music and her voice. It was all good.

This was all very likeable. It’s a transportive record that I enjoyed for making me feel like I was living in late 50s America for a morning. But it is also not something I will be revisiting in full ever - it’s a huge undertaking.

Ella's voice is amazing, but listening to 3 hours of this is completely obnoxious.

Fajne, ale aż 6 płyt ;-)

One of the great voices. I'd have preferred a wider range of her songs not just the Gershwin's. Can't really complain though, any vehicle will do to carry that tone. How to score this? 5 for the voice, 1 for the lyrics.

Would have been 3-4 if it would have ended after about an 1/3 of the time...

Beautiful voice, incredible array of songs. Minus points for compilation and covers.

Obviously rating this high because Ella Fitzgerald’s great, but this is kind of a prime example of how the 50s inclusions on this list really stick out as being very different ideas of what an album is and does

Que tomo espetacular para celebrar a genialidade dela em quatro partes. Sendo que audição flui perfeitamente durante os quase 200 minutos.

Ella Fitzgerald is gold.

Beautiful voice and lovely album.

Oh boy. Here it is. Is this too long? Yes. Of course. But....it's also punchy, evocative, and the vocals are (unsurprisingly) excellent. Also quite sultry! Audibly cackled when she sang, "emosh" and "devosh" lol. Homegirl has some zany pronunciations throughout. I didn't find this nearly as much of a slog as others, plenty of varied tones and timbre to keep things from getting repetitive. That said, there's no need to drink it all in in one sitting - do it in a few and you'll enjoy it a lot more. Listened to: at home. Favorite tracks: Things Are Looking Up, The Man I Love, Love is Here To Stay

Anything by Ella Fitzgerald is deserving of a 5, but I will give this a 4 because, well, a box set? Really? I can listen to Ella's pure, legendary, magnificent singing anytime but a box set seems out of place in this project. Also, there is a set of Nelson Riddle Orchestra songs at the end without Ella? Another reason this cannot be a 5.

The production and Fitzgerald's voice are all fine enough, but 3 hours of the Gershwin brothers writing exactly one type of song 30 times is nauseating.

For a couple of hours this morning, I felt like I was in a 1960s Mad Men style Manhattan appartment, drinking a martini and listening to this box set on my Radiogram. Some of the best classic songs of the early to mid 20th century, sung by one of the very best vocalists, ranging from ragtime to jazz with a touch of soul thrown in. Apparently the original deluxe edition of this came in a wooden box for $100 (well over $1000 now). Totally worth it.

I love jazz, but I always struggle with jazz with singers. Don't get me wrong, Ella Fitzgerald has a great voice, but the music is serving her voice (which is totally understandable) but what I like the most in jazz is the music itself. Not as a background. And it also tends to be smoother than other subgenres, and I like my jazz with edges. So, it's OK but I'm not too fond of it. Also, it's way too long. A shorter version would have get probably 4 stars, but gosh, that was too much for me.

5 stars for Ella herself, but 3 for having a giant compilation on the list. I found an album under the same title on Youtube that only had 12 tracks, and I would've given that version a 4 or 5.

Amazingly produced album, sounds incredible and Ella's voice is legendary. Overall a beautiful album, just not my taste. (and insanely long)

Really old timey but very fun. The songs are very sweet and romantic too

Yeah, im not listening to this entire "album." It is good with so I may revisit the remaining disc's when I'm done with the list.

I listened to it all - it took 2 weekends - just hard to devote that much time. It's not an album! But it is good I enjoyed it

LONG album with lots of songs, which is not surprising as the Gershwins has lots of great songs. Great singer with a great voice doing the songs justice.

Finally made it through! This feels like a mini version of this whole project. Ella had a great voice, no denying that, but I didn’t not need 3.5 hours of this. Also nothing I would ever see myself choosing to listen to again.

J'ai l'impression que cet album est plus ici du au travail impressionnant que ça a du prendre pour réaliser un tel album, plus que la qualité de la musique. Loin d'être mauvais, c'est très long et répétitif et d'avoir autant de chansons similaires sur 3h15 de temps diminue l'impact de chacune. Ce n'est pas comme 69 Love Songs où il y a beaucoup plus de variations d'une pièce à l'autre. 5.5/10

Great voice. Good music. Too long drops a star.

3☆/5 08.21.2024

Ella Fitzgerald has an amazing voice, but this “album” is 2 hours too long

More Ella Fitzgerald than I ever really asked for. Not going in depth on anything because the album is 3 hours long. Not really an album, more like a collection/boxset imo. I got rythym is a classic, the rest vary from listenable to good--there isn't any trash here. The worst songs of the album were the instrumental pieces because it was the same as the previous 3 hours just without Fitzgerald's voice (the only reason you would still be listening at this point). Since this one is so weird I'll give it a 3/5 overall--no 5/5 songs, a solid bit of 4/5s spread throughout, and the rest are 3/5s (except the instrumentals, how dare you give me instrumentals at the end of a 3 hour album--1/5s for all of those songs for even thinking to include them)

I have to say that I am extremely disappointed when I saw that this is more than 3 hours, as it has 6 Disks (!!!), but it's alright, not too bad. It is very outdated because this is from 1959 but it's a nice relatively jazzy (sometimes) background listen, so if you don't want to listen or watch anything else while you're doing stuff throughout your day, this is an okay album.

It's perfectly fine background music but as an active listening experience, it's a bit dull and dreary, even just 40 minutes of it, let alone 3 hours.

Yeah old shiz

Great voice but 3 and a bit hours of it is too much in one sitting.

Ah, this takes me back to by childhood. I love a bit of Ella. It's just classy singing and jazzy numbers.

I'm not sure what to do with this. Is Ella Fitzgerald a great singer, yes. Do I have time to listen to a 3+ hours, 6 disc boxset album? Probably. But do I want to? Not really. I ended up listening to disc 1 and parked it. I may revisit on some rainy Sunday, today wasn't the day.

This album is my Everest. 59 songs, over 3 hours. Her voice is flawless. How did it happen? And how lucky are we to live in a time where we can hear it… I know this will be a 5 star album I just want to actually listen to it. Update: I have done it. 4 stars bc it’s long!

Listening to this you feel like you are in a Disney movie. But my god 3 hours is too long!

There is no denying that Ella is in the top three jazz singers of all time, but I'm a little disappointed by this album. First, she didn't write any of this. Second, despite the fact that some of the greatest songwriters in the country to that point wrote everything, it lacks a lot of variety. There are a lot of unique songs, but when you have other three hours of content a lot of it is going to blur. Third, I don't think she gave herself many or really any songs that really highlight the full range of her potential. She's great, this is not her best.

It is a beautiful and exhaustive demonstration of Ella’s voice. Truly wonderful.

Three hours. I know this is from a time where attention spans aren't what they are now, but three hours. Was this intended for a single listen? I made it three songs. When I saw the fourth was "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off," I did that with this album and put on Mobb Deep. * ok, I'm trying again. But I'm not enjoying it. This is just not something I can find something to admire - plenty of talent, but nothing I'm enjoying. If this was 1001 macaroni and cheeses to try before you die, we've had Stouffer's, we've had the solid box vegan one, we've had the shitty box ones that don't even reconstitute. We've even had a couple of real delicacies. This is the Costco 30 pound bucket and you're told to eat it all at once. At least it's not a concept album.

Loving this. Ella's voice is incredible. The big band backing her up is outstanding. The three hour length is a little tough, but it's so easy to listen to I can't even complain too much about that.

6/10. It features a lot of really nice jazz songs. However, I wish that it wasn't over three bloody hours long.

It does not become stale with a duration of more than 3 hours which is a hard thing to accomplish

Epic Ella's classcical Jazz marathon.

Long

I mean, it is very long. I would be surprised if this isn't the longest album on this list by standard length. It's also a joy to listen to. I don't think I'll listen to it front to back like this again, but I will keep it on hand for mellow parties or busy days at the office. And certain songs are now close to my heart. Disc five (!) was my favorite. Fitzgerald is unquestionably one of the greatest American vocalists. I'm inclined to check out her other songbook offerings now, length be damned. Call me a pushover for my rating if you must. Highlights: But Not For Me, My One And Only, Nice Work If You Can Get It, The Real American Folk Song, Love Is Here To Stay, Boy What Love Has Done To Me, Lorelei, Oh So Nice

Background music for when you’re walking through the city with somewhere you have to be. Otherwise really, really hard to sit through. Big respect to Ella though

Wonderful! Long, but satisfying, I kept coming back to it throughout the day. The song writing and the singer are a match made in heaven

I can’t imagine any album on this list is going to be longer than this one. Would be a good record to listen to if you were making pasta from scratch or something but ultimately it was just background noise to me.

Personal favorite

I love me some Ella but this is just too much Gershwin for one listen. Great background music for sure but I just don't appreciate it otherwise.

Lovely and classy from top to bottom.She sings with such grace and understatements, doesn’t go for many big gestures and seems to have a wink in her voice when singing some of the sillier material. One finds the Riddle arrangements lush to the point of schmaltzy, but it doesn't stop Ella one whit.

Ella has a fantastic voice but my main issue is that this album is way too long. I believe an album should be listened to in one sitting and you can't do that very easily with this one. It's best used for background music and/or in chunks. It's far from a bad album but it's just too much.

It’s Ella Fitzgerald and George Gershwin, how do you miss? That being said, it’s also 3 hours long so I’ll cop to not listening to all of it.

A monumental achievement! And I don’t mean just listening to the whole thing. Struck by the consistent humor and playfulness of Ira’s lyrics, and the professionalism of cranking out these tunes consistently throughout a life cut all too short. Ella’s elegantly effortless, as usual.

I get that she’s iconic, but I did not enjoy this

I know there are people who really enjoy this music, but I am certainly not one of them. 1 star or F for me.

First listen Saved 8/59 Top track: I Got Rhythm

Wow. Five CD's and all of it great. Incredible. Loved listening to this. 5 Parenthetically, not considering CD number 6, cuz no vocals and wtf 🥴

Didn't have a chance to listen fully at this time but high remarks for what I heard!

Pretty good, very long.

She sings like old-school Christmas songs, which I like. Praise that person on youtube that uploaded a 40-min selection of this because the full thing is enormous. Stand-out: Beginner's Luck (I've Got)

on the one hand, it's self evidently really good. on the other hand, 3 hours of it is way way too much and i will die on the hill that this is not an 'album.' split the difference and call it a 3

After unknowingly listening to the first 5 discs while tinkering away at work I thought I surely had ventured out of the album and into the spotify suggested playlist. To my suprise, the album was still playing! I am proud to say I listened to the whole thing without giving up, but I can't say I really enjoyed it. My tolerance for this type of music runs out after about an hour then everything blends together and I lose interest. Despite the 3 hour run time, Ella's voice is phenomenal and the songs are well composed for the time. I likely would only listen to this again as background music (for a fancy home cooked meal perhaps)

It certainly is too long for repeated listens - but essential to do so at least once....

Too long, can’t listen to it all.

Undeniably lovely...just not my thing.

Never heard this before. Should Box Sets be included in this list? I mean there is 3 1/2 hours of music in this album! This is good, but I'd be more likely to give it 4 or 5 stars if they focused on a dozen of the best songs.

The fifties is already a decade I don’t enjoy very much, making a three hour long album of it did not make me like it more

Didn’t make it through all 4 discs here, but now I know where to go if I want to do a deep dive into Ella/Gershwin tunes.

You get what you expect, quality varies (you can tell some songs were written in 2 minutes the lyrics are laughable)

I don't like show tunes. Three hours worth is unbearable.

Great music but a bit long as a stand alone album I did struggle to get through it in a couple of sittings

My favourite book, you ask? Well that must be the collected works of Goethe. Next question. Is this an album? Is this the best way to enjoy Ella Fitzgerald? Gershwin? Does anything make sense? This entry hits at my main qualm with the 1001 albums book/project. The completist insistence on the album format is quite rock centric, and simply does not work within a lot of other genres, or really before the rock album became a thing. I could just skip this one, but felt like writing, so had to rate.

Ok. So yes, Ella Fitzgerald was amazing. This album has an amazing cover. 3+ hours of anyone singing Gershwin songs is decidedly less amazing. And also - it's cheating to have this album on the list anyway. Might as well include any number of 'best ofs' if we allow this one. And is this the longest album on the list? I decided when I started this project that I would listen to all the albums all the way through and at least give every song a chance before skipping them as a last resort. I never thought that the album that would try my patience the most (so far...) would be Ella Fitzgerald. It's not that I don't like it, it's just too long. And this kind of vocal jazz is just not that interesting to me. I think that unless Ella Fitzgerald is like your top favorite of all time, most people will probably be bored of this after the first 10 songs max. So I don't really know how to rate this one and am going to just give up and call it 2.5/5.

This album is getting a 3. Ella Fitzgerald’s music is beautiful. Probably deserving of a 4 but quite literally couldn’t get myself to listen to all 3 hours of this. Maybe around Christmas time or some shit but I couldn’t do it. I’m moving on

3.5 stars

Nice but that's a lot of songs.

I did listen to the whole thing, all six “discs” over two days, and although I love Ella’s voice, that is just a LOT for this type of list.

Soooooo loooooong

clever lyrics with excellent singing; the music is not that engaging to me but in terms of a popular style, it was a core classic form and worth having heard.

Ella Fitzgerald is a perfect singer with the voice of an angel but also whoever compiled the 1001 albums needs to get real about these 2 and 3+ hour compilations

An amazing singer.

Soft and gentle - it's as if nothing bad could ever happen in the world when you listen to this. I like that feeling. Yes, it's very long - but I enjoyed the nostalgic warmth of this - the Bose speaker became a softly burning candle in the corner of the room.

My Dad loved her. She can certainly carry a tune but I don't love her voice. To me there's more emotion listening to Billie Holiday or Etta James (who also sounds much cooler.... Amy Winehouse must have been a fan) I couldn't possibly listen to over 3 hours so listened to some random songs and went with that. Then I listened to Etta instead of Ella!

I ended up having this on for a couple hours (discs 1-3) whilst coding my interview. A bit dated, especially on the songwriting and structure front, but she has a great voice and the music matches her well to create a very warm atmosphere. It’s like sitting in an armchair before a warm cosy fireplace with a mug of cocoa. I do think this isn’t much of an album, in the sense that we think of albums today, but it was a good listen nonetheless. Don’t think many songs will enter my rotation, hence the score, but I did enjoy this :D.

I was ready to go in guns blazing about the 3 hour runtime but this album is very pleasant indeed. Great voice, fun lyrics, smooth and relaxing music. If I had to describe it in one word, it would be ‘charming’. Definitely far too long, but I listened to the whole 3 hours while I was working on a warm sunny day and it made for a very peaceful Monday. Favourite songs: They All Laughed, Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off

Songs from the 20's and 30's performed from one of the best singers in 1959. Fat Big Band sound.

She's got a fantastic voice. Absolutely timeless. Definitely for background music however. 3 hours of it straight is far too much.

59 tracks and all great songs. I’ve never heard anything like it. A little before my time but still a great album.

It’s like a gourmet meal of 50 courses. Too much to consume in one sitting. An embarrassment of riches.

Colocaria muito em uma vitrola num dia de sábado no entardecer

What a sweet voice! And great orchestrations of some classic songs.

this album is a monster. The compositions are Gershwin so they're classic and Ella is one of the best singers in the genre so it just gives you great jazz standards

Voice like a bell. Way too long for anyone to listen to in one sitting, but every song is perfectly sung.

Classic crooner jazz. What really makes this are the vocals, she has an absolutely lovely voice. This album made me feel nostalgic even though I’m in my early thirties.

Great

I do love Ella's voice but I feel these songs does do it justice.

This is a big collection of great standards. And Ella is without question a great and unique artist. Her voice is always beautiful, precise, and so joyous. She is at her best when swinging and scatting. She is also backed by a superb band. But most numbers don't swing that hard and Ella doesn't let loose jazz-wise much. And over a range of songs Ella is mostly unwavering in her style. Even when the song is more bluesy or somber, she does not seem capable of reigning in the joy in her voice to express other emotions. She sings all the songs as if she is singing a lullaby to a child. 4.4

What a pleasant voice.

Ella is fantastic, classic songs sung beautifully

Love Ella Fitzgerald’s voice, and the music is good. It’s just hard to sit through this much music in one sitting. As an album experience it’s just too much, but I can imagine if listen to over the course of multiple sessions I would’ve enjoyed it more. However my rating is based on listening to the whole album in one day.

I really enjoy Ella Fitzgerald's voice, but no way am I going to listen to 3+ hours of this. I listed to a 45 min "Very Best Of..." compilation twice instead. It's great and sets a mood well enough, but as with a lot of 50s music, I don't have a lot of patience for it personally. It's very obviously from a different time, and us enjoyable under the right conditions.

4 hours and 13 minutes? Thank you sir, may I have another? I ran it as long as I could in the background while I did my morning routine. This is music from my parents' generation. World War II. I'm sure it made a difference to many back then. I don't hate it but I've got a life to live this morning. You say "comprehensive", I say "too long", let's call the whole thing off.

I liked it, it's like a window into another time.

The first thing I'll say is that this album is extremely long (3 hours). I actually like the songs on it. It's a pity that they sound a bit too similar to each other. Fitzgerald is a great singer and the tracks written by the Gershwin Brothers are nice. One piece of advice listening to this record is that you should take a break every 20 songs or so. 3 stars for "EFStGaIGSB".

Fantastic arrangements of classic songs, performed by a top notch performer.

I was only able to listen to about 2.5 hours of this collection. I wasn't expecting it to enjoy it as much as I did. It was really delightful. I don't consider myself a huge fan of the old timey music, but this was really exceptional work. The audio quality was fantastic, the music, and of course Ella Fitzgerald. I was able to listen to this and work and it really put a smile on my face at times. Just really pleasant to listen to.

A bit of a whopper but very good

Lekker voor op de achtergrond. Wel een boel nummers op een album. Maarliefst 73!!!

It’ll take me a long time to finish this - but unless it suddenly turns into heavy metal in the 3rd act, it’s 5/5 for me.

This isn’t necessarily my style of music, and I’m also a little freaked out by the length, but let’s see how this goes. Holy cow But Not For Me is an absolutely stunning ballad with an outstanding vocal from Ella. So far from the first few songs I’m running into the issue I expected, which is that this isn’t my genre and I’m struggling to distinguish between the different songs. Ok Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off is pretty damn funny admittedly.

Behöver inte ens motivera - skivan med Louis är dock bättre, så därför bara en 4:a Minus —>går nästan in i någon ”amerikansk hemmafru” stereotyp av att lyssna🥶👀 Bästa låtar: Nice work if you can get it, That certain feeling, He loves and she loves, Boy what love has done to me (!!!!), I got rhythm, Somebody loves me

Ett otroligt bra album. Jag lyssnade hela helgen och kom igenom 52 av de 59 låtarna i albumet. Njöt av varenda en. Ella Fitzgerald är helt sjuk i huvudet och förtjänar värdigt en 5a från mig.

Väldigt bra album o Ella Fitzgerald äger, men, albumet var alldeles för långt, många låtar var snarlika och vad hade disk 6 för funktion? Ella var ju inte med där Aja albumet var ändå så pass bra att det får en fyra Det var svårt att välja bästa låtar eftersom det var så många, men Bästa låtar: Let’a call the whole thing off, I’ve got rythm

Didn’t make it all the way through yet, but I will. A classic, perfect for this sunny afternoon.

Ella’s voice is flawless! Her ability to dance around the music is unreal. This album in particular is unbelievably long at 3hrs14mins. By the end I had a bit of Ella fatigue. I think I would consume it in chunks next time.

Over 3 hours?Who could listen to all of this? How could anyone create that much? Bring me a bib! I am down for this buffet - best voice and best arranger... like a fine wine (or whatever your desire wants)

What a voice.

This is a strange inclusion on the list. For me an album is just that. A selection of songs written or curated by an artist at a given point in time and presented as a creative piece to be listened to from beginning to end. Yes Ella fitcgerald has a great voice and the Gershwins wrote some nice songs. But 3+hrs!! I'm currently on Disc 4 after spreading this over a few days. I will finish it because I want the satisfaction of completing the list. But they really started to lose me when rhyming Rhumba with Septumber (sic) towards the end of disc 1.

Not for me

Es ist ein solides Album, das eine frische Interpretation von Gershwins Klassikern bietet. Die Titel sind anfangs sehr interessant, wiederholen sich jedoch im Verlauf des Albums, was bei der Länge etwas ermüdend wirken kann. Besonders hervorzuheben sind die Zupfelemente, die den Stücken eine besondere Note verleihen. Insgesamt ein gutes Album für Jazzliebhaber, aber ohne „have to hear‘s“.

stunning and wonderful

I like Ella Fitzgerald, and I like the Gershwins... but do I like them enough to listen to their music for 3 hours straight?? This was fine. Ella Fitzgerald's voice is amazing, and her skills really shine here. As a full album though it was just too long. It was too easy to stop really listening and just tune it out as background music. I enjoyed it, but I doubt I would listen to the whole thing again.

59 songs? But last year- last year I had 69! 😡 After breaking that Magnetic Fields album into 3 days of listening, I decided to power through it all today. Broken up, of course- a bit in the wee small hours (speaking of that, here’s another album this week arranged by Nelson Riddle!), a bit before the first coffee, a bit on the work commute, etc. In no order, highlights include Ella’s takes on: “Funny Face”, “I Got Rhythm“, “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off”, “Oh Lady Be Good”, “Just Another Rhumba”, “The Real American Folk Song”, “S Wonderful”, “You’ve Got What Gets Me”, “He Loves and She Loves”. Since I don’t really choose to listen to vocal jazz in general, I was surprised how much I liked this. 3 hours is a bit numbing for any genre, and there are much shorter albums I didn’t fully absorb on 1st listen. Nonetheless, I’ve already added Ella & Louis to my personal listen-list, so it’s probably a good takeaway that I didn’t listen to ENOUGH Ella Fitzgerald. July 7, 2024

5/10 Swell 7-5-2024

Not sure why we needed a 6-disc compilation. She has a lovely voice and sings lovely songs.