The Gershwin Songbook

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Very good versions of pop standards. Didn't need to be 3 hours long though.

Ella singing “someone to watch over me” is 5⭐️. However, the album being 3h14m long and the entire catalog is too much.

Great voice singing some iconic show tunes. Not sure we needed 6 discs and over 3 hours of it though.

mono

3 hours? No thank you. I listened to only about 40 minutes of this. I don't got time for that. That said, this vocal performance is sublime. The jazzy backing is nice, definitely well performed and does more than just be there to have something to sing over. It is engaging on it's own and even takes over in some spots to become featured and impressive. But regardless of that, this record is all about Ella and how talented she is, which is very. Her range and dynamic use of tone is gorgeous. She has power, softness, sass, and grit all dialed in and uses them all at just the right times. It really is some beautiful music. Great, stunning, and yet horrendously long - which has to factor in when I'm comparing it to the history of the best albums, the greatest of which are all designed to be a singular uninterrupted experience. Even most of the rest are at least that. This isn't something you can put on and realistically take in with very much intent front to back. There's 2 hours too much of it to do that. I wish I could give this a better rating, because usually jazz doesn't do much for me, but this is different and I enjoy it. It boils down to this: it's really good *music* but not a very good *album*. 3.0/5

Ja leuk, heb alleen cd 1 geluisterd omdat het me anders wat te veel werd maar heb me wel vermaakt

I enjoyed this but it took me a couple of days due to the number of the songs. Atmospheric and cosy.

Listened to this after a nice group dinner on a stormy night in Almeria, which was quite an event. The vibe is: winter night, warm inside, low light, glass of red wine, cooking a pasta dinner while listening to it on vinyl!

Great voice, but derivative songwriting and entirely too long

love you, ella but way too long lol.

I mean, in the end, the higher you'd rate an album would be highly correlated with your likelihood of listening to it, right? You'd not rate something a 5 if you'd never listen to it again, and while that's a sort of black and white/binary example, it stands to reason that you would rate things on appreciation and listenability. Ella is incredible on this collection. Ella always is. One of my favorites. However, the likelihood I'd have reason to listen to over three hours of this? Pretty unlikely. Maybe for some chill background music at a dinner party or something but never in any given moment. This is just... too much. Six albums worth of material. Three hours, fifteen minutes worth of music. It's unwieldy, like trying to fit a table into a room too small to comfortably sit people. The recordings are beautiful. But I don't think a three hour set of Ella (or any artist/act) is necessary -- or appropriate -- for any list such as this. So many other representative options are available.

As a massive listen this was incredibly daunting, but treating the discs like chapters kinda helped. The Nelson Riddle arrangements all sound great, but I would be lying if I didn’t admit that they did get rather repetitive by the end. However Ellas voice does not get old, and is incredible all the way through. I enjoyed the lyrics and thought they were actually very sharp and clever. This album did land with me however due to the sheer size of it, I can’t see myself returning.

She is amazing, not fussed about Gershwin, moved onto her Miles album instead

Theres no doubt Ella Fitzgerald is an incredible singer but calling this one album feels like cheating It's 4 hours of music and its herculean to listen to even once in a day without becoming very samey

It was so many songs! Lots of variations on a theme. I thought some of them were very funny, and her talent as a vocalist really stands out

ts was genuinely way too long, she doesnt even sing on the last disc. overall still rlly liked it tho

She has an amazing voice, but this was a lot of Gershwin.

This must not be treated as an album, but as a playlist. As an hearing experience its a safe bet, its not an album to come back very often or that i will keep at the top of my mind, but overall its an enjoyable experience.

My drive to work on Friday, my drive home from work on Friday, my drive to my kids' swimming lesson on Friday night, my drive home from my kids' swimming lesson on Friday, my drive to Tesco on Saturday morning, my shopping around Tesco, my cooking of lunch on Saturday, my washing the dishes after lunch on Saturday, half of the prep of sausage casserole for the Saturday evening's dinner. Not sure how this album is supposed to be experienced. It started strongly and then just became a blend of neverending sameness, which is unavoidable. 59 straight songs in one genre/from one artist is more than enough even if you're an avid fan. Obviously, beautiful lyrics, amazing voice, quite the labour of love to have made it, but exhausting.

Finding time to listen to a new album a day is difficult, finding time to listen critically to a 3+ hour album is impossible. So I’m reviewing based on disc 1. Sorry. Overall, I enjoyed this a lot. Will be played as background music while cooking or hosting a dinner party. Beautiful voice. Songwriting is hit or miss. Instrumentation is dated, but that was expected. Can’t give more than 3 stars because of length and the artist do not write any of it.

-It's hard for me not to think of Kind of Blue, which was recorded the same year. In that context, where jazz was at the end of the 1950s, this is quite a conservative, throw-back kind of project. I was able to connect with a handful of the songs either because of their cleverness (e.g. "Who Cares") or their moodiness (e.g. "A Foggy Day"), but most of these tracks did not set me on fire. Nevertheless, major respect to Ella and the Gershwins for their place in jazz history. -I didn't mind the length so much. It gave me a good excuse to plunge the depths of the Gershwin catalogue and listen to a lot of Ella Fitzgerald, something I basically never do. And, to be honest, the length of the catalogue started to win me over a bit. That being said, you can't put this many songs in a collection and expect them all to be winners. Some of these are miniature pieces of pop perfection, some are total shlock novelty songs. And as the great Spinal Tap said, it's a fine line between stupid and clever. -It's probably a character flaw in me, but I do not enjoy scatting. -The orchestral arrangements throughout are surprisingly square. The instrumental tracks without Ella are painfully schmaltzy.

I'm not really sure a compilation of a whole musical catalog should really qualify as an album, but whatever I guess

Would be 4 star if 10 songs

It has the melodies of a lullaby but the lyrics are conventional yet Broadway like.

Yes, I listened to all of it. Ella Fitzgerald is one of my favorite vocalists of all time, her iconic voice covering pretty much every Jazz song you've ever heard of at some point throughout her career. About a quarter of them are on this record alone, with the Gershwins writing an absolutely massive list of standards. This is less of an album and more a compilation, so I won't dock any points for it being "too long." That being said, once you've heard an hour of this record, you've pretty much heard it all. Obviously there are some great hits on this record, but Ella's renditions are not my favorite recordings for almost all of these tracks. There are some exceptions, Let's Call the Whole Thing Off and Sam and Delilah probably being my favorites. Unfortunately, the majority of these tracks are unremarkable, with the big band arrangements blurring into each other. Some tracks like Someone to Watch Over Me play around with the format a bit and create hauntingly beautiful atmospheres that compliment the tenderness in Ella's voice so much better. I think this record is great for background atmosphere, but doesn't really work in a traditional album format. If you're a huge jazz nerd, there's some A-tier renditions of countless standards and hours of amazing Ella Fitzgerald vocal performances. Otherwise, this is just an archival of the works of some of the most prolific songwriters of the early 20th century, designed to be a reference and not really a complete experience.

Obviously Ella is iconic and wonderful and many of these songs are stone cold classics. All the same, three hours of this vibe gets a bit samey.

I opted for the shorter 'best of' because there was no way I was making it through three hours. I enjoyed the songs, but I grew a little tired of it by the end... and this wasn't even the long version. I think point knock for the length, point knock for being a little dull. But Ella, I love you, just in smaller doses, and perhaps a different era of Ella.

I have to admit that I made it through 2 and a half discs of this and bailed. I don’t know whether this was a special edition, but 6 discs and a runtime of over 3 hours is not conducive to anyone who has a job/life. The music is pleasant enough but over that time becomes very repetitive. I am giving the mark on the basis of the songs as individual tracks rather than an album as it doesn’t really function as an album.

What can I say this album is really good. It actually really long with 59 songs divided in 6 discs. The trombettes are really comforting, not to talk the voice of Ella. It is actually for me a backround music doesent really make me dance or something but it is jazz so it gives chill vibes and it brings me in good humor. Great for doing something in the mean time. The songs have good sounds. Yes just amazing work really comforting and easy album.

I'm not sure this is really intended to be listened to as one album, because it sounded great but was way, way too much whimsical wordplay for a single sitting

3.8/5

Not bad by any means. I was able to make it thru the entirely of this album. It is good background music and great vocals, but is simply too long (obviously) but this is not supposed to be listened to in one sitting anyway 3/5

5 discos, 5 freaking good times. Immediately YES, first minute, first second, hell yeah Ella. Different vibes, emotions and atmospheres. No need to talk about her voice, enchanting and incredibly enveloping, warm, accurate and precise. To play at a fancy Christmas party. I had to listen to it at different times and days, cause all at once would have confused me. Maybe I'm not used to so much jazz so I can't listen to it for too long. After a while it becomes too much and drives me insane.

This has to be the final boss of Jazz albums for people who don’t love Jazz albums. 3 hours and 14 minutes long?? Be real. I’m honor bound and determined to listen to every album in the book front to back at least once, as well as pick a favorite song from each album, but this one is really going to try my patience. Those were my initial thoughts upon, mouth agape, seeing what I rolled this morning. What follows for the remainder of the review is post listen. I like Ella Fitzgerald, and I don’t even dislike The Gershwin Songbook by Ella Fitzgerald, but whoever included this album in the book had to have been trolling. You can’t seriously tell me I had to listen to this before I die, rather than something shorter and more focused by the same artist. Despite that, here I am, victorious, one entire listen-through later. The final disc is also just instrumental stuff with no Ella vocals, really unnecessary to include that at all, but I sure did listen to it anyway. It took me one whole work shift and the drive home to get through this one completely, which doesn’t say a lot about the album other than the length is just outrageous, and I had to pause it a lot to focus on important stuff. Generally I’m always going to listen to an album multiple times front to back to really form an opinion on it, and pick a favorite for the playlist as previously mentioned. Soak it all in, get to know and understand it better. You feel me?? This time, however, I’m just thankful to escape listening to it in full at all. Nothing of note stood out here, and if it did, I probably listened to it 6 hours ago. That being said, I really do like Ella’s voice, and admittedly I never felt like I was just praying for the album to end. As far as Jazz goes, this was alright. I’d be being disingenuous if I gave it a 2 just because of how long it was. Hyper-analyzing the album is going to be impossible unfortunately, as I was only able to listen to this one once. Would have been better as a weekend album so I could spend more time with it. Regardless, I wouldn’t come back to it anyway given the extra time. Jazz is Jazz, and this was very much tolerable, but not spectacular by any sense of the word. I’ll go with “Soon” as my favorite. Why?? I kind of remember how that one went, which is good enough for me. For Jazz lovers I think this one is going to be a must. It’s super long, has a singer with a beautiful voice, and it’s endlessly re-playable. For the rest of us, it exists somewhere between just alright and ok. It’s more Jazz, and the book has plenty of it. I wish it was about 2 and a half hours shorter, but for what it is, it’s not terrible. I’ll consider that a win and move on the the next challenge. Is this the longest album in the book?? It has to be, right??

moy buenooo la amo

Beautiful vocals, engaging and nice but I don't know if there is much in terms of repeat value for me.

Disc 1 - 3/5 Sam And Delilah - 3/5 But Not For Me - 3.5/5 My One And Only - 3/5 Let's Call The Whole Thing Off - 3.5/5 (I've Got) Beginner's Luck - 4/5 Oh, Lady Be Good - 3/5 Nice Work If You Can Get It - 3.5/5 Things Are Looking Up - 4/5 Just Another Rhumba - 4.5/5 How Long Has This Been Going On? - 3/5 Disc 2 - 3.5/5 'S Wonderful - 3.5/5 The Man I Love - 3/5 That Certain Feeling - 3/5 By Stauss - 4/5 Someone To Watch Over Me - 3/5 The Real American Folk Song - 4.5/5 Who Cares? - 3.5/5 Looking For A Boy - 3/5 They All Laughed - 3/5 My Cousin In Milwaukee - 3/5 Somebody From Somewhere - 3.5/5 Disc 3 - 3/5 A Foggy Day - 3/5 Clap Yo' Hands - 3/5 For You For Me For Evermore - 3/5 Stiff Upper Lip - 3/5 Boy Wanted - 3.5/5 Strike Up The Band - 4/5 Soon - 3/5 I've Got A Crush On You - 3/5 Bidin' My Time - 3.5/5 Aren't You Kind Of Glad We Did? - 3/5 Of Thee I Sing - 3/5 Disc 4 - 4/5 The Half Of It Dearie Blues - 3/5 I Was Doing All Right - 4/5 He Loves And She Loves - 4/5 Love Is Sweeping The Country - 3.5/5 Treat Me Rough - 3.5/5 Love Is Here To Stay -3/5 Slap That Bass - 3/5 Isn't It A Pity - 3/5 Shall We Dance - 3.5/5 Love Walked In - 3/5 You've Got What Gets Me - 3.5/5 Disc 5 - 3/5 They Can't Take That Away From Me - 3/5 Embraceable You - 2.5/5 I Can't Be Bothered Now - 3/5 Boy What Love Has Done To Me - 3.5/5 Fascinating Rhythm - 3.5/5 Funny Face - 3/5 Lorelei - 3/5 Oh So Nice - 3/5 Let's Kiss And Make Up - 3.5/5 I Got Rhythm - 3/5 Disc 6 - 2/5 (No Ella Fitzgerald) Promenade (Walking The Dog) - 2.5/5 March Of the Swiss Soldiers - 2.5/5 Fidgety Feet - 2/5 Prelude I - 2/5 Prelude II - 2/5 Prelude III - 2/5

3.5

This album reminded me of white christmas and sound of music, probably because it was made in the same era. overall it was good but i don’t think i would go out of my way to add it to any playlists.

Incredible voice, and the songs are catchy enough. 3hrs+ is a slog, I was happy to hit shuffle until I'd had my fill. Fave tracks: Pick any 3 tracks at random

Timeless classic. Beautiful voices, masterful arrangements. A bit too long.

objectively great but the length is brutal

Well that’s an experience. I was going to criticize the inclusion of this for being a compilation, but it looks like it l was intended as a single new release, with the songs recorded newly for the album. Fitzgerald is obviously a master vocalist, and the songs are polished as can be. So you can’t knock it, but I’m not going to lie and act like this didn’t get wildly monotonous. I respect it, but I don’t plan on returning to it.

This is #day506 of my #1001albumsyoumusthearbeforeyoudie challenge, and… that was a whole lot of Ella Fitzgerald for one sitting, I must admit. The music feels kind of right for these post-Christmas days. I gave up on "Love Is Here To Stay," though. This is a 3 out of 5. Looking forward to #day507.

-/10

Favorite track(s): LP 1: But Not For Me, Nice Work If You Can Get It LP 2: The Man I Love LP 3: For You, for Me, for Evermore, Of Thee I Sing (Baby) LP 4: Slap That Bass, Love Walked In LP 5: Embraceable You What are they doing putting boxsets on this list?

This album serves as a reminder that Ella Fitzgerald is one of the most talented singers to ever live. That being said, I can’t see most wanting to listen to 6 discs, 59 songs, and 3 hours of this.

One star for each hour of music. I am disappointed that this album held back so much.

Well thanks for my job, I'm doing a 12 hours shift today, I'm editing so this can play in the background while I work, and wait for more work and wait so I can go home and not work. I'm saying this because, looking at the 59 songs making this record and looking at the running time, this is probably about 2h30! **it's more than 3hours actually It's very appropriate for a december 23rd. There's something Chrismasty about this. Let's Call The Whole Thing Off is charming, reminds me of the Nina Simone song love me or leave me (I think that's the one I'm thinking off(a much better Well it's about 5pm now, I haven't finished the first "CD" yet. Busier than I thought, but I'm at work until 1am, who knows if I can finish this today haha It's 8:51 and I'm in the middle of disc 5 9:35 I've made it! This was a pretty good soundtrack to the night, it's obvioulsy not meant to be absorb in the same way as you would any album. You'd have this on during a dinner with friends and, you know, the lenght wouldn't matter. Fav (I think??): But not for me Let's call the whole thing off just another rhumba The man I love Somebody from somewhere

Never been into this type of albums before. Super oldie, super fun, the first song hooked me. But the amount of songs in there scares me lol

While there are a handful of wonderful interpretations there’s also loads of cornball American big bad schmaltz that I have little time for. Real mixed bag.

I listened to "The very best" edition. I can't fault the performance, the composition or the recording. They're all 5/5. The problem is the intent: This is smooth, predictable music meant to sit comfortably in the background while you sip a cocktail & engaged in a lively chat. Being touched, roused, startled or challenged by the music is not the priority. The music delivers that, but by doing so, it passes right by me: The core of what I look for in music is absent. The craftsmanship is undeniable, and I never felt I had to endure the listen. But the lack of emotional pull, combined with having no real occasion in my life for this kind of music, means I won’t be returning to it. The listening is so easy, I sometimes forgot it was there.

Great instrumentals, iconic. Ella’s voice is great but I found her style and the lyrics kind of annoying.

There are only so many variations of “Potato, potato” we can handle. That aside, she has a magical voice.

Are you joking? I'm not going to listen to 3 fucking hours of jazz standards. Jog on.

Ok lah not bad but not smth id listen to like dont get me wrong its a good album but its defo smth not up my alley idk if its bc of the genre/its just this album but idk it just doesnt hit me 6.5/10?

Cozy music, not really doing it for me though. Could be suitable on some occasions, maybe when playing boardgames or cooking maybe? Something to have in the background.

Too long and songs sound pretty similar but I liked it

Альбом номер сто. С одной стороны, я люблю джаз, я уважаю джаз и Элла Фитцжеральд отлично поет, просто замечательно. С другой стороны, три мать его часа. Я думал я сойду с ума. Я не могу больше его слушать...

this feels like a girl in primary school, picking up a flower and chanting he loves me, he loves me not

Vibe chill mais pas trop ma came. Ambiance vieux Disney/soirée apéro jazz. Par moment j'avais l'impression d'entendre des mélodies de chants de Noël.

This album is a collection of beautiful songs that are impaired by the egregiously long run time. Three stars. (Favorite track: Let's Call The Whole Thing Off.)

delightful but four discs are too long

Pretty good overall just extremely long!

Yeah I did like some people and listened to the Best Of, putting a full box set on here is certainly a choice. She has a absolutely lovely voice, but kind of like Sinatra, it's a very old and dated sound. That doesn't make it bad, but in the days of sonic soundscapes and dynamic artworks, it's tough to put this at anything but a 3.

Variety of songs. Beautiful voice

Voice like velvet.

I don't believe this album was meant to heard from front to back, so I chose to listen to the first few disks to get a summation of the whole album Sam and Delilah - 3.5/5 But Not For Me - 3.5/5 My One And Only - 3/5 Let's Call the Whole Thing Off - 3/5 (I've Got) Beginner's Luck - 3/5 Oh, Lady Be Good - 2.5/5 Nice Work If You Can Get It - 3/5 Things are Looking Up - 3/5 Just Another Rumba - 3/5 How Long Has This Been Going On? - 3/5 'S Wonderful - 3/5 The Man I Love - 3/5 That Certain Feeling - 3/5 By Strauss - 3/5 Someone to Watch Over Me - 3/5 The Real American Folk Song - 3/5 Yeah I definitely would not be able to go through this whole thing in one sitting, as most of the songs sort of blend into one another and it all feels like a blur. That doesn't take away that Ella Fitzgerald is an amazing vocalist and the instrumentation behind her is also quite good. My only problem is that (understandably) the whole book is made up of show tunes which isn't exactly my style. Probably a very high 3 but a 3 regardless. Favorites: Sam and Delilah, But Not For Me Overall: 3/5

This is great! It gets repetitive for its over 3 hours, but it is fun! Very Jazzy and Ella's voice is great! Liked Songs: "Sam And Delilah" , "But Not For Me" , "Let's Call The Whole Thing Off" , "(I've Got) Beginner's Luck" , "Nice Work If You Can't Get It" , "Things Are Looking Up" , " 'S Wonderful" , "The Certain Feeling" , "Someone To Watch Over Me" , "The Real American Folk Song" , "Who Cares?" , "They All Laughed" , "My Cousin In Milwaukee" , "A Foggy Day" , "Clap Yo' Hands" , "Stiff Upper Lip" , "Strike Up The Band" , "Soon" , "I've Got A Crush On You" , "Aren't You Kind Of Glad We Did?" , "Of Thee I Sing" , "The Half Of It Dearie Blues" , "Love Is Sweeping The Country" , "Treat Me Rough" , "Slap That Bass" , "Isn't It A Pity" , "Shall We Dance?" , "Love Walked In" , "I Can't Be Bothered Now" , "Fascinating Rhythm" , "Lorelei" , "I Got Rhythm" , "Fidgety Feet" , "Prelude III"

i like ella fitzgerald but i wasnt a huge fan of this album itself

After listening to this massive album in its entirety I can confirm that it was… alright

Incredibly easy to listen to. Too short of an album. Really, really good.

I love Ella Fitzgerald but even I was struggling to get past the 3 hours of this album. It wasn't that the album was bad, not at all, but if they would have split this album into say 3 albums then I would have liked it more. Being that long does diminish the songs as you are just wanting it to be over. I am a huge fan of Ella's work and Autumn in New York is definitely top 10 most comforting songs.

Ella has a beautiful voice and the Gershwin brothers wrote some modern classics that absolutely deserve to be called "standards", but 3.25hrs of homework is an unreasonable amount of homework for a purely recreational project like this. This is “final boss” level music homework and should only be given out as album number 1001. I guess I should be grateful we weren't given Ella's entire Great American Songbook series. Or are the other pieces still coming? This is a textbook on singing and I can easily see this used as a benchmark by which all other female vocal performances are measured. She also won a 1960 Grammy for "But Not For Me" from this record. This is fantastic work, but I don’t think I’ll be sitting through it again. My rating represents the quality of the work here, but accounts for my disinterest in engaging with it again. It’s the highest 3.99999999 I can give.

Sometimes the songs can be a bit corny but the arrangements are fun. A lot to digest in one sitting tho!

удивительно мало знала (но конечно они все похожи). не очень люблю Эллу (прости Элла и простите ОМ)

I can see the relevance of this one, but no need to go back to it

Big band jams

fui até a metade existe um limite do que dá pra ser feito nessa quantidade de tempo? mas gosto mto da ella então vamo lá!

escutei (quase) tudo, foi divertido. dividi em dois dias e não me cansei muito não, apesar de ser meio repetitivo. gostosinho de ouvir de fundo. bem bonito, vozerão bacana, arranjos bem chiques. bem década de 50 mesmo. bacana, mas 3 horinha eh sacanagem

Lets get this straight. This music sounds really good its all really good I like the sound yadda yadda yadda. I cannot listen to 3+ hours of this ever. Ive listened to many albums just as long as this that I love, but this is just not something I can feasibly enjoy for this long. So I cant give this higher then 3 stars, even if the music itself might deserve more.

6 disks long.

This morning when the app reloaded & I'm revealed my album of the day, I was struck by the Picasso inspired caricature of Ms. Fitzgerald. My weird cartoon obsessed brain remembers her caricature used throughout cartoons in that Era. For the vast majority of us listening to this list, she probably is just is a caricature & a legendary name. Which is sad. When scanning the reviews, someone mentioned the song was too Tom & Jerry for them. Often times, jazz & classical music were used to protray emotion & action in those animated classics, hence the reason for the insane number of cartoon caricatures of Ella. And that's fascinating. (I may be thinking of Eartha Kitt.) What's crazier is way back in the day, they had orchestras in the pit at theaters. Can you imagine watching Bugs & the gang with an live orchestra? Is this good? Yes. Does Ella have an amazing voice? Yes. Is the band cooking? Very much so. Are the lyrics good? To some degree. The Rhumba song has some playful rhymes but silly at times. The potato - poTOTo song is fun. It reminds me my mother's pronunciation of wash as warsh & that amuses me. Do I really need to hear the ENTIRE songbook of the Gershwin boys? No. It's delightful nonetheless. Congrats if you finish this because you just listened to an ENTIRE composer's songbook & that's why it gets a 3. A daunting task but delightful. I'm getting a bit slap happy as I reach disc 5!?!?! I slappa da Bass! I must continue my journey. My God, those Gershwin Boys like rough sex. Pervs! Three hours & 15 minutes to listen to I Got Rhythm! 3:15 for I Got Rhythm! John Zorn could've played this in an hour in a cave. It wouldn't sound anything like this at all. Wait! This is the only Ella Fitzgerald album on here. There isn't a shorter better album that showcases her talent. I guess they wanted to kill two birds with one stone by having it be the Gershwin Songbook. At certain points, I said to myself "Didn't I just listen to this song?" Which is a bad thing after I just listened to this for 3 hours. There are a lot of things frustrating about rating this album & it has nothing to do with the music. It's too long & it's the ONLY album of hers on here, which makes wanna give this a 2. Yet, I did enjoy it, which makes me wanna give it a 3. I won't go any higher than 3 since I doubt I would revisit it.

Surprisingly very enjoyable, she is a very good singer, not my style of music personally though

A very 2025 review of this 1959 collection: If you told me only one of these songs is real and the other 58 are just AI songs trained on that one song, I might believe it. Gershwin slop. 2.5

It's Ella. It's Gershwin. It's great. It's also really long. If you want to put on background music, or dip and out of, amazing. But waaay too much to just actively listen to in a sitting.

J'ai écouté la version courte pas la force non le temps d'écouter 3h de cette baddie. C'est musical, ça chante bien bonne expérience, mais si je notais sur l'album de 3h je sais que j'aurais pas tanké.

Haven't heard. Liked it, sounds like old Disney. Only listened to half yesterday, but working on 2nd half today.

Massive album...

Let’s get the elephant out of the room. This album is way too long for what it is. It felt like it. Sometimes it felt like she was singing whatever lyric was just placed in front of her, and it resulted in quite bizarre songs. Some of those songs were quite fun, though. However, if I had to listen to an artist's album for three hours, she would be a top pick due to the music being so easy to listen to. Her voice is so soft and placed well, and the beautiful backing band pairs really nicely. If the album had the quality of the first three songs, I would probably appreciate it more, but alas, it's not a bad album for its length.

Ella’s vocals are great, but this is simply too long for me to enjoy

I was really aware of Ella before this album, but never heard a song of hers before. This is a goos album, her voice is beautiful and her interpretation is great, however my only criticism, as this is a looong album at one point it becomes backgound noise. There are some standout songs still but it hardly grabbed my attention. I stilll want to learn more about her, might give a try on other albuns of her discography, but yeah, a 3h long album does not help much 3/5

Nice.

Nice

Musically, most of the material is in the 3.5-4 star territory for me. As an experience, it's about a 2. So let's meet in the middle. 3/5

Wow! That was long…. There is no denying that her voice is great, the music is lovely but couldn’t a single album have been selected to show off her talents instead of a 3 hour 15 minute box set. Still, I made it through but a point needs to be deducted I think due to length of the “album”

Loved Ella, show tunes not so much

Definitely have this blasting whenever me and the boys want to imitate transatlantic accents, but man sometimes the lyrics just feel so damn lazy. No wonder rock musicians realized they can just write their own stuff, why bother with something like “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off?” Why bother past disc 3 anyways? I do very much appreciate “Looking for a Boy” for us short kings finally having an anthem, and “Boy! What Has Love Done to Me!” for us toxic kings finally having an anthem.

I listened to it all! Nice background music when making Christmas cards

I'm with the top reviewer here. I haven't even listened to this yet and - two things: 1: I already know I thoroughly enjoy Ella and own one or two of her records. 2: Compilations aren't fair for a greatest of all time type list except in the rare occasions where it's the only way to listen to an artist's output (I can't even think of any examples, but there may be some). So, with that in mind, this is (tops) a 3. Which fits my rubric anyway. A three is something I appreciate or even like, but I likely won't listen to again. Sorry Ella, it's not your fault.

Very good but so long it is hard to consider compared to other albums. A great voice and some classics in here but it just drags if you attempt to listen in one sitting

Finally finished this. Long AF but it's pleasant enough in small doses.

Great voice. But after forth CD songs became too similar.

Nicht meine Musik, aber gut.

Day655 - she’s great, this is great, but my patience were tested and who can listen to this for over three hours

Started strong then ended up just kind of sounding spooky like the depeche mode I imagine. Pretty average.

This album could've been an email

Blackness I like it

Musically pleasing but so, so very long.

Ella Fitzgerald has a truly phenomenal voice, and the Gershwins' work is fantastic. The album is disturbingly long, to be sure, and there aren't many standouts, but as a whole it was enjoyable to use as background music.

Took some time, but I made it through this one. I almost feel like I’m reviewing Ella’s entire career here. It’s undeniably good, but to my surprise, I grew tired of listening much sooner than I expected. That’s why I’m dropping this one to a 3.

Let’s be serious. This isn’t an album, it’s a box set. That said, her voice is great. It kept me entertained for the entire drive to a softball tournament. But it’s too long. Way way too long.

I just received this mission. 196 minutes, 48 seconds huh. Let's see how we fare. To be Frank, I will probably not listen to this in one sitting, but I think that's fine. I don't even think this was intended to be listened to in one sitting. It is an entire fucking box set, that is cleanly separated into discs. But I do intend to hear the whole thing. I suppose my "break glass in case of emergencies" is that the first 3 discs consist of the body of the material, but according to the wiki article, the rest is largely alt. takes and different mixes. So if I really need a break, I think I'll declare a success If I can at least make it through the first 3. See you on the other side. Alright, I did make it through everything. The first thing I noticed is that the Spotify upload has the discs with a tracklist in an order different than what is cited on the wiki article, so I kind of resolved to just go through the whole thing. Second, I'm more sure than ever that this isn't even really an album. Like the format of this website's challenge fails to accommodate a project like this. Something that was never, *ever* intended to be consumed in one sitting. I think this is the kind of thing you would have bought, then you would have slapped one disc on every once in a while. Although I will say, digesting 196 minutes of '50s pop/vocal jazz does put you in a really unique space as a listener. I have never felt more like an archivist than I did during this. This project really does feel like something you are forced to contend with, and it almost feels like it's challenging you to find a way to present the, admittedly strong content here in a more digestible way. I think there is a really cool exercise in curation here. Spoiler alert, I'm giving this a 3, I'll talk more about that later though. But I think that if you went through this, picked the right songs and sequenced it right that you could pull a really fantastic 45 minutes out of this. The music itself here is generally cool, even though it's hard not to get a little tired of '50s pop over the course of the whole thing, unless you are a very particular kind of person. However, the performances by Ella Fitzgerald are spirited and charismatic, and the compositions by The Gershwins have such a classic sound. They are dated, but they are ultimately well written, classy tunes that aren't afraid to have some fun. And I'd be willing to bet that these performances are the defining interpretations of these songs. As for how to rate this, I'm a little torn. On one hand, this is an unceasing obelisk of pop music: an absolutely unmanageable volume of largely similarly textured and written songs. On the other hand, this was never intended to be consumed in the way that this challenge demands, and the magnitude of the achievement here is not lost on me. This is one of Fitzgerald's greatest accomplishments, and it is, at the end of the day, a *very* robust collection of very well written pop songs. As such, I'm playing it boring and splitting it down the middle, getting to the aforementioned 3. Definitely listen to this, just never in one sitting.

Argh. Although I get the impulse by this project's editors to give us a healthy dose of the Great American Songbook performed by various artists, three-plus hours of Ella Fitzgerald singing Gershwin songs seems a bit too much for anyone (like me) who's not really a fan of largely interwar show tunes. But there's no denying Ella Fitzgerald has a great voice, and this album is impressively produced and recorded and preserved, which makes it easier to go on (and on and on) through the various songs. (I'll admit that I didn't bother to get the final few songs from the collection that were inexplicably left off the YouTube Music playlist.)

I own volume 4 of this (tracks 33 to 44) and have enjoyed it over the years; now I realize that's by far the best cut.

Heard this monster of an album with a duration close to 200 minutes during The Great AWS Breakdown of October 2025. I had to hear this album for the entire day and felt like I was living in a Fallout shelter... It had it's charm and could probably have scored higher if I didn't have to dedicate over 3 hours to listen to it..

Great voice and arrangements but just started sounding the same after a while

Oj, många låtar! Men funkar.

this should be longer Rating 3 because it’s too long to listen to and may circle back

Solid 3.5/5

Wasn't my taste.

Mid 3 Im usually all over stuff like this. Im sorry to say ive never liked Ella's voice, I find it a bit characterless. I love the ambition of this project tho

I’d rather listen to Dylan’s covers of the American Songbook canon but this is obviously super well produced. It’s like music that was only made to be played in 50s period films to signify the era. I like it though.

Fin men ikke så god at arbejde til. Kan se det fungere som parmiddag-musik og helt ekstremt meget som flimmusik

Ella has a hellava voice. This is also hella long. How is this just an album? The 1001 list should have a time restriction. The last disc on spotify is confusingly just instrumentals. Top tracks: "My One and Only," "'S Wonderful," "Embraceable You"

not on spotify + 196 MINUTES?????

Some stuff to love here, but this is, of course, a DNF.

5 stars for Ella's pretty voice. -2 stars for 3 hours long. 5-2=3. 3 stars.

Ella is wonderful, but I do question the album's place on this list. I would have rather had something uniquely hers. And not 3 hours long either

It was good that I got this album on a Friday so I could break it up into three parts. It was okay but, just way too long. If I was playing one of the Fallout games, it would have been a perfect soundtrack.

Não terminei, 6 discos em 1 tem q ter tempo pra ouvir tudo de uma vez só! Vou ouvir aos poucos. Não é o tipo de música que costumo ouvir, mas é bom.

No notes. Great, even if it was very long since it is a musical anthology of the Gershwin songbook. Not giving it a four because it didn't have stand out songs but very well made.

It’s good, she’s good, the music is good. But it takes forever to get through… I guess it’s something that would fit as background music at different occassions - perhaps during Christmas. At least some of it has Christmas vibes

good but incredibly long

Beautiful songs and singing, but this album was way too long for me to listen to the entire thing.

Shoutout to the reviewer who said there was a 45 minute “best of” version of this. I’m not listening to 3.5 hours of fucking 1959 jazz… even if it is Ella Fitzgerald.

Ella Fitzgerald had the most fantastic voice. This is an excellent album

I mean great voice but the songs are a bit bland. I think it's good but I'm not listening to a 3+ hour album. Great background music for a swanky cocktail party but not my favorite Ella.

Perhaps social media has given us all short attention spans but I feel at 3hrs this album is far too long. Then again who am I to mark down legends such as Ella Fitzgerald and the Gershwins?

Jesus Christ this a long album.

Maybe it's just listening to this not long after Grandpa passed, but this feels old in a way that not even other albums I've listened to as part of this felt old. It really has a sense of when I'd think to hear it. I think that's an impressive kind of good on its own.

This was a slog, not because it was bad, but because it was just long. She can sing wonderfully and the music is enjoyable, but why does a box set belong on this list? 3/5

overall enjoyable and i liked listening but just a tad long

One hell of a voice! Big band music from 1959 is a historical curiosity at this point, and while Ella is a gem in the 1001 album challange, but is not going to find a place in my collection

7/10 Favourite: Lets Call the Whole Thing Off Least Favourite: Treat Me Rough

This one is hard to rate. On one hand, Ella is one of the greatest singers of all time and some of these songs are great, but it is over 3 hours long and there are some serious snoozers on here...

Ella is good

Ella here is great here dont get me wrong,and its clear gershwin is a great songwriter as you can tell from these beautiful tracks,but its just way too long.I get that back then it probably wasnt seen as a casual listen type thing and in reality it was a 5 day show where she performed these songs but for the sake of this im gonna take the length into account.It took me about 2 days to finish surprisingly enough tho,thought it would take longer tbh.I dont wanna hear vocal jazz for a while yet now iwl.but if its not as long i will persevere.Some of the songs toward the end honestly js suck tho which is interesting cause i havent really heard a vj song which i havent liked.Also,those instrumentals were,pretty unneeded Skill:8 Actuality:6.5

Wonderful compositions, amazing voice, but this is a VERY hard listen after a certain point. I understand the historical significance, but it would be an easier listen in bite size chunks.

I narrowed the track list down to 12 songs because there’s no way I was gonna listen to this for three hours. I’d have difficulty doing that for my favorite bands. I chose songs based on how interesting the song titles were to me, and I enjoyed it! It goes without saying, her voice is amazing. The band was great too!

Lo primero que he pensado ha sido: "PUF 3 DISCOS???" pero cuando he llegado al tercero y seguido bajando y he descubierto hasta 6, una perezota la verad. El primer disco guay, animado y tal, no estoy en el mood pero ha sido disfruton. El segundo es mas tranqui, mas triston, por lo general prefiero la melancolia y la nostalgia pero ahora mismo ni tanto ni tan poco. La verdad que la mayoria de las canciones no me las he terminado, no solo en este disco, en general :P (Inciso: En este punto he descubierto que son 6 y definitiva me lo voy a escuchar por encima lo que queda) El tercero suena a Navidad DEMASIADO no soy yo el grinch pero me cansan los villancicos. Ya me suena todo igual. No se cuanto mas voy a durar. Creo que no es un disco navideño pero a mi me lo parece al principio luego no tanto. LLegue al 4, otra vez bajon? si. Creo que he encontrado de donde han sacado los de iphone un sonido para las notificaciones. ¿Estoy delirando? Parece el diario de una persona que se esta volviendo loca y esta dejando de ser un comentario sobre un album con 6 discos. EL 4, que es por el que voy y en el que decido plantarme porque al final voy a escribir un libro se ha vuelto muy sensual. Mis felicitaciones a aquel que se le escuche entero.

I love Ella, but I guess I’m learning that Gershwin is pretty hit or miss for me.

I’m really not sure why a 59 song set would find its way on this list. It’s not an album, it’s a collection. I give it 3 stars because of the respect I have for the woman behind the microphone and the ever increasing respect for those behind the songs. It’s truly amazing to think of what song writing and composing once was. I listened to this entire thing in an afternoon as I went about my business. It was like a fever dream…

Uh oh could it be one of the most instantly recognisable and iconic singers of all time? I do prefer others by her more than this, but love ya Grandma and Grandad

Ella has undeniable talent. I'm not listening to a 3+ hour record. The first few songs were good, then I had to move on to other things.

Listened to this behemoth over the course of a few days. Like a lot of classic American jazz/crooning, its a good song, but a lot of is the same song. I did appreciate and enjoy a lot of it, but it is hard to get through and repetitive as hell

3.5

amazing voice, thought the songs all blended together though

Nice enough. I listened to the 'best of' version of this album, which was more than enough.

Ihan ok, tuttu nimi, koskaan tosin en oo kuunnellut. 3/5.

If "too much of a good thing" was an LP. Or more accurately, 5 LPs. Her voice is amazing, the musicians are wonderful, the songwriting is great. Even admiring the ballsiness to release this, it's too long to be a fully enjoyable listening experience (ironically, her previous Gershwin album is too short at only 25 minutes). The Wikipedia page also defeated me, as I normally like reading the background to the album, but this had a page for basically every song and frankly, I ran out of enthusiasm half way through. All of which makes this hard to mark. A nice trim 50 minutes likely would have got a minimum 4 from me, but an album shouldn't be a test of endurance. 3/5 P.S. Even as a Brit, the phrase "Carry on, old fluff" in Stiff Upper Lip made me giggle.

grande voz, uma das mais lindas que já passaram na terra.

All-time classic voice and some catchy tunes. But this is not an album, it's an anthology. It is 6x too long, its inclusion in this list is frankly cruel and it loses points for that

6/10 There’s just no way I could do my usual song by song review for this album. It’s just too long. But let’s leave the gripes for later. The first thing to note is that Ella’s voice is just magic. It’s spine-tingling, goosebump inducing magic. She has so much control and presence, but also has this laid back swagger that makes it sound like she’s just rolled in off the street, been handed a lyric sheet and bashed out each song on the first take with a glass of wine in her hand. The perfection of her timing as she slides effortlessly from note to note is something to behold. The orchestration is also absolutely exceptional. Nothing sticks out or gets lost anywhere at all and the balance is just beautiful. As for the recording? There are over 70 players on this album, which was recorded over a three month period in 1959, and it sounds like it’s happening right in front of me over 65 years later. It puts a number of the (much later) recordings on this list to shame. The songwriting is quite obviously of its time. There are some really lovely tunes in here, and Ella lends things such emotional weight with her delivery, from light hearted and fun, to sad and sincere and everywhere in between. Personally, I have a preference for her more pure jazz output, rather than this more pop/classical jazz and have a particular soft spot for her work with Louis Armstrong, but that doesn’t take away from the quality of what’s on display here. There are obvious lulls in places and there’s a lot of stuff that obviously sounds very very samey. Which leads on to the big negative of this ‘album’. It’s not an album, it’s a box set. It’s just too much. Partly this is down to the era that this was released. The album as a concept was only really starting to form at this point, and had been, essentially, a collection of songs, rather than a considered artistic whole up to this point and, arguably a good few years into the 60s. This isn’t really intended as a singular listening experience, more as something that you’d stick on a disc or two of here and there. So where do I land on this? At its best, it’s gorgeous. I love listening to Ella sing. But this is just excessive. I’ve really struggled to pin down a score because of that, but I guess I have to put a pin in there somewhere. I’m just very sad that this is the only Ella ‘album’ on the list.

Didnt finish I enjoyed it at the beginning but then most songs just kinda sounded the same and I got tired of it

Not my cup of tea. Relaxing and cozy

I listened through this album during my attempt to make my way through the 1001 Albums chronologically, so I was somewhat dreading running back through this 3+ hour collection. Even calling it an album is somewhat misleading – it's more like 5½ albums rolled into one package. I'm not the biggest fan of show tunes in general, but Ella obviously has an amazing voice and makes what (in the hands of a lesser singer) could be an absolute slog into something tolerable. There are a decent amount of highlights across the 59 tracks, but most cuts aren’t particularly distinct from one another – if all my favorites were gathered into one short album and the rest were absent, it'd probably get four stars from me! Highlights: Let's Call the Whole Thing Off, Things Are Looking Up, 'S Wonderful, The Real American Folk Song, I've Got a Crush on You, Boy What Love Has Done to Me

Okay, I made it through the whole thing - I think that deserves some kind of bonus reward, right? I love jazz, but I have never loved vocal jazz. I'll always make time (apparently 3+ hours) for Ella and Billie but it's not my go to.

over 3 hours. didn't listen to it all but liked what I heard. great voice and very clever lyrics

Dude why is this album so long?

I think this list is a psyop to get people to hate certain musicians by linking a 3 hour box set. I just listened to a different Ella Fitzgerald album and rate that 4/5

These songs in 2025 sound so funny. Hey ladies - jobs are for men! Make him feel special when he gets home. Maybe you’ll get a nice dress when he decides to take you to dinner.

Fuck this is long.

Great but far too long.

A lot of these songs are really pretty, but this is so long they all start to bleed together and lose impact.

I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. That is to say, the first part of a different Gershwin as the recommended album is 3+ hrs in length. Still, great voice and some unexpectedly fun songs.

My niece thought her name was Elephants Gerald... Elephants Gerald, Ella Fitzgerald... let's call the whole thing off

I liked listening to this time for an hour a day over 4 days. Seems like a curated selection of these songs would be more appropriate for this list.

deeply rude to put an album this long on the list and i like ... couldn't have cared less about it the whole time but i enjoyed it nonetheless

This is an interesting inclusion and listen, just for the vast amount of material included. It is somewhat intimidating and almost impossible to digest in a single sitting - but I don’t know if any of the material really compells me to revisit. The recording quality and performances are excellent, and I didn’t realize that box sets like this existed in 1959 - but I guess it makes sense. Here you have a top tier performer recording a vast catalogue from a famous popular songwriter. We take it for granted sometimes that access to music is just a click of a button away, but having a collection was really something back then (and even until 20 years ago).

It's pleasant enough to listen to, but I doubt I ever seek this kind of thing out in future. Also, I'm not sure stuff like this should really count - its not just an album, its 6 volumes.

Random thoughts: * Wow! 3+ hours of music. * choosing a box set is kind of cheating. * it was an enjoyable listen and I might throw it on for an evening again but it will not be a music selection I seek out often. * Ella’s voice I beautiful and was great with these songs. * However, it felt like a vanilla version of Ella Fitzgerald often. There wasn’t the scatting and the usual Ella verve on many of the tracks.

It’s strange sometimes how amazing + amazing = not as great as it should be. If there’s a Gershwin musical on TV then I am more than happy to watch. I love these songs in context. Ella has a great voice and accomplished delivery, but this was overly long and we didn’t need 1000 verses of each song. I didn’t think this was the greatest iteration of these songs. I guess I want the movie versions or a more unique delivery.

Well, this started out promisingly, with me explaining to my kids (as we listened in the car together) how Ella Fitzgerald was iconic and to appreciate the arrangements and how this preceded rock and roll and how difficult it is to hear it in the context of its time. Then, after eight songs, we all agreed it was starting to blend. The arrangements and recording and even the melodies started sounding like they were borrowing from one another. After 11 songs I asked, how many songs are on this (I was driving), and Sylvia said, "there are six discs, 59 songs." At which point I turned it off. That's not an album, it's a collection. And on top of that, a collection that sounds like they ran every single song through the same processor. No wonder it was sounding tired and similar. So... ambitious? Sure. Extensive. Yes. Does Fitzgerald have a voice that defines an era? Yes. But I wasn't enamored enough to endure three hours of the same old song.

Simply grading this on its own merits, this is an impressive collection, no doubt. If you want Ella's interpretation of the Gershwin songbook, boy are you in luck. You also might be a little sorry you asked, for it's a million-and-a-half years long. Given its length, I chose to skip through it so I could hear Ella's take on the songs I was familiar with. And they're great, if perhaps not my favorite interpretations. (Though her version of Someone to Watch Over Me is definitive.) Nelson Riddle is tasteful as always though he seems to have more fun with Frank. There is something Prestigious about this whole affair that I think hampers the proceedings it a bit. Ella is a very playful singer and I think that's lost a bit here. Also, including the introduction for every song weighs things down a bit. Frank had the good sense to only include the intros for a few songs on any given album. Is this the best Ella album to include on this list? Certainly not. If nothing else, people are going to be turned off by the sheer weight of it. If you want to include one of Ella's Songbook albums, then the Cole Porter collection is a much better introduction. Porter was (IMO) the greatest of the Great American Songbook composers, Ella's versions are among the best there are, and it's the album that completely changed her career, transforming her from a cult jazz singer into America's singing sweetheart. (It's also a lot more fun and lighthearted. Check out her version of Anything Goes to see what I mean.) But even that one is a double album. Another suggestion: the charming Ella and Louis album. It's a single disc, it includes a nice collection of Great American Songbook composers, and it also features the unmistakable vocals and trumpet stylings of Louis Armstrong, one of the giants of 20th Century music (and someone who isn't represented on this list). If nothing else, the pairing of the two makes Ella's bell-like vocals stand out more. Just listen to their version of A Foggy Day compared to the one of the Gershwin collection. They're both great, but which one are you likely to return to? How to rate this? 4 stars for the album itself. 3 for including it on this list.

Classical 1950s tunes and themes. Very nice and smoothy.

God It was WAY too long for one sitting.

I think I found a different album, this was 1/2 hour and not 3 like the other reviews. Smashing voice, Not really a fan of Jazz but this wasn't too bad. My One and Only hit the playlist as a Gem.

Big band style, would listen with grandma Lou kind of music

3.0 - Ok

- .... - 0 nummers toegevoegd aan MMMM - 1 nummer toegevoegd aan LLL

I’ll probably never actually listen to this whole album. Picked 5 Ella tracks to listen to and she’s one of the best to do it.

Too long to finish. Nice stuff, tho. Of course I had never listened before.

I tried. I got through half the album, 30 songs to be exact. I just can’t give it another hour and a half. It’s great music. It’s all the same - Ella’s beautiful voice over jazz. Great to put on while making breakfast on a Sunday morning. Not a destination album.

It is complicated, and even seems unfair, to try to give this a proper rating as an album, because IT IS NOT an album rather than a compilation. A huge one for that matter. Trying to actively listen to this for more than three hours straight is close to impossible, not because of the music being bad, but because there's not a way for the music not to get old throughout that whole length. That being said, Ella Fitzgerald is without a doubt one of the best voices of jazz, and George and Ira are definitely incredible songwriters. The combo results in a compilation of great songs, some of which have managed to make me come back to them a couple of times, even if they were being held back but the inevitable blur that this many songs created throughout my listen. As an album? Way too long. And that sucks. Then again, this is not really an album and it was never conceived to be listened as such.

I am dubious about the validity of listening to and rating a standard 40 minute album after one day. A 3 hour box set stands no chance of being fairly appreciated in that amount of time. I also find the idea of putting a compliation album like this on the list in the first place. Feels like a cop out to me. Would be like putting the 2009 Beatles box set on as a single entry.

Good voice, good tunes. A little long. Just throw it on in the background while you're doing something else and it'll fly by.

I can appreciate this album. Ella sings with such ease. The music is engaging making you feel like you’re in a Tom and Jerry episode. In the right setting this is very enjoyable. But over 3 hours.. glad to move on to something else.

Excellent singer. I enjoy the songs, but a 3.5 hour collection of it, too much.

Long. I know she has a nice voice and that the music is magical, but I just couldn't get into it

Ella Fitzgerald: Ella Fitzgerald Sings The George And Ira Gershwin Song Book: While this is not bad, it is WAY too long. 3 hours and 15 minutes is crazy for music that all sounds exactly the fucking same. Its a good sound, and I enjoyed every song on an individual basis, but I was getting really bored hearing the same fucking style of music over and over and over for 59 songs. As individual songs, these are all fairly good though not super noteworthy, but this is a terrible way to just group them all together. I don't hate it, but I sure won't be listening to this in full ever again. There are a lot of cool instruments, and her voice is very good and these things hard carry the album. 6/10

6 discs?? Exhausting

An all time voice, with a fantastic set of arrangements. This is Ella in her element. 3+ hours is a tad excessive if you're wanting to get through it more than once.

Probably the most daunting task in this entire list. It looks like this is a box set as part of a series in which Ella Fitzgerald sang multiple American songbooks. I guess I'll see why this one in particular was chosen to be included in this list. Hard to highlight specific moments due to the sheer runtime of this collection, but this is high quality for the most part. Ella Fitzgerald was a timeless talent and probably the best representative to take on all of these classic American songbooks. One could probably make an abridged version of this collection for themselves, picking out only the "big" hits if they so desired. Most of the highlights are in disc one anyway.

A singer with a beautiful voice, wonderful instruments and great story telling. But God damn is this album long. I found my self getting burnt out half way through. To an avid fan of the artist, this is probably a great album. But to me, wayyyyy to long. I would love to travel back in time to see a live performance in a dark jazz club, what an experience that would be. 7/10 (lost points for being too long)

It goes without saying that Ella Fitzgerald had an incredible voice, unfortunately this compilation has such a wide range of tracks that it's impossible to give it anything other than a 3.

Okay, yes: one of the greatest American vocalists takes on one of the greatest American songwriting canons, and it's really good. I especially like the more swinging renditions--like "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" or "I Got Rhythm". But not sure this should count as an 'album'. Might be too much. Hella lotta Ella.

Whatever charm listening to Ella Fitzgerald could have is robbed by having to listen to a 3h15 min album.

Ella, Ella, Ella - Three hours Cleaning music

Yes, it's one of the best singers of the 20th century singing some of the most noteworthy songs written in the 20th century... And yes, it very much deserves to be categorized as an album you must listen to before you die. And sure, it's probably good for posterity that they recored EVERY song in the Gershwin Brothers catalog, but 59 songs and over 3 hours is a slog.

Classic

Lovely voice

I get why this is considered a classic; Ella sounds incredible, the orchestra flows with her singing perfectly, and the overall quality of the whole thing is quite impressive. But honestly this was way too long. As the album went on, it started to feel more like a chore, which kinda ruined the experience for me. Even though everything is technically well done, it just felt repetitive and emotionally flat by the end. Great background music though.

I think it's the longest album I've ever listened to.

I feel like I am in a rom-com, or having cocktails at a wedding reception. It's good but it's a lot to take in.

Honestly I only listened to a little bit of this one. She has a beautiful voice and the music was nice. I've got to cap a 3-hour album at 3 stars though, don't nobody got time for that.

3.5 stars Fitzgerald’s voice is undeniably beautiful and powerful, but this is a long album and I was over it by the end.

I will not knock it points for the shear length, since I'm positive it was not made to be listened to in one sitting, but instead just as a comprehensive cover of all the Gershwin songs. With that out of the way, I'd say the songs are very good for the most part. Many are creatively written and Ella's voice really does not get old even after 3 hours. 6/10

awesome she completed the entire american songbook. not awesome that I wanted to complete every album on this list

only listened to the first 2 discs so far, will edit when i am done

Tough one to rate. Obviously really good music and Ella's vocals are gorgeous but it's undeniably tough to get through this whole collection. I feel like this would have made a lot of sense as a release in 1959 when owning this set would have been like paying for a Spotify subscription basically and you could listen to like pretty much every pop song that ever existed sung by the best singer, but in the age of streaming it just makes a lot less sense. I am rating these albums based on how much I enjoyed listening to them so gotta go with 3 here but I could see it being 4 if it was just one elpee's worth of toons :) Fav song: The Half of It Dearie Blues (which is sooo good)

Very pleasant listen. Good voice, nice music, but a bit backgroundy. Over 3 hours is taking the piss. 3.5 would've fair as there are contexts in which I'd listen to this again.

Very pleasant. Good background hotel, background drinking or eating music or cooking music. Will probably listen to again or actually finish the album because it’s obviously far too long for 1 go. 6 discs is outrageous A 3.5 rounded down to a 3 for the sheer length

I'm sorry to Ella and the Gershwins, and even to the guy who had the idea to record all this, but this should not be in the 1001 albums list. I don't feel that this was ever meant to be listened to from start to finish. The music is great but after 3 discs worth, it's all blurring together and I'm starting to hate it, and so I'm opting to throw in the towel. Music is great, inclusion on this list is terrible.

On the fence on whether my 3.5 here counts more towards a 4 because it was pretty good, or more towards a 3 because it took the whole goddamn weekend to listen to. 3.5/5

The songs are great, but quite a few are indistinguishable from each other on one listen. But I'm not about to spend the time to go through the whole thing again n

Look, I get it, Ella Fitzgerald has a lovely voice, she's a legend, but I can't imagine listening to one of my favorite artists for 3 hours straight, let alone an artist I barely know in a genre I don't typically listen to. There are some wonderful songs on here, but 3 hours is too much of anyone. Also, why does she get a compilation album while others get one random album with a hit single on it instead of comps of their best work? I'm not going to finish this, but I'll enjoy it for a while.

Holy long album, Batman

This album is pretty sweet. The problem is that it's too long. The best way to listen is with split listening, which makes me wish this album were split into two. But despite the length, Ella's voice is sweet and makes for cute tracks.

3.5 One of the beasts of this challenge - an album of standards over 3 hours long. I’ve weirdly been expecting this for the past couple weeks, I just “knew” I’d be getting it soon. Thankfully I got it on a day off with a workout and housecleaning to do, so I had ample time to listen to this. Here’s the thing - it’s one of the best singers of all time singing a collection of the greatest songs of all time. Yes it’s long, but it’s absolutely never bad. Shorter albums have been less fun to listen to, an assault on the ears. At worst, this occasionally settles into pleasant background noise. But there’s a lot of the best tracks on Disc 5 tbh, so I locked back in. If this were a curated, 60 minute version, it’d probably be five stars.

Ella Fitzgerald’s voice was a true treasure, she sounds absolutely wonderful through this whole thing, but there’s two downsides, I’m not that into Gershwin, and this is a box set that goes for 4 hours, upon finishing it I wanted to crawl in a whole and die, not because it was bad but because it’s really hard to muster the willpower to listen to Gershwin vocal jazz for that long. But her voice is truly magnificent

3 hours is a ridiculous inclusion on this list, so I listed to the Very Best of the Gershwin Songbook (shorter version). For that: it’s really nice Sunday morning music. Not my favorite but it gives a great overview of Ella, who has an amazing voice! 7/10

I made it through 2 discs and a had so far. It’s solid stuff but 6 discs and 3 and a half hours just takes time. I will continue to work through it but based on the third I’ve heard I don’t expect it to turn higher. I am appreciative from listening to it though!

Sehr oldschool - bisschen Frank Sinatra in weiblich und als Orginal - 40‘s Jazz. Ganz nett, hat was, aber vermutlich nicht etwas was ich öfter anmachen werde. It grows on you. Das geht einfach fünf CDs bzw drei Stunden lang. 3/5

Tooo looong, gets super booring.

This is a pretty good album for locking in at work. Feels very romantic.

3/5

This is very long. I listened to two of the five discs and got the gist.

Its ella doing gershwin there isn't much to love. But is a compilation the best representation of her capabilities or that of the music gershwin's were able to produce. I do not agree. This a behemoth to tackle in one day let alone one listen. It all morphs into one sound after a while and it becomes difficult to develop and unique impression for each song.

It’sa little long

Musiikki kuin musikaalissa istuisi. Vau! Nyt ollaan kaukana.

Great voice, less convinced by the songs and struggle to think of an occasion when I would be in the mood to listen to this.

Classic but not for me.

Just too much. She has a gorgeous voice but it’s wasted in these songs. Some of the tracks are great, some are so bland and banal I just can’t care. Who thought this album over all of her albums should be on a list? 3

good but really long, liek really really long. All quality but the songs werent unique enough from each other to justify listening to a 3 and a half hour album. Cool songs are, love is here to stay, siff upper lip and embracable you

That was a lot of Ella, but, so good.

3 Stunden 14 Minuten 💀. Musik ist gut aber keine chance, dass ich das aktiv durchhöre. Stimme ist schön. Nicht sehr abwechslungsreich. Viel zu lang aber da die einzelnen Lieder fast immer gut sind 3/5 (erinnert mich an fallout radio mit nur einer Sängerin)

I've never really been able to get into vocal jazz in general, unfortunately, and nearly 3 and a half hours of it is too much. I listened to this as I worked, and a lot of it gets tuned out, but every time my attention gets drawn to it, it's pretty nice. Plus it doesn't actually feel like 3 and a half hours, somehow! Almost certainly never listening too this again, but I will be listening to one of Ella Fitzgerald's shorter albums soon. Maybe she'll be the one to finally get me into jazz?

I really enjoyed the music, but 3 hours of it was a bit much

I mean of course it’s great, I can enjoy it from a distance. I probably would have appreciated it more if there wasn’t 3+ hours of it.

Generally pleasant, but still proud of myself for listening to the whole boxed set

I love Ella Fitzgerald's voice, and she aquits herself well here; I do NOT appreciate Gershwin's too-cutesy showtunes in general, and three hours of this is ENTIRELY too much. I could probably whittle it down to a 50 minute disc of songs I kind of enjoy, but as it is, I will never be able to down this monstrosity.

This one was a bit of a surprise; I thought I’d kind of hate it. Although I don’t think I’ll revisit it, I quite enjoyed the Gershwin’s music. Ella Fitzgerald is very talented, even if she didn’t feature for the first third of the record. The production is first rate. The problem is that I don’t feel like the record gives me a compelling reason to listen to it again; I guess that’s to say that, as enjoyable as its constituent parts are, I don’t care to dive back in repeatedly. They can’t all resonate with me, I guess.

3 hours of pleasant background music. I did first disc and called it a day

God of mercy that was long

Not gonna listen to a 3 hour album, I did listen to the most popular songs. They’re great

This compilation album has way too much filler. The songs that are great stand out but half of it could be trimmed out and I feel nothing would be lost.

Pretty lovely singing and the backing tracks are quite exciting. I just didn't like that It was 3 hours long, which was pretty grueling. Had it been less than an hour I would've definitely rated it higher.

Another one of these impossible to rate albums. Here, listen to the best vocalist of all time sing some songs by one of these best composers of the 20th century, now rate 1-5. I mean it’s incredible. Fitzgerald is in my opinion as great a vocalist as there ever was. Not just on technical aspects such as range, pitch or enunciation. She also has a great emotional range and amazing delivery. The songs range from pretty good to great. I have to say I can’t rate it at five stars though. Five stars are desert island albums. Things I connect with fully and deeply. This is very good music, I just can’t say I deeply connect with it. Call it four stars. Oh, two comments. Great Gershwin songbook and no Summertime? I actually think the instrumental break in Just Another Rhumba referenced that. Weird choice. The other thing is choosing this album for the list. I mean yeah you must listen to Ella Fitzgerald before you die, she’s an all time great. Do you have to listen to over three hours of pretty samey songs? Definitely no. Go listen to one of the Ella and Louis albums, they’re so much more fun. You know what? On second thought I’m docking it a star for these comments. Not a good pick. Three stars.

I really enjoy Ella Gitzgerald and this style of music, but three hours of love songs is a chore and a half to get through

La vida en 1959 era mucho más cruel, pero también sencilla y nos permitía el tiempo para invertir en un disco quíntuple (!). Ahora, en el año 2025 de nuestra tallarinosidad, nadie tiene tiempo para eso. Además, pierde puntos porque cada año que pasa el "American Songbook" gringo pierde relevancia para los que no nos identificamos con ese país. Eso sí, la voz de EF es innegable.

This is a marathon of a listen…

Didn't have 3 hours to spare, listened to a few tracks. Sounded good.

Is this perfectly serviceable background music, unobtrusive and pleasant? Yes. Does Ella Fitzgerald have a stellar voice that deserves to be on this list? Yes. Do we need three and a half hours to prove that? Christ no.

I can only give it three stars because I heard this was 3 hours long so I cut corners and only listened to a Best Of version. Which I liked.

Have to be in the right mood but very talented

Great voice

Chill vibes but nothing I would listen to again.

Pretty good

high quality, but way too long, and gets repetitive fast.

Favorite Track: Who Cares? But way too long and some songs weren't even her

This doesn’t need to be a three and a quarter hour box set. It could have been a 9-10 song single album.

who says "/pətɑːtoʊ/"

Don’t get me wrong, I adore Ella’s voice and this is a beautiful album. But I truly didn’t think it would ever end.

ella ur album was 3 hours long. idk how you had time to make that but i certainly did not have time to listen to it. the first song was pretty good tho.

3 hours! No thank you! Listened to the first few songs, loved her voice and the vibe but it got real old real fast

Very easy listening, not her most exciting work

Lovely sounding album, but very long. After the second disc it all starts to sound the same. Will revisit this for background music and a get together, or for some study/work music. Overall lovely, just so so long.

Her voice is amazing, can't deny that, but just shuffling through it a little and it's already getting very same-y. I think the whole 3 hours would bore me to tears.

I'd give this album a 4 if it wasn't 4 hours long. I listened to it while working and it was more than enjoyable, seriously a talent.

It was good but way too many songs

I don't feel bad not listening to all this because its suppsoed to be her singing their works but it has not a SINGLE song from Porgy and Bess. Ella Fitzgerald singing Summertime is transcendental. Gives me goosebumps every time. Not including any songs from there is a crime.

Great voice, legendary songs, but at 3+ hours, I’m only queuing this up for a Great Gatsby-esque masquerade ball... with no end time.

Sometimes, the struggle is real. How do you rate something when every aspect -- from composer to singer to band -- is top-notch but it's just not your thing??

Only listened to three songs I ain’t listening to allat but those 3 songs were actually pleasing to listen to so I’ll come back to it

Some absolute tunes - tooooo long

Long Worthwhile Maybe one volume Should be on the list?

I like her voice and music, this is just another 'not much stands out' good album. Doesn't help it's 3 hours

I couldn't give this one the attention it deserves, just due to its length, but what I did hear I liked. Definitely the type of album I'm glad this challenge showed to me, otherwise I may never have listened to it.

Great voice, but way too little variety for over 3 hours of music.

Listened to it while cooking and had a fun time. Once my food was done, I still had 1h30 left. At that point I tapped out, it was too much of the same. To me then this album is great in adding a classy, old-school soundtrack to life. But as front to back, critical listening deal? I couldn't even do it for the challenge. In the end though, my carne adobada came out delicious as fuck, and maybe I have Ella to thank for that.

She is truly the greatest to ever do it but as an album it is just too long without enough variety.

Great stuff!

I think I got the "You Don't Know the Half of it Blues" after listening to all 59 tracks of the Gershwin Songbook! Much like the Miles Davis record earlier this week. I wish I had some earlier Ella Fitzgerald to compare to this later work. Don't get me wrong, Eight box sets to record the complete American Songbook is quite the feat. Favorites from the whole set, Sam and Delilah, Let's Call the Whole Thing Off (you say sasparila I say sasparila), Things are really looking up (I enjoy when she goes low), and Slap That Bass.

Made it through. That was long. Not really my thing. A little too songbooky. A mammoth effort though!

Interesting music. Very recognizable. Probably wouldn't actively listen to it in my daily life.

Not a big fan if vocal jazz, but it was nice to hear all these Gershwin songs as sung by Ella. Someone to Watch Over Me They All Laughed The Half of it Dearie Blues They Can't Take That Away From Me Embraceable You I Got Rhythm

3 hours long bruzz, good voice, production, and instrumentals. Comforting, but also not my style. 6.2/10

Overall: 5/10 So, I'm laid off from work this week. Apparently that's a blessing in disguise because I can listen to this goliath throughout the day instead of devoting 3 hours straight to one album. It didn't help. This is good music, and Ella Fitzgerald had an incredibly smooth voice that's soothing and exciting all at once. That album length though....you get fatigued pretty quickly then check how many songs are left and start to groan. If you want to listen to this much of one thing in one sitting then that's your perogative, but I prefer short doses of perfection and I didn't enjoy this enough to excuse the runtime. Fav Song: N/A Least Fav Song: N/A (hard to choose when it all kind of blended together)