In 1959, Ella appeared on Frank Sinatra's TV show. Here's a very-fun arrangement of "Can't We Be Friends," in which Ella works in more imitations: Pearl Bailey, Dinah Washington, Lena Horne and Della Reese:
And here , from 1979, an ultra-rare trio featuring Ella with Pearl Bailey and the divine Sarah Vaughan, singing a medley of songs they sang with big bands. The first time I saw this clip on YouTube, I was at my office and I screamed out loud, "Oh my GOD!"
From 1980, an poignant medley between Ella and Karen Carpenter: "The Masquerade"/"I'll Be Seeing You"/"As Time Goes By"/"Don't Get Around Much Anymore"/"I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart":
As Ella got older, operations on her eyes caused her to wear thicker and thicker glasses, which would get fogged up when she sang. But as her voice lost its purity and suppleness, her love for music and her audiences became more and more transcendent.
And finally from a 1987 concert in Italy, sings "Give Me the Simple Life" and "God Bless the Child":
Happy Birthday Miss Ella! I love me some Ella Fitzgerald! Her songbook series is on constant replay on mi iTunes. Those are some gr8 links PalJoey....thanks for sharing!
Some of those links are no longer good. I'll delete them and put up others. Meanwhile, here the full video of her wonderful duet with Sammy Davis Jr. on an Ed Sullivan show:
her Rodgers and Hart is one of my favorites of her songbooks. I love the way she sings "There's a Small Hotel"--including the little-known verse!
And her version of "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" was the first time I ever heard all the verses Lorenz Hart wrote for the song. She's not the greatest actress or interpreter of lyrics ever, but the way she sings it, a character unfolds.
She sang this two-minute version on the Nat King Cole Show around the time the songbook came out. But it's only two minutes--the version on the songbook is seven minutes.
I agree on both counts. I actually discussed this with a "jazz fan" friend of mine who was trying to analyze how she can say so much by doing so little. Small Hotel is amazing- it seems like there's no inflection at all, but repeatedly listenings give you a picture of a girl who's only playing an innocent, coyly setting up a rondesvous with yet another man.
I can't remember which song it is but there is one verse to some standard she sings about being in her little velvet panties that caused that same friend no end of wonderment.
It's the opening verse to the Gershwins' "How Long Has This Been Going On?":
As a tot, when I trotted in little velvet panties, I was kissed by my sisters, my cousins, and my aunties. Sad to tell, it was hell, an inferno worse than Dante's. So my dear I swore, "Never, never more!"...
But Ella doesn't sing those words. That was the verse Ira Gershwin wrote for the boy. Ella sings the second verse, the girl's verse:
'Neath the stars, at bazaars Often I've had to caress men. Five or ten dollars then I'd Collect from all those yes-men. Don't be sad, I must add, that they meant no more than chess-men..."
It's this one, from the album "Like Someone in Love," which uses the boy's verse that begins with the line you remembered "As a tot, when I trotted in little velvet panties...":
If Judy's series had run another season, I bet she would have had Ella as a guest.
Maybe even had Count Basie back and it would've been Judy, Ella and Basie.
You can tell how much Judy loves Count Basie when her throat opens up with "And the greaaaaaaaatest band in alllllll the world is playing RIGHT HERE for me!":
Happy birthday, indeed! She was absolutely amazing. I may have posted this little story on here before, but it's worth repeating:
A friend of mine took her father to see Ella at the Hollywood Bowl towards the end of her life (Ella's, not my friend's). Ella made her entrance, tripped and fell over a tiny step. You could hear a pin drop. The audience was in shock... Ella, pulled herself up and managed an a Capella rendition of "Since I Fell For You" before launching into her planned set list...