The Complete Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong on Verve (1956)

About this title: Almost all of these summit meetings have been in print virtually since CDs first appeared in listeners' lives, but never in one package. Here, you get all of Ella and Louis, the double-album sets Ella and Louis Again and Porgy and Bess, and two live tracks recorded at the Hollywood Bowl in 1956 -- all in an unusual three-CD album that partially unfolds into an accordion-file (what will Verve's inventive packaging wizards think of next?). There are two booklets, one of which contains a rare recent interview with producer Norman Granz, and the other the notes from the original albums. Of the ... read more

Tracks:

1. Can't We Be Friends? [James/Swift]
2. Isn't This a Lovely Day? [Berlin]
3. Moonlight in Vermont [Blackburn/Suessdorf]
4. They Can't Take That Away from Me [Gershwin/Gershwin]
5. Under a Blanket of Blue [Livingston/Neiburg/]
6. Tenderly [Gross/Lawrence]
7. A Foggy Day [Gershwin/Gershwin]
8. Stars Fell on Alabama [Parish/Perkins]
9. Cheek to Cheek [Berlin]
10. The Nearness of You [Carmichael/Washingt]
11. April in Paris [Duke/Harburg]
12. Don't Be That Way [Goodman/Parish/Samp]
13. Makin' Whoopee [Donaldson/Kahn]
14. They All Laughed [Gershwin/Gershwin]
15. Comes Love [Brown/Stept/Tobias]
16. Autumn in New York [Duke]
17. Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love) [Porter]
18. Stompin' at the Savoy [Goodman/Razaf/Samps]
19. I Won't Dance [Fields/Hammerstein/]
20. Gee Baby, Ain't I Good to You [Razaf/Redman]
21. Let's Call the Whole Thing Off [Gershwin/Gershwin]
22. These Foolish Things [Link/Marvell/Strach]
23. I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm [Berlin]
24. Willow Weep for Me [Ronell]
25. I'm Putting All My Eggs in One Basket [Berlin]
26. A Fine Romance [Fields/Kern]
27. Ill Wind [Arlen/Koehler]
28. Love Is Here to Stay [Gershwin/Gershwin]
29. I Get a Kick Out of You [Porter]
30. Learnin' the Blues [Silvers]
31. You Won't Be Satisfied (Until You Break My Heart) [Stock/James]
32. Undecided [Robin/Shavers]
33. Porgy and Bess: Overture [Gershwin/Gershwin]
34. Summertime [Gershwin/Gershwin]
35. I Wants to Stay Here [Gershwin/Gershwin]
36. My Man's Gone Now [Gershwin/Gershwin]
37. I Got Plenty o' Nuttin' [Gershwin/Gershwin]
38. The Buzzard Song [Gershwin/Gershwin]
39. Bess, You Is My Woman Now [Gershwin/Gershwin]
40. It Ain't Necessarily So [Gershwin/Gershwin]
41. What You Want Wid Bess? [Gershwin/Gershwin]
42. A Woman Is a Sometime Thing [Gershwin/Gershwin]
43. Oh, Doctor Jesus [Gershwin/Gershwin]
44. Medley: Here Come de Honey Man/Crab Man/Oh, Dey's So Fresh and Fine [Gershwin/Gershwin]
45. There's a Boat Dat's Leavin' Soon for New York [Gershwin/Gershwin]
46. Oh Bess, Oh Where's My Bess? [Gershwin/Gershwin]
47. Oh, Lawd, I'm on My Way! [Gershwin/Gershwin]

Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is further described below.