ELLA FITZGERALD: "Hello Love"

Original released on LP Verve MG VS-64034

(US, May 1959)

A fine gem among the diamonds of Ella Fitzgerald's late-'50s period with Verve, "Hello Love" may not have approached the quality of her songbooks, but it did allow her to sing a few fine songs she'd missed the first time around. (And although none of the songbook giants are represented, the material is hardly second-rate.) Wrapped in the strings of Frank DeVol's orchestra, Fitzgerald is a bewitching presence singing these dreamy standards: "Tenderly," "You Go to My Head," "Willow Weep for Me," and "Stairway to the Stars." DeVol's charts are dynamic as well, allowing space for expressive players such as trumpeters Harry "Sweets" Edison and Pete Candoli or tenor Ben Webster. A few of the titles are solo versions of songs she had recently sung on her Louis Armstrong duets. (John Bush in AllMusic)

ELLA FITZGERALD: "Like Someone In Love"

Original released on LP Verve MGV 4004

(US, December 1957)

Being one of the queens of jazz, Ella Fitzgerald's abilities as a balladeer have been somewhat underrated over the years. Thus, efforts like this 1957 orchestral ballad album arranged and conducted by Frank DeVol have always taken a backseat to jazz albums like 1960's "Ella In Berlin" or 1963's "Ella & Basie". Unfortunately, this is an injustice to Ella in her capacity as the The FIrst Lady of Song. The performances here are ballad readings of the top rank, Ella's crooning blends well with DeVol's arrangements that are lush, on tracks like "Close Your Eyes" and "Midnight Sun", and tender on ballads like "I Never Had a Chance" and "Then I'll Be Tired of You". Her ethereal tone breathes life into these ballads and it accentuates the elegance and romance inherent in these pages from the Great American Songbook and she sprinkles some horn-like jazz phrasing in all the right places for that added zest and colour to thrill any jazz listener. Jazz fans will be delighted to discover that cool jazz maestro Stan Getz appears here too (on "There's a Lull in My Life", "What Will I Tell My Heart", "Midnight Sun" & "You're Blasé"). His obbligatos (check out "What Will I Tell My Heart") and solo spots (play "You're Blasé") here form the cherry on top of a very musically delicious cake. This album is one of Ella's finest and is on par with similar evergreen ballad albums from her peers like Nat King Cole's "Love Is The Thing" and Frank Sinatra's "Nice n' Easy". (Le Real Luc Ow in AllMusic)

SOUTH PACIFIC (OST)

Original released on LP RCA Victor LSO 1032

(US, 1958)

Character-forming. There weren't many records around when I was a kid, but this was one of them, or at least an EP with four of these songs on it. I don't think "Happy Talk" could have been one of them, because I don't remember playing it, and I tended to gravitate towards the most annoying songs available. The one I do remember playing a lot is "There is Nothing Like a Dame". I liked its simple oom-pah rhythm, and I probably liked the contrast between male chorus and individual voices. I didn't think to ask what a dame was, because I knew: Dame Maggie Smith, Dame Peggy Ashcroft, Dame Flora Robson. Confirmation, if it were needed, came from another version of the song on an LP of showtunes alongside "There's No Business Like Showbusiness". A dame, everyone knew, was an elderly English actress. Listening to it now in perhaps the first time for twenty-five years, I realise what I must have known subconsciously for a long while: that it's a remarkably frank song about a group of sailors so sexually frustrated that they're on the brink of begetting mermaids. Hearing this as a child may perhaps have led to my liking for opera; it's not impossible that it also planted the seeds of my Francophilia; what's certain is that it ensured I spent thirty years of my life confusing sex with theatrical performance. (in RateYourMusic)

Something really odd about this movie is the way they used extreme and almost surreal color-filters for a number of key-scenes. Friggin' irritating, if you ask me. But in regards to the music, it's a totally different ball game. The songs are not only both terrific and exquisite, they've rarely been bettered, which means close to definite versions of such immortal Rodgers-Hammerstein tunes as "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair", "Some Enchanted Evening", "There Is Nothing Like A Dame", the almost unreal beauty of "Bali Ha'i" and the most understated anti-racist rant you're ever likely to hear in the glorious "Carefully Taught". Man, that's what I call music. If you get it on vinyl, make sure to get a hold of a copy with the splendid gatefold sleeve and the accompanying booklet. No color filters there... (in RateYourMusic)