Ella Fitzgerald Sings "A Tisket, A Tasket"

Called "The Lady of Swing," Ella Fitzgerald (1917 - 1996) was one of the greatest singers in all of jazz. She set the high standards by which all others are judged when singing the music called jazz. In her recording career of 59 years, Fitzgerald was the winner of 13 Grammy Awards. She was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Ronald Reagan and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom by the first President George Bush.

Orphaned at an early age, Ella Fitzgerald moved to New York City to attend an orphanage school in Yonkers before moving onto her first big break in 1934. That was the year she entered the amateur nights at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. Originally wanting to show off her dancing skills, Fitzgerald was too frightened to dance, so she sang. And sing she did to thunderous applause. Sitting out there in the audience was a manager of the Chick Webb Orchestra, one of the great big bands of the swing era. Chick Webb, the diminutive drummer and leader of this band, didn't want to hear Ella but his manager forced him to listen to the young gal by locking both himself and Webb in Webb's dressing room one night. To his credit, Webb said, "Okay, we'll take her with us to Yale. If the college kids love her, she stays." And stay she did, singing with the band and becoming its biggest star attraction next to Webb himself. When Webb died from tuberculosis in 1939 at age 32, Fitzgerald was drafted into leading the band with saxists Ted McCrea and Eddie Barefield acting as music directors. The Webb band lasted in this fashion until 1942 when Ella went out on her own as a single act.

One of Ella Fitzgerald's biggest hits with the Chick Webb band was a cute novelty number "A - Tisket, A - Tasket" which utilized Fitzgerald's girlish sounding voice, a quality that would become known the world over and make Fitzgerald one of the most recognizable voices in all music. Here she sings "A - Tisket, A-Tasket" in an appearance in 1941 in the Abbott and Costello movie "Ride 'Em Cowboy."