Chapter 8: Broadway and Musical Theater
While most musicals written in the 1920s and 1930s have faded from the stage and are rarely revived in full productions today, many of the songs they introduced have endured, becoming essential pieces of the American musical repertoire. These lasting songs are known as standards—works that remain relevant and are performed, recorded, and reinterpreted across generations. The standards written by Broadway and Tin Pan Alley composers have been recorded and reinterpreted across generations and genres, and few artists have done more to preserve, elevate, and redefine them than Ella Fitzgerald. Often called the “First Lady of Song”, Fitzgerald is widely regarded as one of the greatest jazz vocalists in history—and one of the most influential interpreters of the Great American Songbook.
Fitzgerald was born in Newport News, Virginia, in 1917, and raised primarily in Yonkers, New York. Her early life was marked by hardship: after her mother’s death in 1932, she spent time in an orphanage and experienced periods of homelessness. Her fortunes changed in 1934, when she won an amateur contest at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. Her performance caught the attention of local musicians and jazz enthusiasts, and she soon joined Chick Webb’s band as a featured vocalist.
In 1938, Fitzgerald’s playful recording of the children’s rhyme “A-Tisket, A-Tasket” soared to number one on the pop charts, making her a household name. When Chick Webb died in 1939, Fitzgerald took over his band, which was renamed Ella and Her Famous Orchestra, becoming one of the first female bandleaders of a major swing ensemble. She left the band in 1942 to begin a successful solo career.
Fitzgerald’s most significant work came during her time with Verve Records, beginning in 1956, when she launched her ambitious Songbook Series. Over the course of more than a dozen albums, she devoted each volume to the works of a single composer or songwriting team. Highlights included:
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book (1956)
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Song Book (1957)
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Song Book (1959)
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Irving Berlin Song Book (1958)
These recordings not only honored the legacy of American composers but also helped define jazz vocal interpretation as an art form. Ella Fitzgerald’s extraordinary technical control, emotional versatility, and nuanced phrasing made many of her renditions the definitive versions. Her 1959 recording of “I Got Rhythm,” for instance, opens with a slow, introspective introduction that evokes quiet longing before shifting into an exuberant, swinging tempo. In a single performance, Fitzgerald could move from smoky and intimate in one moment, then sparkling and playful in the next.
What set Ella Fitzgerald apart was not only her impeccable vocal control or effortless sense of swing, but also her emotional intelligence and interpretive depth. She could express joy, heartbreak, wit, and wonder—sometimes all within a single song. Her phrasing was fluid and inventive, and her use of scat singing, in which she improvised melodies using nonsense syllables, was both playful and virtuosic, transforming it into a form of high musical expression.
Over the course of her six-decade career, Fitzgerald released more than 200 albums and earned 13 Grammy Awards. She recorded until 1991 and remained a cherished performer around the world. Through her artistry, she not only preserved the legacies of composers like Gershwin, Berlin, Kern, and Porter, but also redefined their work. Her performances set the standard for vocal interpretation, demonstrating how a singer could infuse a song with personal style and emotional truth, creating renditions where the artist’s personality shone through just as clearly as the melody.