Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Song Book

Musically, most of the material is in the 3.5-4 star territory for me. As an experience, it's about a 2. So let's meet in the middle.

3/5

The Gershwin Songbook was one of the few very long albums on this list that i enjoyed. It really is some of the best jazz music i have ever heard with plenty of great parts from each and every musician and Fitzgerald's vocals also made this album come a long way. It is interesting that this is less of an album and more of a box set which explains it's length but i still think it went on for a while. 3 hours is a long time for any album and i feel that albums that go on for that long that don't massively change up their sound can easily get repetitive and hard to remember. This album would have been an easy 5 stars if it were just a bit shorter but it still gets a very respectable 4 stars.
Best Song: The Real American Folk Song
Worst Song: Soon

This album could've been an email

Let’s be serious. This isn’t an album, it’s a box set.

That said, her voice is great. It kept me entertained for the entire drive to a softball tournament.

But it’s too long. Way way too long.

I just received this mission.

196 minutes, 48 seconds huh. Let's see how we fare.

To be Frank, I will probably not listen to this in one sitting, but I think that's fine. I don't even think this was intended to be listened to in one sitting. It is an entire fucking box set, that is cleanly separated into discs. But I do intend to hear the whole thing. I suppose my "break glass in case of emergencies" is that the first 3 discs consist of the body of the material, but according to the wiki article, the rest is largely alt. takes and different mixes. So if I really need a break, I think I'll declare a success If I can at least make it through the first 3. See you on the other side.

Alright, I did make it through everything. The first thing I noticed is that the Spotify upload has the discs with a tracklist in an order different than what is cited on the wiki article, so I kind of resolved to just go through the whole thing. Second, I'm more sure than ever that this isn't even really an album. Like the format of this website's challenge fails to accommodate a project like this. Something that was never, *ever* intended to be consumed in one sitting. I think this is the kind of thing you would have bought, then you would have slapped one disc on every once in a while. Although I will say, digesting 196 minutes of '50s pop/vocal jazz does put you in a really unique space as a listener. I have never felt more like an archivist than I did during this. This project really does feel like something you are forced to contend with, and it almost feels like it's challenging you to find a way to present the, admittedly strong content here in a more digestible way. I think there is a really cool exercise in curation here. Spoiler alert, I'm giving this a 3, I'll talk more about that later though. But I think that if you went through this, picked the right songs and sequenced it right that you could pull a really fantastic 45 minutes out of this. The music itself here is generally cool, even though it's hard not to get a little tired of '50s pop over the course of the whole thing, unless you are a very particular kind of person. However, the performances by Ella Fitzgerald are spirited and charismatic, and the compositions by The Gershwins have such a classic sound. They are dated, but they are ultimately well written, classy tunes that aren't afraid to have some fun. And I'd be willing to bet that these performances are the defining interpretations of these songs. As for how to rate this, I'm a little torn. On one hand, this is an unceasing obelisk of pop music: an absolutely unmanageable volume of largely similarly textured and written songs. On the other hand, this was never intended to be consumed in the way that this challenge demands, and the magnitude of the achievement here is not lost on me. This is one of Fitzgerald's greatest accomplishments, and it is, at the end of the day, a *very* robust collection of very well written pop songs. As such, I'm playing it boring and splitting it down the middle, getting to the aforementioned 3. Definitely listen to this, just never in one sitting.

Heard this monster of an album with a duration close to 200 minutes during The Great AWS Breakdown of October 2025. I had to hear this album for the entire day and felt like I was living in a Fallout shelter...

It had it's charm and could probably have scored higher if I didn't have to dedicate over 3 hours to listen to it..

Ella is wonderful, but I do question the album's place on this list. I would have rather had something uniquely hers. And not 3 hours long either

Quite a slog at 3 hours but Ella has a beautiful voice so that definitely helps. Favorite track: The Man I Love

Could have, and should have been an email.

I'm convinced that this album only exists as some elaborate sadomasochistic social experiment. Anyone claiming to enjoy it has been commissioned for their opinion, or held hostage.

Needless to say, I didn't indulge in its 3 hour running time.

This was a slog, not because it was bad, but because it was just long. She can sing wonderfully and the music is enjoyable, but why does a box set belong on this list? 3/5

Went back to work today after week off and if any album is going to make that a joyful and restful experience it is this one. After checking that I indeed have the album with just 59 songs and not the reissue (sigh), I swaddled myself in a blanket, cup of coffee in hand, and let this just ooze over me. Such beautiful songs sung by a truly wonderful vocalist.

Ella here is great here dont get me wrong,and its clear gershwin is a great songwriter as you can tell from these beautiful tracks,but its just way too long.I get that back then it probably wasnt seen as a casual listen type thing and in reality it was a 5 day show where she performed these songs but for the sake of this im gonna take the length into account.It took me about 2 days to finish surprisingly enough tho,thought it would take longer tbh.I dont wanna hear vocal jazz for a while yet now iwl.but if its not as long i will persevere.Some of the songs toward the end honestly js suck tho which is interesting cause i havent really heard a vj song which i havent liked.Also,those instrumentals were,pretty unneeded

Skill:8
Actuality:6.5

I narrowed the track list down to 12 songs because there’s no way I was gonna listen to this for three hours. I’d have difficulty doing that for my favorite bands. I chose songs based on how interesting the song titles were to me, and I enjoyed it! It goes without saying, her voice is amazing. The band was great too!

Ella Fitzgerald’s voice is smooth as silk and this glides through the first three tracks and then we hit a track i actually recognise in ‘let’s call the whole thing off’ and i hate to say it but the vocals are just too clean for my liking. This track feels like it should be sang by a more lived in voice.
(I’ve got) beginners luck gets up back on track and we’re swaying along like I’m watching an old film at my grandparents in my childhood.
I’d have given the first lp/disc a 3/5 but fear my tolerance for this is already seriously waning and i’m only just started the second set.

The Real American folk song is a real pick me up with a lively piano offering a welcome bit of variety to the general floaty big band numbers.

End of disc two and everything’s still generally pleasant, but now definitely feels there needs to be more variety.

Clap yo hands at least raises the tempo, a bit to more of a swing like tune
This is just toooooo loooonnnnngggg.
Disc 4 is too one dimensional with Slap that Bass being the stand out due to it at least punctuated the dreamy sleepiness of the rest of the music. Other than that ‘shall we dance’ almost adds some life to proceedings, but not quite.

By the time i reach the 5th disc ‘i cant be bothered now’ feels worryingly self aware.
I got rhythm at least ensures it ends on a high.
Good moments that could have been edited to a great album. Whilst i applaud the ambition of the project it is just too long to enjoy as a single album

If "too much of a good thing" was an LP. Or more accurately, 5 LPs.

Her voice is amazing, the musicians are wonderful, the songwriting is great. Even admiring the ballsiness to release this, it's too long to be a fully enjoyable listening experience (ironically, her previous Gershwin album is too short at only 25 minutes). The Wikipedia page also defeated me, as I normally like reading the background to the album, but this had a page for basically every song and frankly, I ran out of enthusiasm half way through.

All of which makes this hard to mark. A nice trim 50 minutes likely would have got a minimum 4 from me, but an album shouldn't be a test of endurance.

3/5

P.S. Even as a Brit, the phrase "Carry on, old fluff" in Stiff Upper Lip made me giggle.

'let's call the whole thing off' is annoying the hell out of me. It just keeps going. How did she find so many things to pronounce?

Boring and too long but 1 star feels too harsh.

Wesh c’est baaaaad long heureusement c’était le week-end

Excellent. Écouté en plusieurs fois les disques mais je peux pas mettre moins de 5 je crois. Je ne connaissais Ella que très peu.
Sa voix est juste magnifique et les compositions des Gershwin sont top. Ça va être dans mes rotations fréquentes.

I tried. I got through half the album, 30 songs to be exact. I just can’t give it another hour and a half. It’s great music. It’s all the same - Ella’s beautiful voice over jazz. Great to put on while making breakfast on a Sunday morning. Not a destination album.

naprosto divno... nevjerojatno koliko je ovo staro a izvrsno