Ella Fitzgerald - Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye

Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996), also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist. With a vocal range spanning three octaves (Db3 to Db6), she was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing and intonation, and a "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing.

When only sixteen, she received her first big break at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, when she won an amateur-night contest and impressed saxophonist-bandleader Benny Carter. He recommended her to drummer-bandleader Chick Webb (c. 1900–1939), who hired her in 1935. She soon became a recording star with the band, and her own composition "A-tisket, A-tasket" (1938) was such a smash hit that the song became her trademark for many years thereafter.

By 1940 Fitzgerald was recognized throughout the music world as a vocal wonder—a singer with clarity of tone, flexibility of range, fluency of rhythm, and, above all, a talent for improvisation (to make up without practice) that was equally effective on ballads and faster tunes.

By the early 1950s Fitzgerald's domination of fans's and critics's polls was absolute. In fact, she won the Down Beat readers' poll every year from 1953 to 1970 and became known as "The First Lady of Song."

In 1955 she ended her twenty-year recording relationship with Decca in order to record for Norman Granz's Verve label.

She proceeded to produce a series of legendary "Songbook" albums, each devoted to the compositions of a great songwriter or songwriting team, such as the Gershwins (George, 1898–1937; Ira, 1896–1983), Cole Porter (1891–1964), Irving Berlin (1888–1989), and Duke Ellington (1899–1974).

Fitzgerald was always blessed with superb musicians accompanying her, from the full orchestral support of Chick Webb and Duke Ellington to the smaller JATP ensembles.
Fitzgerald died on June 15, 1996, at the age of seventy-eight.

Over a recording career that lasted 59 years, Fitzgerald won among other numerous awards, thirteen Grammy awards, including one for Lifetime Achievement in 1967. Other major awards and honors she received during her career were the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Medal of Honor Award, National Medal of Art, first Society of Singers Lifetime Achievement Award, named "Ella" in her honor, Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement, UCLA Spring Sing.

"Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" is a song with lyrics and music by Cole Porter. It was introduced in 1944 in Billy Rose's musical revue, Seven Lively Arts.

Notable is Porter's clever use of word painting: As the lyrics "There is no love song finer / But how strange the change / From major to minor / Ev'ry time we say goodbye" are sung, the song literally changes its tonality from major to minor.

The song has since become a jazz standard after gaining popularity in the late 50's and early 60's. Ella's cover is included in her 1956 album "Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook". This was Fitzgerald's first album for the newly created Verve Records. Fitzgerald's time on the Verve label would see her produce her most highly acclaimed recordings, at the peak of her vocal powers.

This album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2000, which is a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least twenty-five years old, and that have "qualitative or historical significance." In 2003, it was one of 50 recordings chosen by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry.