Ella Fitzgerald - The Very Best Of The Rodgers And Hart Songbook (2007)

After the initial impact of her first songbook venture (Cole Porter) in early 1956, Ella Fitzgerald returned to the studio quickly with the same arranger/conductor (Buddy Bregman) and recorded nearly three dozen songs from the pens of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. Released just six months after the Porter volume, Sings the Rodgers and Hart Song Book confirmed that something special was afoot and just narrowly missed the Top Ten of the album charts. Fitzgerald's heavy musical skills were naturally pleasing to the reportedly finicky Rodgers, and her nearly endless reserves of buoyant optimism were an excellent complement to Hart's songs. The 2007 Verve compilation The Very Best of the Rodgers and Hart Song Book includes less than one out of three songs from the original, but it forms a solid introduction to what is arguably Fitzgerald's best work. It begins with a bang ("Lover"), reprises the best ballads ("My Funny Valentine," "Manhattan," "Where or When"), and includes three of the more downcast numbers from the Rodgers & Hart catalog ("It Never Entered My Mind," "Ten Cents a Dance," and "Little Girl Blue"). For those who don't have the confidence to spring for the full set, these 12 songs will probably convince them.