Label: Verve

Reissued 3/27/2026, Originally released 1956

The second of her celebrated song book albums and heralded as one of the best vocal jazz albums ever made, Ella and arranger/conductor Buddy Bregman began work on the Rodgers and Hart sessions three months after the release of her Cole Porter Song Book. Like its predecessor, it features the cream of West Coast session musicians, many of whom graced the fabulous recordings that Frank Sinatra was making around the same time in the same studio. Maynard Ferguson (trumpet), Milt Bernhart (trombone), Herb Geller, Ted Nash & Bud Shank (reeds), Barney Kessel (guitar), and Alvin Stoller (drums). The album is full of standards that everyone knows and loves, but in Ella's hands these songs become even more special. Standouts include "There's a Small Hotel," "You Took Advantage of Me," and the perennial, "My Funny Valentine."

Track listing:

1. Have You Met Miss Jones?
   
2. You Took Advantage of Me
   
3. A Ship Without a Sail
   
4. To Keep My Love Alive
   
5. Dancing on the Ceiling
   
6. The Lady Is a Tramp
   
7. With a Song in My Heart
   
8. Manhattan
   
9. Johnny One Note
   
10. I Wish I Were in Love Again
    
11. Spring Is Here
    
12. It Never Entered My Mind
    
13. This Can't Be Love
    
14. Thou Swell
    
15. My Romance
    
16. Where or When 9
    
17. Little Girl Blue
    
18. Give It Back to the Indians
    
19. Ten Cents a Dance
    
20. There's a Small Hotel
    
21. I Didn't Know What Time It Was
    
22. Ev'rything I've Got
    
23. I Could Write a Book
    
24. The Blue Room
    
25. My Funny Valentine
    
26. Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered
    
27. Mountain Greenery
    
28. Wait Till You See Her
    
29. Lover
    
30. Isn't It Romantic?
    
31. Here in My Arms
    
32. Blue Moon
    
33. My Heart Stood Still
    
34. I've Got Five Dollars