Ella Fitzgerald: Rarities

When we listen to Elvis concerts we kind of know what to expect, with a choice of only so many songs for each given period. Even Sinatra concerts drew from a relatively small group of songs (although larger than Elvis's until the final years). We have already seen that Darin had more songs in his repertoire than he would ever use on a regular basis - but Ella probably beats them all. More and more material appears on youtube which most of us are oblivious to her ever singing. These were never recorded officially (that we know of), but shows her love of music from all genres. Here are some of the rarities I have come across (or uploaded myself):

Ella sings The Wiz! Not her finest moment, but great to see her in action in a professionally recorded concert yet to make it to DVD!

Not quite so rare as it was released as a single, but yet to make to it CD. These Boots were Made For Walkin':

Another professionally recorded concert we have yet to see. Ella sings songs from My Fair Lady:

Finally, this is the from an episode of Hollywood Palace in 1969. Someone has already posted the Hey Jude performance elsewhere, so you can wind through that to the sublime Melancholy Serenade. Melancholy Serenade was recorded in an aborted session for the Whisper Not sessions, but never re-recorded. It's sooooo beautiful!

She was just brilliant -- in the recording studio or on the concert stage. Her phrasing and scatting is spellbinding; and the range of songs she took to her audience was as broad as it was wide.