space space space space
Ella Fitzgerald: 1917-1996
Ella Fitzgerald: 1917-1996
Home Text Express Essays Text Express Remember Text Express Carnegie Text Express Discography Text Express Listen Text Express Links

The DECCA Years, Vol. One, 1935 - 1938
featuring CHICK WEBB AND HIS ORCHESTRA
Liner notes by Will Friedwald
PAGE 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Track Listing

"A Tisket" gave a considerable boost to all three careers, enabling Feldman, who by the end of '38 had changed his name to Van Alexander (Alexander being his full first name, Van being short for Vanderhoff, one of his grandmother's maiden name), to start recording with his own band that same year. The song inspired endless sequels from Fitzgerald - including such deathless works as the nursery oriented "Betcha Nickel," "I Want the Waiter with the Water," "Chew-Chew-Chew Your Bubble Gum," "My Wubba Dolly," "Melinda the Mousie," "Got a Pebble In My Shoe (In My Little Toesie)" (a song with real "socks appeal"), apart from the obvious "I Found My Yellow Basket." (Like "Don't Be That Way," the latter was one of many in which Webb exercised his leader's perogative and cut himself in as a co-author.) Billboard
spaceStill other pieces used the chanting band device, such as "That's All, Brother" and when Fitzgerald reprised "Tisket" in her first movie, the 1942 RIDE 'EM COWBOY, no less a celebrated choir than Bud Abbott and Lou Costello chirped the chant episodes. As late as 1951, one reviewer characterized Fitzgerald as a "large cheerful child. Her smile is as entrancing as her cherubic face; her eyes twinkle with more than a touch of mischief." Further, "Tisket" inspired almost all of the early repertoire of the King Cole Trio (who similarly go truckin' on down the avenue in their version of "Three Blind Mice"), and even her own influences took note, Louis Armstrong in "Mutiny in the Nursery," Martha Raye in "Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater." As Lena Horne later put it, a whole generation of aspiring female singers went looking for that yellow basket.
spaceYet the most important fall-out of "Tisket" was felt within the Webb band itself. "Chick always wanted to have a hit with a good band record, but when he got Ella, the picture changed, trombonist Sandy Williams recalled, "From 'Tisket' on, the band automatically became secondary." This had been inevitable since 1935, but "Tisket" made Fitzgerald's star status unimpeachable.

homenext  This site rescued by media.org.