This article presents the discography of the jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald from 1935 to 1989.
Between 1935 and 1955 Ella Fitzgerald was signed to Decca Records. Her early recordings as a featured vocalist were frequently uncredited. Her first credited single was 78 RPM recording "I'll Chase the Blues Away" with the Chick Webb Orchestra. Fitzgerald continued recording with Webb until his death in 1939, after which the group was renamed Ella Fitzgerald and Her Famous Orchestra. With the introduction of 10" and 12" Long-Playing records in the late 1940s, Decca released several original albums of Fitzgerald's music and reissued many of her previous single-only releases.
In 1956 Ella Fitzgerald signed with Verve Records the Norman Granz record label, Fitzgerald recorded with Verve until the mid-1960s. Included in this era were a series of eight songbook albums, with interpretations of the greater part of the Great American Songbook, with songs from the pens of Cole Porter (1956), Rodgers & Hart (1956), Duke Ellington (1957), Irving Berlin (1958), George and Ira Gershwin (1959), Harold Arlen (1961), Jerome Kern (1963) and Johnny Mercer (1964). The late 1960s and early 1970s saw Fitzgerald release albums on several major record labels, including three albums on Capitol Records and two on the Reprise Records label. In 1972 Norman Granz formed Pablo Records, the label continued to release Ella Fitzgerald's albums up until her last recorded album All That Jazz in 1989.
In recent years the Ella Fitzgerald back catalogue has continued to grow, this includes complete albums of previously unreleased live material and alternative recordings from her studio sessions.
From 1935 to the late 1940s Decca issued Ella Fitzgerald's recordings on 78rpm singles and album collections, in book form, of four singles that included eight tracks. These recordings have been re-issued on a series of 15 compact disc by the French record label Classics Records between 1992 and 2008.
Ella Fitzgerald released many stand alone singles throughout her Verve years, these were re-issued in 2003 on the 2-CD set, Jukebox Ella: The Complete Verve Singles, Vol. 1. Studio and live albums released at a later date are also included here.
1956
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook
Metronome All-Stars 1956 with Count Basie
Ella and Louis (with Louis Armstrong)
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Rodgers & Hart Songbook
1957
Ella and Louis Again (with Louis Armstrong)
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook (with Duke Ellington) – Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance, Soloist
Like Someone in Love
Porgy and Bess (with Louis Armstrong)
1958
Ella at the Opera House (Live)
Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday at Newport (Live) (Reissued with tracks featuring Carmen McRae in 2001)
Ella Swings Lightly – Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance, Soloist
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Irving Berlin Songbook – Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance
Ella in Rome: The Birthday Concert (Live) (Released in 1988)
Ella Fitzgerald live at Mister Kelly's (Live) (Released in 2007)
1959
Get Happy!
Ella Fitzgerald Sings Sweet Songs for Swingers
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Songbook – Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance
1960
Ella in Berlin: Mack the Knife (Live) – Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance
Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas
Hello, Love
Ella Fitzgerald Sings Songs from "Let No Man Write My Epitaph" (Available on CD as The Intimate Ella)
1961
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Harold Arlen Songbook
Ella in Hollywood (Live)
Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie!
Ella Returns to Berlin (Live) (Released in 1991)
Twelve Nights In Hollywood (Live) (Released in 2009)
1962
Rhythm Is My Business
Ella Swings Brightly with Nelson – Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance
Ella Swings Gently with Nelson
1963
Ella Sings Broadway
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Jerome Kern Songbook
Ella and Basie! (with Count Basie)
These Are the Blues
1964
Hello, Dolly!
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Johnny Mercer Songbook
Ella at Juan-Les-Pins (Live)
Ella in Japan: 'S Wonderful (Live) (Released in 2011)
1965
Ella in Hamburg (Live)
Ella at Duke's Place (with Duke Ellington)
1966
Whisper Not
Ella and Duke at the Cote D'Azur (Live) (with Duke Ellington)
1967
Brighten the Corner
Ella Fitzgerald's Christmas
1968
30 by Ella
Misty Blue
1969
Sunshine of your Love (Live)
1969
Ella
1970
Things Ain't What They Used to Be (And You Better Believe It)
1972
Ella Loves Cole (Released on the Pablo label as Dream Dancing)
1973
Newport Jazz Festival: Live at Carnegie Hall (Live)
1966
The Stockholm Concert, 1966 (Live) (with Duke Ellington) (Released in 1984)
1967
The Greatest Jazz Concert in the World (Live) (with Duke Ellington) (Released in 1990)
1970
Ella in Budapest, Hungary (Live) (Released in 1999)
1971
Ella à Nice (Live)
1972
Jazz at Santa Monica Civic '72 (Live)
1973
Take Love Easy (with Joe Pass)
1974
Fine and Mellow (Released in 1979) – Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal
Ella in London (Live)
1975
Ella and Oscar (with Oscar Peterson)
Montreux '75 (Live)
1976
Fitzgerald and Pass... Again (with Joe Pass) – Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal
1977
Montreux '77 (Live)
1978
Lady Time
Dream Dancing (First released on the Atlantic label as Ella Loves Cole)
1979
Digital III at Montreux (Live) – Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female
A Classy Pair (with Count Basie)
A Perfect Match (Live) (with Count Basie) – Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female
1981
Ella Abraça Jobim
1982
The Best Is Yet to Come – Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female
1983
Speak Love (with Joe Pass)
Nice Work If You Can Get It (with André Previn)
1986
Easy Living (with Joe Pass)
1989
All That Jazz – Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female
2001
Sophisticated Lady (Live) (with Joe Pass) (recorded in 1975, 1983)
1952
The Drum Battle (Verve Records, live, with Jazz at the Philharmonic)
1953
JATP In Tokyo - Live at the Nichigeki Theatre 1953 (Live in Tokyo with Jazz at the Philharmonic)
1955
Songs from Pete Kelly's Blues
1956
Jazz at the Hollywood Bowl (Live in Hollywood with Jazz at the Philharmonic)
1957
One O'Clock Jump (with Count Basie and Joe Williams)
Classic Duets (Three duets with Frank Sinatra, recorded for the 1957 ABC television The Frank Sinatra Show; released in 2002 by Capitol Records).
1983
Jazz at the Philharmonic – Yoyogi National Stadium, Tokyo 1983: Return to Happiness (Pablo Records, live, with Jazz at the Philharmonic)
1989
Back on the Block (Qwest, Quincy Jones)
Boxed sets and collections
1994 The Complete Ella Fitzgerald Songbooks
1995 Ella: The Legendary Decca Recordings
1997 The Complete Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong on Verve