Ella had achieved much by the time she signed to the newly created Verve Records in 1956, but it was the genius of Norman Granz, her personal manager and Verve founder, in suggesting she tackle the material of great contemporary composers in themed albums that sent her career into orbit. As the New York Times wrote on her passing in 1996, “These albums were among the first pop records to devote such serious attention to individual songwriters, and they were instrumental in establishing the pop album as a vehicle for serious musical exploration.” The song selections ranged from standards to rarities, and the eight-title series represented an attempt by Fitzgerald to cross over to a non-jazz audience that may have been unaware of the talents she first committed to vinyl in 1935.
