Artist · chart history · #71 in indie & aaa artist polls
Ella Fitzgerald
Solo artist Newport News United States American jazz singer
Ella Fitzgerald is an artist from Newport News. Ella Fitzgerald has 9 chart appearances on 4 radio countdowns from 3 stations on RockLists, spanning 2001–2020. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Too Darn Hot”, which appears on 1 list with a best position of #497. The station that charted Ella Fitzgerald most often is WFPK (Louisville, KY), with 6 appearances.
Born in Newport News in 1917, Ella Fitzgerald had the kind of voice that made other singers wonder why they bothered: a clean, bell-true tone, diction so precise you could take dictation from it, and a scat attack that went after a melody the way a trumpet player would. After a rough adolescence she found her footing with the Chick Webb Orchestra, the band most closely tied to Harlem's Savoy Ballroom, and her swinging turn on the nursery rhyme "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" made both singer and bandleader famous coast to coast. When Webb died in 1939 she took over the band herself, then cut loose on her own in 1942.
Her second act belonged to Norman Granz, who took over her career from Moe Gale and founded Verve Records to make new Ella records. The Verve years produced some of her best-known work, her takes on the Great American Songbook, and her team-ups with Louis Armstrong, with Duke Ellington and with the Ink Spots turned out gems like "Dream a Little Dream of Me" and "Cheek to Cheek". She worked the movies and the TV variety circuit too.
The honors piled up: 14 Grammys, Kennedy Center Honors in 1979, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1992. She gave her last public performance in 1993, capping nearly 60 years on stage, and died in 1996 at 79. Rock radio's countdowns still make room for "Mack The Knife", which says plenty about how far that voice carries.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Ella Fitzgerald on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Too Darn Hot | 1 | #497 | – | – | |
| 2 | How High the Moon | 1 | #733 | – | – | |
| 3 | Louisville, K.Y. | 1 | #751 | – | – | |
| 4 | Baby Won't You Please Come Home | 1 | #1052 | – | – | |
| 5 | Mack The Knife | 2 | #1659 | – | – | |
| 6 | I've Got a Crush | 1 | #474 | – | – |
Every countdown appearance
| Year | # | Song | Countdown |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 1747 | Mack The Knife | WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time |
| 2012 | 474 | I've Got a Crush | WYEP Top 500 Songs Countdown |
| 2006 | 74 | Artist ranking | WXPN 885 All-Time Greatest Artists (2006) |
| 2001 | 497 | Too Darn Hot | WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time |
| 2001 | 733 | How High the Moon | WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time |
| 2001 | 751 | Louisville, K.Y. | WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time |
| 2001 | 1052 | Baby Won't You Please Come Home | WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time |
| 2001 | 1659 | Mack The Knife | WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time |
| 2001 | 1830 | How High the Moon | WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time |
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