"Let's Get It Started", originally titled "Let's Get Retarded", appears on The Black Eyed Peas' 2003 album Elephunk. It is the fourth single from the album. When it was released as a single in 2004.

The song was included on the soundtrack for the 2006 romantic comedy It's a Boy Girl Thing. The song was STAR World's first SID.^{[disambiguation needed ]} It gained popularity as the theme song for the 2004 NBA Playoffs on ABC and was performed live at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. It was featured in the film White Chicks. It was used in UK advertisements for the game The Urbz: Sims in the City. The song was remixed for The Black Eyed Peas' fifth studio album The E.N.D. as "Let's Get Re-Started", it was also featured on their remix album The E.N.D. Summer 2010 Canadian Invasion Tour: Remix Collection

"Let's Get it Started" won Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group at the 2005 Grammy Awards, and was also nominated for Record of the Year and Best Rap Song.

Composition[link]

The introduction of the song is a homage to Alicia Keys' 2001 single "Fallin'". The song also samples the single "Bass Is Loaded" by Leaders of the New School.

Music video[link]

The music video, directed by Francis Lawrence, takes place in a nighttime setting in an urban area. It features The Black Eyed Peas, particularly will.i.am, performing energetic dances while singing the song, while varying objects in the background (including a grand piano) smash against the ground in real-time, slow and fast motion, and in reverse. The choruses feature the band on stage singing to a large crowd.

Charts[link]

"Let's Get It Started" was the first song to sell 500,000 downloads in the United States meaning that it was once the best-selling digital song of all time. That title now belongs to their song "I Gotta Feeling", which recently was the first song to cross the 7,000,000 downloads. "Let's Get It Started" has so far sold 2,000,000 copies as of May 2009.^[1]

The video went to #34 on "MuchMusic's 50 Most Controversial Videos" for its original song title.

Track listing[link]

CD Single

1. "Let's Get It Started"
2. "Let's Get It Started" (Party Mix)
3. "Let's Get It Started" (Spike Mix)

The Urbz Edition – EP

1. "Let's Get It Started" (Spike Mix) – 3:39
2. "Ga Ra Ta Da" (Simlish Version) – 3:28
3. "The Sticky" – 4:39
4. "Friddy Dope" (Simlish Version) – 3:46

UK Single

1. "Let's Get It Started"
2. "Bridging The Gaps"
3. "Let's Get It Started" (Enhanced music video)

Official Versions[link]

• "Let's Get It Started" (Current Version)
• "Let's Get It Started" (Party Mix)
• "Let's Get It Started" (Spike Mix)

Personnel[link]

References[link]

Ella Fitzgerald
photo by Carl Van Vechten, 1940
Background information
Birth name	Ella Jane Fitzgerald
Also known as	First Lady of Song, Lady Ella
Born	(1917-04-25)April 25, 1917 Newport News, Virginia
Died	June 15, 1996(1996-06-15) (aged 79) Beverly Hills, California
Genres	Swing, traditional pop, vocal jazz
Occupations	Vocalist
Instruments	Piano
Years active	1934-1993
Labels	Capitol, Decca, Pablo, Reprise, Verve
Website	Official website

Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996), also known as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella", was an American jazz and song vocalist.^[1] With a vocal range spanning three octaves (D♭3 to D♭6), she was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing and intonation, and a "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing.

Fitzgerald was a notable interpreter of the Great American Songbook.^[2] Over the course of her 59-year recording career, she was the winner of 13 Grammy Awards and was awarded the National Medal of Arts by Ronald Reagan and the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George H. W. Bush.

Early life[link]

Fitzgerald was born in Newport News, Virginia, the child of a common-law marriage between William and Temperance "Tempie" Fitzgerald.^[3] The pair separated soon after her birth and she and her mother went to Yonkers, New York, where they eventually moved in with Tempie's longtime boyfriend, Joseph Da Silva. Fitzgerald's half-sister, Frances Da Silva, was born in 1923. She and her family were Methodists and were active in the Bethany African Methodist Episcopal Church and she regularly attended worship services, Bible study, and Sunday School.^[4][5]

In her youth Fitzgerald wanted to be a dancer, although she loved listening to jazz recordings by Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby and The Boswell Sisters. She idolized the lead singer Connee Boswell, later saying, "My mother brought home one of her records, and I fell in love with it....I tried so hard to sound just like her."^[6]

In 1932, her mother died from a heart attack.^[3] Following this trauma, Fitzgerald's grades dropped dramatically and she frequently skipped school. Abused by her stepfather, she was first taken in by an aunt ^[7] and at one point worked as a lookout at a bordello and also with a Mafia-affiliated numbers runner.^[8] When the authorities caught up with her, she was first placed in the Colored Orphan Asylum in Riverdale, the Bronx.^[9] However, when the orphanage proved too crowded she was moved to the New York Training School for Girls in Hudson, New York, a state reformatory. Eventually she escaped and for a time was homeless.^[7]

She made her singing debut at 17 on November 21, 1934, at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York. She pulled in a weekly audience at the Apollo and won the opportunity to compete in one of the earliest of its famous "Amateur Nights". She had originally intended to go on stage and dance but, intimidated by the Edwards Sisters, a local dance duo, she opted to sing instead in the style of Connee Boswell. She sang Boswell's "Judy" and "The Object of My Affection," a song recorded by the Boswell Sisters, and won the first prize of US$25.00.^[10]

Later life[link]

Ella Fitzgerald photographed by Carl Van Vechten in 1940.

Fitzgerald married at least twice, and there is evidence that she may have married a third time. In 1941 she married Benny Kornegay, a convicted drug dealer and local dockworker. The marriage was annulled after two years.

Her second marriage, in December 1947, was to the famous bass player Ray Brown, whom she had met while on tour with Dizzy Gillespie's band a year earlier. Together they adopted a child born to Fitzgerald's half-sister, Frances, whom they christened Ray Brown, Jr. With Fitzgerald and Brown often busy touring and recording, the child was largely raised by her aunt, Virginia. Fitzgerald and Brown divorced in 1953, bowing to the various career pressures both were experiencing at the time, though they would continue to perform together.^[6]

In July 1957, Reuters reported that Fitzgerald had secretly married Thor Einar Larsen, a young Norwegian, in Oslo. She had even gone as far as furnishing an apartment in Oslo, but the affair was quickly forgotten when Larsen was sentenced to five months hard labor in Sweden for stealing money from a young woman to whom he had previously been engaged.^[3]

Fitzgerald was also notoriously shy. Trumpet player Mario Bauza, who played behind Fitzgerald in her early years with Chick Webb, remembered that "she didn’t hang out much. When she got into the band, she was dedicated to her music….She was a lonely girl around New York, just kept herself to herself, for the gig."^[3] When, later in her career, the Society of Singers named an award after her, Fitzgerald explained, "I don't want to say the wrong thing, which I always do. I think I do better when I sing."^[10]

Already visually impaired by the effects of diabetes, Fitzgerald had both her legs amputated in 1993.^[3] In 1996 she died of the disease in Beverly Hills, California at the age of 79. She is buried in the Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California.^[11] The career history and archival material from Ella's long career are housed in the Archives Center at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History while her personal music arrangements are at The Library of Congress. Her extensive cookbook collection was donated to the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University while her published sheet music collection is at the Schoenberg Library at UCLA.

Career[link]

Big-band singing[link]

In January 1935, Fitzgerald won the chance to perform for a week with the Tiny Bradshaw band at the Harlem Opera House. She met drummer and bandleader Chick Webb there. Webb had already hired singer Charlie Linton to work with the band and was, The New York Times later wrote, "reluctant to sign her....because she was gawky and unkempt, a diamond in the rough."^[6] Webb offered her the opportunity to test with his band when they played a dance at Yale University.

She began singing regularly with Webb's Orchestra through 1935 at Harlem's Savoy Ballroom. Fitzgerald recorded several hit songs with them, including "Love and Kisses" and "(If You Can't Sing It) You'll Have to Swing It (Mr. Paganini)". But it was her 1938 version of the nursery rhyme, "A-Tisket, A-Tasket", a song she co-wrote, that brought her wide public acclaim.

Chick Webb died on June 16, 1939, and his band was renamed "Ella and her Famous Orchestra" with Ella taking on the role of nominal bandleader. Fitzgerald recorded nearly 150 sides with the orchestra before it broke up in 1942, "the majority of them novelties and disposable pop fluff".^[6]

Decca years[link]

Ella in 1947

In 1942, Fitzgerald left the band to begin a solo career. Now signed to the Decca label, she had several popular hits while recording with such artists as the Ink Spots, Louis Jordan, and the Delta Rhythm Boys.

With Decca's Milt Gabler as her manager, she began working regularly for the jazz impresario Norman Granz and appeared regularly in his Jazz at the Philharmonic (JATP) concerts. Fitzgerald's relationship with Granz was further cemented when he became her manager, although it would be nearly a decade before he could record her on one of his many record labels.

With the demise of the Swing era and the decline of the great touring big bands, a major change in jazz music occurred. The advent of bebop led to new developments in Fitzgerald's vocal style, influenced by her work with Dizzy Gillespie's big band. It this in was period that Fitzgerald started including scat singing as a major part of her performance repertoire. While singing with Gillespie, Fitzgerald recalled, "I just tried to do [with my voice] what I heard the horns in the band doing."^[10]

Her 1945 scat recording of "Flying Home" arranged by Vic Schoen would later be described by The New York Times as "one of the most influential vocal jazz records of the decade....Where other singers, most notably Louis Armstrong, had tried similar improvisation, no one before Miss Fitzgerald employed the technique with such dazzling inventiveness."^[6] Her bebop recording of "Oh, Lady be Good!" (1947) was similarly popular and increased her reputation as one of the leading jazz vocalists.^{[citation needed]}

Move to Verve and mainstream success[link]

Fitzgerald was still performing at Granz's JATP concerts by 1955. She left Decca and Granz, now her manager, created Verve Records around her.

Fitzgerald later described the period as strategically crucial, saying, "I had gotten to the point where I was only singing be-bop. I thought be-bop was 'it', and that all I had to do was go some place and sing bop. But it finally got to the point where I had no place to sing. I realized then that there was more to music than bop. Norman ... felt that I should do other things, so he produced The Cole Porter Songbook with me. It was a turning point in my life."^[6]

Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook, released in 1956, was the first of eight multi-album Songbook sets Fitzgerald would record for Verve at irregular intervals from 1956 to 1964. The composers and lyricists spotlighted on each set, taken together, represent the greatest part of the cultural canon known as the Great American Songbook. Her song selections ranged from standards to rarities and represented an attempt by Fitzgerald to cross over into a non-jazz audience.

Ella Fitzgerald in 1968. Photo courtesy of the Fraser MacPherson estate

Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook was the only Songbook on which the composer she interpreted played with her. Duke Ellington and his longtime collaborator Billy Strayhorn both appeared on exactly half the set's 38 tracks and wrote two new pieces of music for the album: "The E and D Blues" and a four-movement musical portrait of Fitzgerald (the only Songbook track on which Fitzgerald does not sing). The Songbook series ended up becoming the singer's most critically acclaimed and commercially successful work, and probably her most significant offering to American culture. The New York Times wrote 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."^[6]

A few days after Fitzgerald's death, New York Times columnist Frank Rich wrote that in the Songbook series Fitzgerald "performed a cultural transaction as extraordinary as Elvis's contemporaneous integration of white and African-American soul. Here was a black woman popularizing urban songs often written by immigrant Jews to a national audience of predominantly white Christians."^[8] Frank Sinatra was moved out of respect for Fitzgerald to block Capitol Records from re-releasing his own recordings in a similar, single composer vein.

Fitzgerald also recorded albums exclusively devoted to the songs of Porter and Gershwin in 1972 and 1983; the albums being, respectively, Ella Loves Cole and Nice Work If You Can Get It. A later collection devoted to a single composer was released during her time with Pablo Records, Ella Abraça Jobim, featuring the songs of Antonio Carlos Jobim.

While recording the Songbooks and the occasional studio album, Fitzgerald toured 40 to 45 weeks per year in the United States and internationally, under the tutelage of Norman Granz. Granz helped solidify her position as one of the leading live jazz performers.^[6]

In the mid-1950s, Fitzgerald became the first African-American to perform at the Mocambo, after Marilyn Monroe had lobbied the owner for the booking. The booking was instrumental in Fitzgerald's career. The incident was turned into a play by Bonnie Greer in 2005. There are several live albums on Verve that are highly regarded by critics. Ella at the Opera House shows a typical JATP set from Fitzgerald. Ella in Rome and Twelve Nights In Hollywood display her vocal jazz canon. Ella in Berlin is still one of her best selling albums; it includes a Grammy-winning performance of "Mack the Knife" in which she forgets the lyrics, but improvises magnificently to compensate.

Voice[link]

As Will Friedwald noted,

Unlike any other singer you could name, Fitzgerald has the most amazing asset in the very sound of her voice: it's easily one of the most beautiful and sonically perfect sounds known to man. Even if she couldn't do anything with it, the instrument that Fitzgerald starts with is dulcet and pure and breathtakingly beautiful. As Henry Pleasants has observed, she has a wider range than most opera singers, and many of the latter, including Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, are among her biggest fans. And the intonation that goes with the voice is, to put it conservatively, God-like. Fitzgerald simply exists in tune, and she hits every note that there is without the slightest trace of effort. Other singers tend to sound like they're trying to reach up to a note - Fitzgerald always sounds like she's already there. If anything, she's descending from her heavenly perch and swooping down to whatever pitch she wants.^[12]

Henry Pleasants, an American classical-music critic, wrote this about her:

She has a lovely voice, one of the warmest and most radiant in its natural range that I have heard in a lifetime of listening to singers in every category. She has an impeccable and ultimately sophisticated rhythmic sense, and flawless intonation. Her harmonic sensibility is extraordinary. She is endlessly inventive... it is not so much what she does, or even the way she does it, it's what she does not do. What she does not do, putting it simply as possible, is anything wrong. There is simply nothing in performance to which one would take exception... Everything seems to be just right. One would not want it any other way. Nor can one, for a moment imagine it any other way.^[13] Fitzgerald had an extraordinary vocal range. A mezzo-soprano (who sang much lower than most classical contraltos), she had a range of “2 octaves and a sixth from a low D or D flat to a high C flat and possibly higher”.^[13]

Later years[link]

Verve Records was sold to MGM in 1963 for $3 million and in 1967 MGM failed to renew Fitzgerald's contract. Over the next five years she flitted between Atlantic, Capitol and Reprise. Her material at this time represented a departure from her typical jazz repertoire. For Capitol she recorded Brighten the Corner, an album of hymns, Ella Fitzgerald's Christmas, an album of traditional Christmas carols, Misty Blue, a country and western-influenced album, and 30 by Ella, a series of six medleys that fulfilled her obligations for the label. During this period, she had her last US chart single with a cover of Smokey Robinson's "Get Ready", previously a hit for The Temptations, and some months later a top-five hit for Rare Earth.

The surprise success of the 1972 album Jazz at Santa Monica Civic '72 led Granz to found Pablo Records, his first record label since the sale of Verve. Fitzgerald recorded some 20 albums for the label. Ella in London recorded live in 1974 with pianist Tommy Flanagan, guitarist Joe Pass, bassist Keter Betts and drummer Bobby Durham, was considered by many to be some of her best work. The following year she again performed with Joe Pass on German television station NDR in Hamburg. Her years with Pablo Records also documented the decline in her voice. "She frequently used shorter, stabbing phrases, and her voice was harder, with a wider vibrato", one biographer wrote.^[3] Plagued by health problems, Fitzgerald made her last recording in 1991 and her last public performances in 1993.^[14]

Film and television[link]

Fitzgerald shakes hands with President Ronald Reagan after performing in the White House, 1981

In her most notable screen role, Fitzgerald played the part of singer Maggie Jackson in Jack Webb's 1955 jazz film Pete Kelly's Blues. The film costarred Janet Leigh and singer Peggy Lee. Even though she had already worked in the movies (she had sung briefly in the 1942 Abbott and Costello film Ride 'Em Cowboy), she was "delighted" when Norman Granz negotiated the role for her, and, "at the time....considered her role in the Warner Brothers movie the biggest thing ever to have happened to her."^[3] Amid The New York Times' pan of the film when it opened in August 1955, the reviewer wrote, "About five minutes (out of ninety-five) suggest the picture this might have been. Take the ingenious prologue ... [or] take the fleeting scenes when the wonderful Ella Fitzgerald, allotted a few spoken lines, fills the screen and sound track with her strong mobile features and voice."^[15] Fitzgerald's race precluded major big-screen success. After Pete Kelly's Blues, she appeared in sporadic movie cameos, in St. Louis Blues (1958), and Let No Man Write My Epitaph (1960). Much later, she appeared in the 1980s television drama The White Shadow.

She made numerous guest appearances on television shows, singing on The Frank Sinatra Show, The Andy Williams Show, The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, and alongside other greats Nat King Cole, Dean Martin, Mel Tormé, and many others. Perhaps her most unusual and intriguing performance was of the 'Three Little Maids' song from Gilbert and Sullivan's comic operetta The Mikado alongside Joan Sutherland and Dinah Shore on Shore's weekly variety series in 1963. A performance at "Ronnie Scott's" jazz club in London was filmed and shown on the BBC. Fitzgerald also made a one-off appearance alongside Sarah Vaughan and Pearl Bailey on a 1979 television special honoring Bailey. In 1980, she performed a medley of standards in a duet with Karen Carpenter on the Carpenters' television program, Music, Music, Music. ^[16]

Fitzgerald also appeared in TV commercials, her most memorable being an ad for Memorex. In the commercials, she sang a note that shattered a glass while being recorded on a Memorex cassette tape. The tape was played back and the recording also broke the glass, asking "Is it live, or is it Memorex?" She also starred in a number of commercials for Kentucky Fried Chicken, singing and scatting to the fast-food chain's longtime slogan, "We do chicken right!"^[17] Her final commercial campaign was for American Express, in which she was photographed by Annie Leibovitz.

Discography[link]

Collaborations[link]

Fitzgerald's most famous collaborations were with the trumpeter Louis Armstrong, the guitarist Joe Pass, and the bandleaders Count Basie and Duke Ellington.

• Fitzgerald recorded three Verve studio albums with Armstrong, two albums of standards (1956's Ella and Louis and 1957's Ella and Louis Again), and a third album featured music from the Gershwin musical Porgy and Bess. Fitzgerald also recorded a number of sides with Armstrong for Decca in the early 1950s.
• Fitzgerald is sometimes referred to as the quintessential swing singer, and her meetings with Count Basie are highly regarded by critics. Fitzgerald features on one track on Basie's 1957 album One O'Clock Jump, while her 1963 album Ella and Basie! is remembered as one of her greatest recordings. With the 'New Testament' Basie band in full swing, and arrangements written by a young Quincy Jones, this album proved a respite from the 'Songbook' recordings and constant touring that Fitzgerald was engaged in during this period. Fitzgerald and Basie also collaborated on the 1972 album Jazz at Santa Monica Civic '72, and on the 1979 albums Digital III at Montreux, A Classy Pair and A Perfect Match.
• Fitzgerald and Joe Pass recorded four albums together toward the end of Fitzgerald's career. She recorded several albums with piano accompaniment, but a guitar proved the perfect melodic foil for her. Fitzgerald and Pass appeared together on the albums Take Love Easy (1973), Easy Living (1986), Speak Love (1983) and Fitzgerald and Pass... Again (1976).
• Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington recorded two live albums, and two studio albums. Her Duke Ellington Songbook placed Ellington firmly in the canon known as the Great American Songbook, and the 1960s saw Fitzgerald and the 'Duke' meet on the Côte d'Azur for the 1966 album Ella and Duke at the Cote D'Azur, and in Sweden for The Stockholm Concert, 1966. Their 1965 album Ella at Duke's Place is also extremely well received.

Fitzgerald had a number of famous jazz musicians and soloists as sidemen over her long career. The trumpeters Roy Eldridge and Dizzy Gillespie, the guitarist Herb Ellis, and the pianists Tommy Flanagan, Oscar Peterson, Lou Levy, Paul Smith, Jimmy Rowles, and Ellis Larkins all worked with Ella mostly in live, small group settings.

Possibly Fitzgerald's greatest unrealized collaboration (in terms of popular music) was a studio or live album with Frank Sinatra. The two appeared on the same stage only periodically over the years, in television specials in 1958 and 1959, and again on 1967's A Man and His Music + Ella + Jobim, a show that also featured Antonio Carlos Jobim. Pianist Paul Smith has said, "Ella loved working with [Frank]. Sinatra gave her his dressing room on A Man and His Music and couldn't do enough for her." When asked, Norman Granz would cite "complex contractual reasons" for the fact that the two artists never recorded together.^[3] Fitzgerald's appearance with Sinatra and Count Basie in June 1974 for a series of concerts at Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas was seen as an important incentive for Sinatra to return from his self-imposed retirement of the early 1970s. The shows were a great success, and September 1975 saw them gross $1,000,000 in two weeks on Broadway, in a triumvirate with the Count Basie Orchestra.

Awards, citations and honors[link]

Fitzgerald won thirteen Grammy awards, including one for Lifetime Achievement in 1967.

Other major awards and honors she received during her career were the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Medal of Honor Award, National Medal of Art, first Society of Singers Lifetime Achievement Award, named "Ella" in her honor, Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement, UCLA Spring Sing.^[18] Across town at the University of Southern California, she received the coveted^{[citation needed]} USC "Magnum Opus" Award which hangs in the office of the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation.

Philanthropies[link]

Fitzgerald was a quiet but ardent supporter of many charities and non-profit organizations, including the American Heart Association and the City of Hope Medical Center. In 1993, she established the "Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation", which continues to fund programs that perpetuate Ella's ideals. The Foundation's mission and goals, as well as many of the organizations that receive support, can be found at the official Ella Fitzgerald Foundation website Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation. The Foundation also runs a Children's Book Program in memory of Miss Fitzgerald; called "A Book Just For Me!", it provides over 100,000 brand-new books each year to disadvantaged children.

Tributes and legacy[link]

Fitzgerald in 1960 by Erling Mandelmann.

In 1997, Newport News, Virginia created a music festival with Christopher Newport University to honor Ella Fitzgerald in her birth city. The Ella Fitzgerald Music Festival is designed to teach the region's youth of the musical legacy of Fitzgerald and jazz. Past performers at the week-long festival include: Diana Krall, Arturo Sandoval, Jean Carne, Phil Woods, Aretha Franklin, Freda Payne, Cassandra Wilson, Ethel Ennis, David Sanborn, Jane Monheit, Dianne Reeves, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Ramsey Lewis, Patti Austin, and Ann Hampton Callaway

Callaway, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and Patti Austin have all recorded albums in tribute to Fitzgerald. Callaway's album To Ella with Love (1996) features fourteen jazz standards made popular by Fitzgerald, and the album also features the trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. Bridgewater's album Dear Ella (1997) featured many musicians that were closely associated with Fitzgerald during her career, including the pianist Lou Levy, the trumpeter Benny Powell, and Fitzgerald's second husband, double bassist Ray Brown. Bridgewater's following album, Live at Yoshi's, was recorded live on April 25, 1998, what would have been Fitzgerald's 81st birthday.

Austin's album, For Ella (2002) features 11 songs most immediately associated with Fitzgerald, and a twelfth song, "Hearing Ella Sing" is Austin's tribute to Fitzgerald. The album was nominated for a Grammy. In 2007, We All Love Ella, was released, a tribute album recorded for the 90th anniversary of Fitzgerald's birth. It featured artists such as Michael Bublé, Natalie Cole, Chaka Khan, Gladys Knight, Diana Krall, k.d. lang, Queen Latifah, Ledisi, Dianne Reeves, Linda Ronstadt, and Lizz Wright, collating songs most readily associated with the "First Lady of Song". Folk singer Odetta's album To Ella (1998) is dedicated to Fitzgerald, but features no songs associated with her. Her accompanist Tommy Flanagan affectionately remembered Fitzgerald on his album Lady be Good ... For Ella (1994).

Fitzgerald is also referred to on the 1987 song "Ella, elle l'a" by French singer France Gall and the Belgian singer Kate Ryan, the 1976 Stevie Wonder hit "Sir Duke" from his album Songs in the Key of Life, and the song "I Love Being Here With You", written by Peggy Lee and Bill Schluger. Sinatra's 1986 recording of "Mack the Knife" from his album L.A. Is My Lady (1984) includes a homage to some of the song's previous performers, including 'Lady Ella' herself. She is also honored in the song "First Lady" by Canadian artist Nikki Yanofsky.

In 2008, the Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center in Newport News named its brand new 276-seat theater the Ella Fitzgerald Theater. The theater is located several blocks away from her birthplace on Marshall Avenue. The Grand Opening performers (October 11 & 12, 2008) were Roberta Flack and Queen Esther Marrow.

USPS stamp and Yonkers statue[link]

There is a bronze sculpture of Fitzgerald in Yonkers,created by American artist Vinnie Bagwell, the city in which she grew up. It is located southeast of the main entrance to the Amtrak/Metro-North Railroad station. A bust of Fitzgerald is on the campus of Chapman College in Orange, California. On January 10, 2007, the United States Postal Service announced that Fitzgerald would be honored with her own 39-cent postage stamp. The stamp was released in April 2007 as part of the Postal Service's Black Heritage series.^[19]

Filmography[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Nicholson, Stuart. (1996) Ella Fitzgerald. Gollancz; ISBN 0-575-40032-3
• Gourse, Leslie. (1998) The Ella Fitzgerald Companion: Seven Decades of Commentary. Music Sales Ltd.; ISBN 0-02-864625-8
• Johnson, J. Wilfred. (2001) Ella Fitzgerald: A Complete Annotated Discography. McFarland & Co Inc.; ISBN 0-7864-0906-1

External links[link]

	Biography portal
	Music portal

	Book: Ella Fitzgerald
Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ella Fitzgerald

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Ella Fitzgerald

• Ella Fitzgerald at the Internet Movie Database
• Ella Fitzgerald at the Internet Broadway Database
• Ella Fitzgerald at Find a Grave
• Ella Fitzgerald Complete Discography
• Ella Fitzgerald: Twelve Essential Performances by Stuart Nicholson (Jazz.com).
• Ella Fitzgerald at the Library of Congress
• Ella Fitzgerald, The Official Ed Sullivan Show Website
• Redsugar's Ella page
• 'Remembering Ella' by Phillip D. Atteberry
• Todd's Ella Fitzgerald Lyrics Page
• Ella Swings Gently, The Ella Fitzgerald Pages
• Ella Fitzgerald Tribute CD Video Footage
• New York Times article on Ella's early years
• Listen to Big Band Serenade podcast, episode 6 Includes complete NBC remote broadcast of "Ella Fitzgerald & her Orchestra" from the Roseland Ballroom (or download)

Waka Flocka Flame
Background information
Birth name	Juaquin Bertholimule Malphurs
Born	(1986-05-31) May 31, 1986 (age 26) South Jamaica, Queens, New York
Origin	Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Genres	Hip hop
Years active	2008-present
Labels	Brick Squad Monopoly, 1017 Brick Squad Records, Warner Bros., Asylum
Associated acts	1017 Brick Squad, Gucci Mane
Website	www.wakaflocka1017.com

Juaquin Malphurs (born May 31, 1986), better known by his stage name Waka Flocka Flame, is an American rapper signed to 1017 Brick Squad and Warner Bros. He is a Southern hip hop artist best known for his singles "O Let's Do It", "Hard in da Paint" & "No Hands", along with his debut album, Flockaveli. Waka Flocka Flame has announced that his second album, Triple F Life: Friends, Fans and Family, will be released during the spring of 2012.^[1]

Biography[link]

Early life and career[link]

Juaquin Malphurs was born in South Jamaica, Queens, New York in 1986. His family eventually settled in Riverdale, Georgia.^[2] He is the son of Debra Antney, Gucci Mane's former manager and CEO of So Icey/Mizay Entertainment.^[3] The name "Waka" was given to him by his cousin, after the Muppets character Fozzie Bear's catch phrase, "Waka Waka". The name "Flocka Flame" was given to him by rapper Gucci Mane.^[4] Waka Flocka posed for a nude but unrevealing picture for the company PETA to boycott killing animals. The picture says "Ink not Mink". The picture design is similar to Waka Flocka Flame's album Flockaveli.^[5] Waka Flocka Flame said that he has known Gucci Mane since he was 19^[6]

[edit] 2009-2010: Flockaveli

Waka Flocka Flame came to fame with his breakthrough single "O Let's Do It" in 2009,^[7] which peaked at #62 on the Billboard Hot 100. Waka Flocka Flame is a member of the 1017 Brick Squad with Gucci Mane, OJ Da Juiceman, Frenchie, and Wooh Da Kid.^[8] On January 19, 2010, Malphurs was shot and robbed at a car wash in Atlanta. The bullet went through his right arm.^[9][10] He is currently preparing multiple mixtapes with Brick Squad.^[11] His debut album, Flockaveli was released on October 5, 2010. He was featured on Lil Jon's album Crunk Rock on the track "Throw It Up, Pt. 2 (Remix)". The album debuted at #5 on the Billboard 200. He was named the eighth hottest MC of 2010 by MTV.^[12]

Gucci Mane fired Debra Antney as his manager. Despite rumors, there is no animosity between the two rappers due to this event. In an MTV interview, both he and Waka Flocka Flame affirmed that their relationship is in good standing even though they no longer speak.^[13] In early September, Gucci Mane was seen at Flocka's Flockaveli listening party supporting the artist.^[14]

[edit] 2011-present: Triple F Life: Friends, Fans and Family and mixtapes

Waka Flocka Flame has released previous mixtapes in 2011 including Salute Me or Shoot Me 3, Benjamin Flocka and his last Twin Towers 2 with Slim Dunkin'. On August 9, 2011 his latest compilation with Gucci Mane, Ferrari Boyz was released. The first single was "She Be Puttin On", featuring the now deceased Slim Dunkin, who was shot at an Atlanta recording studio shooting a music video.^[15]

On August 9, 2011, the first single for his sophomore album, "Round of Applause", featuring Canadian-rapper Drake, a confirmed featured guest to appear on the album, was released. It is produced by Lex Luger. The first original version featured only Waka Flocka Flame, and the remix featured Drake, but later the remix was made the original version. Triple F Life: Friends, Fans and Family is slated to be released in the first quarter of 2012.

Discography[link]

Studio albums

• 2010: Flockaveli
• 2012: Triple F Life: Friends, Fans and Family

References[link]

External links[link]

• Waka Flocka Flame Official Website
• Waka Flocka Flame on Myspace

Travis Barker
Barker performing in 2008
Background information
Birth name	Travis Landon Barker
Also known as	The Baron von Tito (when with the Aquabats)
Born	(1975-11-14) November 14, 1975 (age 36)
Origin	Fontana, California, United States
Genres	Pop punk, hip hop, rap metal, rap rock, alternative rock, post-hardcore
Occupations	Drummer, musician, songwriter, producer
Instruments	Drums, percussion, bass, synthesizers, guitar, trumpet
Years active	1993–present
Labels	DGC/Interscope, LaSalle/Atlantic, Geffen, Hellcat, MCA, Golden Voice Records, Goliath Artists
Associated acts	Blink-182, +44, Box Car Racer, Yelawolf, Transplants, Paul Wall, TRV$DJAM, Steve Vai, The Aquabats, Expensive Taste, Game, Slash, Soul Assassins, Cypress Hill, RZA, Raekwon, Kanye West, Lil Twist, Lil Wayne, Lupe Fiasco, Lil Jon, Kid Cudi , Tinie Tempah, Tech N9ne, Royce da 5'9'', Eminem
Website	TravisBarker.com
Notable instruments
Orange County Drum and Percussion Remo Drumheads Zildjian

Travis Landon Barker (born November 14, 1975) is an American musician, producer and entrepreneur, most noted as the drummer for the American pop punk band Blink-182, as well as the alternative rock band +44, the rap rock band The Transplants, and the alternative rock band Box Car Racer. He was a frequent collaborator with the late DJ AM, and together they formed TRV$DJAM. He also went on tour with Quest in 2007, and made 3 albums with the group: KSLIP, Why not?, and their most recent, Genius.

After the split of his first band, Feeble, Barker began playing for The Aquabats in 1996 as The Baron Von Tito. He recorded one album with them, The Fury of The Aquabats!, in 1997. His career took off when he joined up with pop punk band Blink-182 in 1998. Barker has since established himself as a versatile drummer, producing and making guest appearances in music projects of numerous music genres including hip hop, alternative rock, pop and country. He has gained significant acceptance within the hip-hop community in particular and often collaborates with artists to compose rock-tinged remixes to their songs.^[1]

He founded clothing company Famous Stars and Straps in 1999 and LaSalle Records in 2004. Companies such as DC Shoes and Zildjian cymbals have co-designed products in his name.

Barker collaborated with artists (including Game, Yelawolf, Tom Morello, Corey Taylor, Slaughterhouse, Raekwon, RZA, Slash, and other musicians) for his solo debut album, Give the Drummer Some, which was released on March 15, 2011.

Early life[link]

Travis Barker was born to Randy and Gloria Barker in Fontana, California. His father worked as a mechanic and his mother babysat for kids.^[2] When Barker was four, his mother gave him his first kit, which was the only one he would have until he was fifteen. Barker began taking drum lessons at age five with a drummer named James Wadsworth, who would expose young Barker to many different playing styles.^[2] At this time, he also began taking trumpet lessons. In junior high, Barker learned to play the piano and briefly tried singing, joining the madrigals men and women's choir.^[2] In addition, Barker had non-musical aspirations; he also was interested in becoming a professional surfer and skateboarder. However, Barker states that "I always migrated back to drums, though. That was the one thing that kind of felt like I was connected to and I could kind of understand. I could express myself better through my drums than I could anything else."^[3]

His mother, who had been diagnosed with cancer three months earlier, died the day before he started going to high school.^[4] She told him to keep playing music and to follow his dreams. Barker attended Fontana High School, where he played in the jazz ensemble and marching band. He gained a lot of experience performing at regional competitions and festivals. During his senior year, he passed up drum corps tryouts to tour with a rock band. Barker gained a lot of experience performing with a few early rock bands. After Barker graduated from high school in 1993 he became a member of The Aquabats. He was nicknamed "Baron Von Tito." Barker did go back to drum corps for his age out year in 1996, to audition with the Blue Devils Drum and Bugle Corps, but was ultimately cut and did not march.

Recording career[link]

Blink-182 (1998–2005; 2009–present)[link]

Blink-182. Barker (back) with Tom DeLonge and Mark Hoppus in 2003

Blink-182 was formed in 1992 by Mark Hoppus and Tom DeLonge. After recruiting drummer Scott Raynor, the band recorded three early demos and two studio albums: Cheshire Cat (1994) and Dude Ranch (1997). Hoppus and DeLonge fired Raynor midway through a U.S. tour in 1998 after a drinking problem became far too prevalent.^[5] Hoppus and DeLonge asked drummer Barker of Blink-182's support band The Aquabats to fill in for Raynor for the remainder of the tour, and, after being impressed with Barker, asked him to join the band.

Barker (back) with Tom DeLonge and Mark Hoppus in Blink-182 Summer Tour, 2009.

Blink-182 released their breakthrough album Enema of the State in June 1999 to commercial success, fueled by successful singles "What's My Age Again", "All the Small Things", and "Adam's Song".^[6] After releasing live album The Mark, Tom, and Travis Show (The Enema Strikes Back!) in November 2000, the band entered the studio and recorded their fourth studio album Take Off Your Pants and Jacket, released in June 2001. The album continued the band's commercial success and popularity.^[6]

After performing with Box Car Racer for much of 2002, DeLonge and Barker rejoined the band to record their eponymous fifth studio album, released in November 2003. The album continued the commercial success that previous albums had endured, as well as being critically acclaimed: Blink-182 represented a more "mature" band than seen in the past,^[7] with the band infusing experimentalist elements into their usual pop punk sound, inspired by lifestyle changes (the band members all became fathers before the album was released) and side-projects (Box Car Racer and Transplants).^[8]

Tensions arose between the band members as DeLonge expressed his desire to cancel the tour and enter a half-year respite from touring in late 2004, and the band officially announced an "indefinite hiatus" in February 2005. DeLonge formed Angels & Airwaves while Hoppus and Barker continued playing music together in +44. In August 2008, the band's frequent producer Jerry Finn died of a cerebral hemorrhage,^[9] and Barker barely survived a plane crash, sustaining second and third degree burns on his lower body and torso. Both events would be catalysts for the band reuniting; in 2010, DeLonge reflected, "If that accident hadn't happened, we wouldn't be a band. Plain and simple. That was fate."^[10]

The band announced their reunion in February 2009 at the 51st Grammy Awards ceremony.^[11] A well-received reunion tour took place in mid-2009, with a European leg performed in summer 2010. The band has released their sixth studio album, entitled Neighborhoods. It was released on September 27, 2011.^[12]

Collaborations/Remixes (2002–present)[link]

Barker has said he has always been interested in many genres of music outside rock, especially hip hop. In a 2002 interview with MTV he said, "I probably listen to more hip-hop and drum'n'bass than I do rock music.".^[13] Not being able to explore these interests within Blink-182, Barker participated in two hip hop related side projects during that the time: Transplants and Expensive Taste.

Box Car Racer is a side project begun by Tom DeLonge of Blink-182 in 2002. This project resulted in one self-titled album, which was released that year. DeLonge said he asked Barker to play drums so that he would not have to find and pay a session drummer to come in.

Transplants is a hip hop-induced punk band for which Barker partnered with Tim Armstrong of Rancid and Rob Aston (former roadie for Rancid). Transplants released two studio records as well as a remixed version of their second album, which was chopped and screwed by rapper and hip-hop artist, Paul Wall.^[14] The first album released by Transplants was their self-titled album in 2002. The second Transplants record, Haunted Cities, was released by LaSalle Records in June 2005. After the Vans Warped Tour of 2005, the members decided to disband. This was confirmed by vocalist Rob Aston in January 2006 during an interview.^{[citation needed]} In January 2010, Barker announced that the Transplants would reform for new material.^[15]

Travis Barker on stage in San Diego, June 2004

He was best friends with the late DJ AM, Adam Goldstein. Some of his first forays into other genres was on Bad Boy 4 Life by P. Diddy and Back In The Mudd by Bubba Sparxxx (who also toured with blink). Barker has produced or worked on albums with The Black Eyed Peas, Pink and Pharrell. He appears on Bun B's album, Trill (2005) with Skinhead Rob for the bonus track, "Late Night Creepin'". In 2006 he was a producer on T.I.'s fourth album, King. Also in 2006 he played drums for several songs on Avril Lavigne's third album, "The Best Damn Thing".^[16] He also dueted with Rihanna on a remix of her hit "Umbrella", he also appeared in her video. Barker also had a remix with Eminem, on the song 3 A.M.

In late 2005 Barker started a new band, +44, with fellow Blink-182 member Mark Hoppus. +44 only released one studio album, When Your Heart Stops Beating. They played several tour dates with Fall Out Boy, Taking Back Sunday, and Cobra Starship.

Barker made a very well received remix of Soulja Boy's "Crank That". In a similar fashion to the Soulja Boy remix, he has also remixed Flo Rida's single "Low" that was later included within the deluxe version of Flo Rida's debut album. Barker is a playable character in Guitar Hero: World Tour and his remix of "Low" is available as downloadable content. Barker is also featured on The Game's 2008 album, L.A.X., drumming on the song "Dope Boys".

He was the drummer for all of the performers at the MTV Video Music Awards of 2008, including Kid Cudi and LL Cool J.

In November 2009, Barker made a remix with hip-hop artist Drake's song "Forever", featuring Eminem, Lil Wayne and Kanye West.

On April 22, 2010, Barker performed "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin on American Idol along with Mary J. Blige, Orianthi, Steve Vai and Randy Jackson.