Ella Fitzgerald At The Odeon
Many of the songs of the Great American Songbook were written in anticipation of many different artists recording them. Think about that for a second: Cover songs still exist, of course, but these days, we tend to associate a recording of a new song as definitive. Broadway and Tin Pan Alley composers didn't.
That's one of the points made by writer Will Friedwald in an NPR interview this Sunday with Audie Cornish. His new book, A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers, profiles 210 different vocalists who all take on the American songbook in a meaningful way.
As an illustration of all this, we thought we'd come up with a game. We pulled six different recordings of "Stardust," the Hoagy Carmichael classic. (Case in point: Who remembers his version these days?) Can you correctly match the singer with his or her version of it?
This graphic requires version 10 or higher of the Adobe Flash Player.Get the latest Flash Player.
This interactive content is not supported by this device.
Match Game
Comments
Please keep your community civil. All comments must follow the NPR.org Community rules and terms of use. See also the Community FAQ.
NPR reserves the right to read on the air and/or publish on its website or in any medium now known or unknown the e-mails and letters that we receive. We may edit them for clarity or brevity and identify authors by name and location. For additional information, please consult our Terms of Use.