Ella Fitzgerald/Louis Armstrong "Can't We Be Friends" question

[Greg_S_H]

Does Louis take a vocal on the Ella/Louis version of "Can't We Be Friends?" I've only heard the sound clip, but Ella's doing such a wonderful job that--as much as I love Louis's voice--I'm kind of hoping she's able to finish it on her own. The lyrics don't really support a male vocal, but I'm sure they could work in a background for him. Does he in fact sing on every one of their tracks, or does he sometimes just support with trumpet?

Either way, it sounds marvelous and I'm getting ready to take the plunge with the Complete set. And, I see she has other versions of the song that are definitely solo. They just don't sound quite as wonderful as this particular clip.

After that, I'll eventually get the complete Songbooks set. It's expensive, but definitely worth it.

 

[Mike Broadman]

IIRC, Pops does sing on that track, but I'll listen to it tonight to verify this.

The whole album is great anyway, so you can't go wrong. I'm not sure what you mean buy the "complete set," though. I know they cut two records together, so is this just something that packages both together?

As for the songbooks, I have Cole Porter and Irving Berlin. They're great, though I prefer Ella singing songs that are more native to jazz and backed by smaller groups, which gives her more room to stretch out. I do plan on getting the other songbooks, though. I just couldn't plunk down the scratch for all of it in one shot and I wanted to hear at least some of it. Besides, I believe there's a DCC gold version of the Cole Porter set which I'd like to hunt down eventually (though I bet that probably costs like a batrillion dollars, anyway).

 

[Greg_S_H]

Thanks. I'm sure the song is great either way, I'm just going in with my own expectations. Shouldn't do that.

Here's what I mean by the "Complete" set:

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p...=Aiju06j7871r0

Two albums and a couple of extra tracks, all in one package.

The big songbooks box set is a big investment, but I know I'd wind up paying more by getting them individually. I am tempted to get a couple of the single discs to tide me over. I guess I could always eBay them if and when I get the box.

 

[Mike Broadman]

Interesting. I didn't even realise they did a Porgy & Bess together.

When I got the song books, I was just testing out the jazz vocal waters and I didn't know there was a set with everything. Since you know you want everything anyway, just get the complete box.

 

[Mike Broadman]

Greg, Louis does indeed take a vocal on this one. He just changes the pronouns from masculine to feminine.