With two outstanding Double Plus (A++) sides, this MONO original pressing from 1957 (the only way to fly) will be hard to beat
Ella’s voice is noticeably breathier, fuller, more relaxed and more musical here than it is on most of the other copies we played
Take it from an Ella fan, you can’t go wrong with this one, assuming you can put up with some ticky vinyl. This is about as quiet as we can find them. Like Someone in Love is five times rarer than Clap Hands, and twice as likely to be noisy.
The sound is rich and full-bodied in the best tradition of a classic vintage jazz vocal album. You could easily demonstrate your stereo with a record this good, but what you would really be demonstrating is music that the listener probably hasn’t heard, and that’s the best reason to demonstrate a stereo!
The space is huge and the sound so rich. The vocals have dramatically less hardness and the orchestra — especially on side two — is not brash for once.
Prodigious amounts of Tubey Magic as well, which is key to the best sounding copies. The sound needs weight, warmth and tubes or you might as well be playing a CD.
What We’re Listening For on Like Someone In Love
Copies with rich lower mids and nice extension up top (to keep Frank Devol’s string arrangements from becoming shrill) did the best in our shootout, assuming they weren’t veiled or smeary of course. So many things can go wrong on a record! We know, we heard them all.
We’re glad to report this copy was doing more of what we wanted it to do than most others we played.
And we know a fair bit about Ella’s recordings at this point. As of today we’ve done commentaries for more than a dozen different Ella Fitzgerald albums, and that’s not counting the sixteen (yes, 16!) titles we put in our Hall of Shame.
We’ve searched high and low for her records and played them by the score over the years.
Side One
There’s A Lull In My Life
More Than You Know
What Will I Tell My Heart
I Never Had A Chance
Close Your Eyes
We’ll Be Together Again
Then I’ll Be Tired Of You
Like Someone In Love
Side Two
Midnight Sun
I Thought About You
You’re Blasé
Night Wind
What’s New
Hurry Home
How Long Has This Been Going On
AMG Review
Ella Fitzgerald was accompanied by an orchestra arranged by Frank DeVol for this fine studio session. Most of the songs are veteran standards, Stan Getz’s warm tenor helps out on four tunes, and — although this is not an essential release — her voice was so strong and appealing during this era that all of her recordings from the mid- to late ’50s are enjoyable and easily recommended.
The First Lady of Song
Ella Fitzgerald was arguably the finest female jazz singer of all time. Blessed with a beautiful voice and a wide range, Fitzgerald could outswing anyone, was a brilliant scat singer, and had near-perfect elocution; one could always understand the words she sang. When one evaluates her career on a whole, there is simply no one else in her class.
-AMG
Mono, Stereo, Reprocessed Stereo, We’ve Played Them All!