Ella Fitzgerald sings this classic as the young daughter of Louis Armstrong and Gus Kahn in this duet from a 1949 session that was originally released on the Verve label. It was reissued on the compact disc format in 2000. This LP was the first recording in which Louis Armstrong joined Fitzgerald on a full album and also featured pianist Teddy Wilson. The two were great friends and the collaborations on this set are magical.
Lloyd Schwartz, who reviews this CD for AllMusic, states “This beautiful collection offers a snapshot of the most beloved chanteuse in jazz. Fitzgerald and Armstrong are at their best, blending their mellow voices and playing off each other’s musicality with an unforced ease. This is the best example of’songcraft’ as a form of performance.”
The tempo of this song is 79 BPM. It was covered by the Mills Brothers, Sylvie Vartan, Henry Mancini, The Beautiful South, Anne Murray, Erasure and Michael Bublé among many others. The most popular version of this song is the Mama Cass rendition from 1968 which reached #46 in the UK singles chart and was followed by Anita Harris who had a less successful chart presence at #49.
This song has been used in a variety of movies and TV shows. In the 2010 Jude Law movie Repo Men, John Crichton (portrayed by Ben Browder) sings this lullaby to his wife in a flashback scene. It was the opening and closing theme for the TV show Glee and was also sung by Zooey Deschanel in fashion designer Erin Fetherston’s 2007 show. ella fitzgerald dream a little dream of me