Featuring: The Oscar Peterson Trio

Songwriter: Ira Gershwin

Producer: Norman Granz

Listen to my tale of woe
It's terribly sad but true
All dressed up, no place to go
Each evening I'm awfully blue
I must win some handsome guy
Can't go on like this
I could blossom out I know
With somebody just like you. So
Oh, sweet and lovely lady, be good
Oh, lady, be good to me
I am so awfully misunderstood
So lady, be good to me
Oh, please have some pity
I'm all-alone in this big city
I tell you I'm just a lonesome babe in the wood
So lady be good to me
Oh, please have some pity
I'm all alone in this big city
I tell you I'm just a lonesome babe in the wood
So lady be good to me
Oh lady be good to me

Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong

Both household names at the time of their first recording together, the dynamic duo of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong recorded their eponymous debut on August 16, 1956, in Hollywood’s then newly-built Capitol Studios. The record covered eleven standards with the backing of the Oscar Peterson Quartet. Although they had previously collaborated in the late 1940s for the Decca label, Ella and Louis began a critical and commercial streak for the pair, with many follow-ups under Norman Granz’s Verve Records; including 1957’s Ella and Louis Again and their 1959 collection of songs from the Porgy and Bess.