What did Frank Sinatra say about Ella Fitzgerald?

Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald were without a doubt the reigning champions of their age, according to the majority of jazz and pop music enthusiasts in the United States.

They attracted each other, and they fought in a number of well-known duels. Fitzgerald, who admired and highly respected Sinatra, would never have elevated herself above him due to her innate modesty.

The professional trajectories of these two titans, starting with their turbulent adolescence, were startlingly similar. Fitzgerald was born and raised in Yonkers, some 15 miles north of Frank Sinatra’s birthplace in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Sinatra, who was born in 1915, was kicked out of high school for acting inappropriately. Fitzgerald was raised in Newport News, Virginia, where he was born in 1917.

After Fitzgerald’s mother passed away in 1932, she stopped attending classes regularly after which she was eventually placed in an orphanage and a reform school. Fitzgerald had previously excelled in school.

What did Frank Sinatra say about Ella Fitzgerald?

Frank Sinatra said, “Ella Fitzgerald is the only performer with whom I’ve ever worked who made me nervous. Because I try to work up to what she does. You know, try to pull myself up to that height, because I believe she is the greatest popular singer in the world, barring none—male or female.”

On the 1935 radio broadcast of Major Bowes’ Amateur Hour, he had his big break. Fitzgerald launched her career in November 1934 when she won top Amateur Night honors at Harlem’s Apollo Theater, reportedly abandoning her planned hoofer performance because the previous dance act was too professional.

In place of speaking, she sang “Judy” by Hoagy Carmichael, which contained the prophetic line, “In a hundred ways/You’ll be singing her glory.”