Ella Fitzgerald Sings Cream’s “Sunshine of Your Love” (1969)

In 1969, Ella Fitzger­ald released Sun­shine of Your Love, a live album record­ed at the Venet­ian Room in The Fair­mont San Fran­cis­co. Record­ed by music pro­duc­er Nor­man Granz, the album fea­tured con­tem­po­rary pop songs that show­cased Fitzger­ald’s abil­i­ty to tran­scend jazz stan­dards. Take, for exam­ple, a ver­sion of the Bea­t­les’ “Hey Jude” and Cream’s “Sun­shine of Your Love.” Below you can hear what the orig­i­nal (record­ed in 1967) sound­ed like in the hands of Jack Bruce, Gin­ger Bak­er and Eric Clap­ton, and then expe­ri­ence Ella’s own unex­pect­ed ver­sion above. It’s quite the jux­ta­po­si­tion.

Relat­ed Con­tent 

Watch Ella Fitzger­ald Put Her Extra­or­di­nary Vocal Agili­ty on Dis­play, in a Live Ren­di­tion of “Sum­mer­time” (1968)

Ella Fitzgerald’s Lost Inter­view about Racism & Seg­re­ga­tion: Record­ed in 1963, It’s Nev­er Been Heard Until Now

Ella Fitzger­ald Imi­tates Louis Armstrong’s Grav­el­ly Voice While Singing “I Can’t Give You Any­thing But Love, Baby”