If the details of her early years, childhood poverty and abuse are kept hidden (Ella was famously shy,private person and once said "It doesn't matter where you came from, its where you go that counts") we have her earliest recordings made in 1930s as a starting point where we can hear what kind of person she was back than. Between 1935 and 1955 she was signed for "Decca Records" and at first she was vocalist for Chick Webb Orchestra - at first Webb (hunchback drummer) couldn't care less for young,big-boned and poorly dressed girl who was not his idea of Big Band singer, in fact he already hired somebody else for upcoming concerts but once he heard Fitzgerald singing, he changed his time and she was welcome in a band. Webb's wife apparently helped with dresses and appearance, but early pictures still show young Fitzgerald looking like some sweet, overgrown child.
Lots of those early recordings have band swinging hard and than Fitzgerald would have short solo spot, chirping sweetly in a voice that was cute but not specially memorable. She projected joy, sunny innocence and happiness. The very first single was "I'll Chase The Blues Away" and I have it on UK compilation that I bought many years ago in London - most of her old "Decca" stuff were single recordings compiled trough the years - here she sounds like Fitzgerald munchkin, with a fat little voice and adoring childish personality totally unlike some other "femme fatale" singers of the time. Chick Webb kept her singing these swinging little novelties for a long time - he had somebody else singing ballads and Fitzgerald was his "swing" singer although it sounds strange when today we hear titles like "Coochi-Coochi-Coo", "Big Boy Blue" and such - its almost as he decidedly kept 22 year old girl firmly stuck in disguise of little kid.
If Chick Webb controlled Fitzgerald in every professional and personal way, she seems to have accepted it - he took good care of her and was her surrogate father, after all - in fact, Fitzgerald seems to actually have liked those early novelty songs and herself proposed swinging version of old kiddie song "A-Tisket-A-Tasket" that turned into one of the biggest hits of 1938 - it propelled her into huge superstar and from than on her fame was cemented. Even today it is a sunny little swing number that any kid could sing - Ella herself was singing it in a 1942. comedy "Ride 'Em Cowboy", there is a bus scene where Ella dressed like little girl playfully pouts and (somehow incredibly) poses as a little girl singing. She was 25 years old when movie was made and already quite a big girl.
"Undecided" was another big hit from around the same time - to my ears actually even more endearing than "A-Tisket-A-Tasket" because it swings much harder. It was Fitzgerald's last success with Chick Webb who would died that same year. Just like almost anything she had recorded back than, it has Fitzgerald singing in a little girl voice but music is very happy, Big Band behind her is snappy and I can easily understand why it was such big radio hit. The song itself survived in many different versions and I had just discovered wonderful 1951. recording by The Ames Brothers who actually had a Top 10 hit with it.
After Chick Webb had died, Ella continued doing what she knew best - "Sing Song Swing" is a perfect example of nonsense little ditties everybody expected from her and at the time it seemed that she would forever be stuck with novelty repertoire. Besides being devastated with Webb's death and exhausted with role of leading the band herself (something completely unnatural to a person who was everything but forceful) Fitzgerald must have been frustrated with the fact that other girl singers got serious material while she was singing "ding dong din" and "chappetty chap chap" songs. It would take some time before "Decca" would finally relent and allow her to record something more substantial.
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