Transports of Delight

Normally I'm wary of naming names, but backed into a corner, with a gun at my head and my assailant demanding my nomination for the greatest singer of the twentieth century (female) I'd say Ella Fitzgerald. In fact, I'd say Ella under pretty much any circumstances, it just seems so obvious to me.

I say this by way of introduction to a brief tale of background music encountered in one of the supermarkets in Parade Parade last weekend. Normally I abhor the stuff, but this time it was Ms Fitzgerald singing Every Time You Say Goodbye from her Cole Porter Songbook album. The delight of hearing a female voice working the middle range (a forgotten art in this age of keening harridans) could only be surpassed by the greater delight of hearing a female voice actually singing the melody and drawing attention to the song rather than itself.

It transported me from the skimmed milk to a better place. Would I had stayed.