Duke Ellington's " Sophisticated Lady" In 1933, Duke Ellington and lyric writer Mitchell Parish combined to write Sophisticated Lady an unusually constructed song that began as an instrumental showcase of Elligton's band. The lyrics, as was often the case with this prolific composer, arranger and pianist, were added after the melody was written and may have suffered from not having the music and words worked on together as in the case of so many effective song writing teams closely collaborating from beginning to end of the song creation.
As David Raksin, composer of Laura once told me, Director Otto Preminger wanted to use Sophisticated Lady as the main theme for the movie. Raksin argued that there too many memories already associated with the tune written 11 years before the movie was being finished. Preminger gave Raksin the weekend to come up with something he could accept or he would have used the Ellington/Parish song. Despite the fact Raksin just learned that weekend that his wife was leaving him, he managed to stumble through a number of melodic ideas before he hit on the essential tune which is the much cherished " Laura."
Ella Fitzgerald sings with a mature woman's understanding of the follies of so-called sophisticated lifestyles and ending of a love that flickered and died."
LINK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMig_hV1se8
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