"Take the 'A' Train"

This song, "Take the 'A' Train", preformed by Duke Ellington and his band, was composed by Billy Strayhorn, after seeing Ellington perform in Pittsburgh. The story goes that Strayhorn approached Ellington after the show wondering if he could join his band, Ellington agreed to hear the young man play and invited Strayhorn to meet him at his home in New York the next day, he left Strayhorn with directions to get to his home once in the city. A day later Strayhorn arrived at Ellingtons house with a newly written song, titled after the first step in his directions "take the A train." Duke apparently loved the song because the young composer was immediately welcomed into the band, and "take the 'A' train" became a staple in the bands line up. 

     This song was hugely significant in both Strayhorn's and Ellington's careers, it was not only the first of many collaborations between the two composers, but was also arguably also one of the most popular songs Duke's band preformed. Five years after the song was composed, Joya Sherrill, a girl living in Michigan, heard the song on the radio and wrote lyrics to go along with it. After hearing them Joya's father, who was a civil rights activist working out of Detroit at the time, got in contact with Ellington. From then on Ellington would perform the song with Sherrill's lyrics, and she would eventually join the band as a vocalist. "Take the 'A' Train" was a very important song in the Harlem Renaissance, it re-shaped the careers of three musicians, and its lyrics mirrored the strong sense of pride surrounding the Harlem neighborhood.

(lyrics)

http://www.metrolyrics.com/take-the-a-train-lyrics-ella-fitzgerald.html