One of the most successful singers of the twentieth century , Ella Fitzgerald, has made several different styles of her own. She was born in Virginia but was brought up in Yonkers, New York. Chick Webb noticed her in a competition when she was sixteen. He asked her to sing with his band  , and when he died in 1939, she took over. Unlike Besie Smith, Ella Fitzgerald taught herself the sentimental music so popular in the 1930's--songs like "My Heart Belongs to Daddy"--- and her recordings became best sellers. During the 1940's she developed her own "scat singing", for songs like "Flying Home" and "Lady Be good". Ella Fitzgerald was the perfect musical partner for her friend, the trumpets  Louis Armstrong, matching him in warmth and artistry. " I just like music," she has said."To me, it's a story. There is only one thing better than singing... it's singing." When Fitzgerald was sixteen, Chick Webb asked her to   _  .
marry him. hire him. take over his band. perform with band.