Sophisticated Lady

‘Sophisticated Lady’ is a jazz standard, composed as an instrumental in 1932 by Duke Ellington, with additional credit given to publisher Irving Mills, and to which words were added by Mitchell Parish. The words met with approval from Ellington, who described them as "wonderful—but not entirely fitted to my original conception." That original conception was inspired by three of Ellington's grade school teachers. "They taught all winter and toured Europe in the summer. To me that spelled sophistication." Duke Ellington and His Orchestra introduced Sophisticated Lady in 1933 with an instrumental recording of the song that featured solos by Toby Hardwick on alto sax, Barney Bigard on clarinet, Lawrence Brown on trombone and Ellington on piano. The recording entered the charts on 27 May 1933, and stayed there for sixteen weeks, rising to number three.