A Crisis and an Opportunity
The year was 1940, and Duke Ellington was in a bind. As one of America’s most celebrated composers and bandleaders, his livelihood depended on public performance and radio broadcasts. But a bitter dispute between the American Society of Composers, Authors
and Publishers (ASCAP) and radio broadcasters led to a boycott. Starting in 1941, ASCAP members like Ellington were barred from having their own compositions played on the air, effectively silencing his catalog. He needed a whole new book of songs from non-ASCAP writers to keep his orchestra working and in the public ear. Desperate, Ellington turned to his son, Mercer, and a quiet, brilliant young composer and arranger he had recently hired: Billy Strayhorn. Neither were ASCAP members, making them the perfect solution to a career-threatening problem.
The Song from the Subway
Billy Strayhorn was a prodigy from Pittsburgh who had deeply impressed Ellington. After their first meeting, Ellington had invited him to New York and given him directions to his home in Harlem's prestigious Sugar Hill neighborhood. Those directions, which began with the instruction to take a specific new subway line, were the literal inspiration for a new tune. The directions were, “Take the ‘A’ train.” Strayhorn, a great admirer of the orchestrations of another bandleader, Fletcher Henderson, crafted a sophisticated, swinging instrumental based on this simple phrase. He captured the energy and rhythm of the city, creating a piece that was both modern and timeless.
Too Good, and Almost Thrown Away
But Strayhorn had a crisis of confidence. He thought his new composition sounded too much like the work of his idol, Fletcher Henderson. Believing it to be derivative and not up to the Ellington standard, he crumpled up the sheet music and threw it in the trash. This is where the story takes its famous turn. According to Duke's son Mercer Ellington, he was the one who found the discarded composition. When Ellington himself first heard the piece, he reportedly shared Strayhorn's initial assessment, dismissing it as sounding too much like a Henderson arrangement. For a brief moment, the song that would define an era was rejected by both its creator and its intended performer.
An Anthem Is Born
Fortunately, Mercer Ellington and other members of the orchestra championed the tune. They saw its brilliance, and in the frantic search for new, non-ASCAP material, its quality was undeniable. Duke Ellington relented, and the orchestra recorded “Take the ‘A’ Train” for the first time on January 15, 1941. It was an immediate success. The song was chosen to replace Ellington’s old theme, and it quickly became the orchestra's signature tune, played at the start of nearly every performance for the rest of his career. While the headline suggests the song defined another artist, the truth is more complex and beautiful. The song became Ellington's calling card, but it also cemented the legacy of its true creator, Billy Strayhorn, who was often described as Ellington’s “right arm, my left arm, and the eyes in the back of my head.” It was the song that introduced the world to Strayhorn’s genius, making him the most famous “other artist” in the Ellington orbit.
