Traditional Pop/Vocal Jazz: Top 25 Albums

Traditional Pop/Vocal Jazz: The Top 25 Albums

While traditional pop and vocal jazz aren’t quite the same thing, they share a lot of commonalities. Traditional pop is considered a genre of music that generally pre-dates rock and roll in the 1950s and generally consists of artists performing standards from the American songbook. Crooners such as Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and Perry Como are popular singers of the genre. Musically, the singers were frequently backed by swing bands. Vocal jazz is a sub-genre of jazz in which a singer’s voice is used as an instrument, which includes techniques such as vocal improvisations and scatting in which the singer imitates the instruments. It emerged out of the New Orleans jazz tradition which was built on the field hollers and work songs of African-American slaves. Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, and Sarah Vaughan are some of the genre’s most notable performers. Like traditional pop, it often leans on standards. 18 sources focused on the best traditional pop, vocal jazz, and standards albums were aggregtated to create this exclusive Dave’s Music Database list. Check out other best-of-genre/category lists here. 1. Norah Jones Come Away with Me (2002) 2. Frank Sinatra Songs for Swingin’ Lovers! (1956) 3. Frank Sinatra In the Wee Small Hours (1955) 4. Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook (1956) 5. Natalie Cole Unforgettable…With Love (1991) 6. Billie Holiday Lady in Satin (1958) 7. Judy Garland Judy at Carnegie Hall (live, 1961) 8. Ray Charles The Genius of Ray Charles (1959) 9. Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely (1958) 10. Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy (1954) 11. Frank Sinatra Come Dance with Me (1959) 12. Frank Sinatra Come Fly with Me (1957) 13. Frank Sinatra September of My Years (1965) 14. Frank Sinatra A Swingin’ Affair (1957) 15. Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong Ella & Louis (1957) 16. John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman (1963) 17. Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Songbook (box set: recorded 1959) 18. Chet Baker Chet Baker Sings (1954) 19. Frank Sinatra and Antonio Carlos Jobim Francis Albert Sinatra and Antonio Carlos Jobim (1967) 20. Frank Sinatra Songs for Young Lovers (1953) 21. Billie Holiday Lady Sings the Blues (1956) 22. Nina Simone Pastel Blues (1965) 23. Nina Simone Wild Is the Wind (1966) 24. Billie Holiday Songs for Distingué Lovers (1957) 25. Sarah Vaughan & Clifford Brown Sarah Vaughan with Clifford Brown (1955) Resources and Related Links: Dave’s Music Database: other best-of-genre lists Dave’s Music Database: “Top 100 Songs of the American Songbook” First posted 9/15/2024; last updated 2/28/2026.

Dave's Music Database Hall of Fame: Album Inductees (Feb. 2025)

The Top Traditional Pop/Jazz Albums Originally posted 2/22/2025. January 22, 2019 marked the 10-year anniversary of the DMDB blog. To honor that, Dave’s Music Database announced its own Hall of Fame. This month marks the 25th group of album inductees. These are the top 10 traditional pop/vocal jazz albums of all time (see the DMDB’s top 25 list here). Three were inducted in previous classes – Frank Sinatra’s Songs for Swingin’ Lovers, Judy Garland’s Judy at Carnegie Hall, and Norah Jones’ Come Away with Me. See the full list of album inductees here.

Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy (1954) Inducted February 2025 as “Top Traditional Pop/Jazz Albums.”

AllMusic.com: “This recording was not only Louis Armstrong's finest record of the 1950s but one of the truly classic jazz sets.” He covers 11 songs written by W.C. Handy, including the notable “St. Louis Blues.” This is “essential music for all serious jazz collections.” Read more at Wikipedia.

Ray Charles The Genius of Ray Charles (1959) Inducted February 2025 as “Top Traditional Pop/Jazz Albums.”

Ray Charles was one of the most influential singers of all time with “a revolutionary fusion of blues, jazz, R&B, and gospel.” RD The Genius of Ray Charles showed an artist “still in his twenties and signaled both his eagerness and ability to transcend genres at will.” RD It “comes on strong with a ravishing set of six big-band-flavored jazz numbers.” RD On the second side, “Charles turned in a more seductive direction and arrived at a roster of ballads backed by massive, swooning string sections.” RD Read more.

Natalie Cole Unforgettable…With Love (1991) Inducted February 2025 as “Top Traditional Pop/Jazz Albums.”

Natalie Cole was born into music royalty as the daughter of Nat “King” Cole, a jazz crooner who charted more than 100 times in the 1940s, ‘50s, and ‘60s. She became a star in her own right, winning the Grammy for Best New Artist in 1976 and charting sixteen top-10 R&B hits in the ‘70s and ‘80s. However, she found her greatest success in 1991 when she recorded an album of songs her father had made famous. It won her the Grammy for Album of the Year and sold seven million copies in the U.S. Read more.

Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook (1956) Inducted February 2025 as “Top Traditional Pop/Jazz Albums.”

“Ella Fitzgerald was already the preeminent voice in the jazz world when she began what became her signature project in 1956; a series of recordings devoted to works by each of the great stage and screen composers of postwar America.” TM They “are all wonderful, but her natural wit and intelligence was at its most perfect” AZ on Sings the Cole Porter Songbook, the first collection. She “shines as the perfect interpreter of Cole Porter’s bittersweet love songs.” AM It “is a dream pairing of singer and song,” TM “arguably history’s finest jazz singer singing some of the best-written American pop standards.” AM Read more.

Billie Holiday Lady in Satin (1958) Inducted February 2025 as “Top Traditional Pop/Jazz Albums.”

“Lady Day was in big trouble by 1958.” BL “Although not yet 43, she could have passed for 73.” AM “Her raspy singing reflected a lifetime riddled with abusive relationships, drug addiction and time spent in prison.” PM “The sweet tones of Holiday’s upper register were practically non-existent, but her voice remained an immovable force.” PM Lady in Satin is “as heartbreaking and necessary as it is gorgeous,” PM a “startling masterpiece rooted in tough times.” BL Without it, “there would simply have been no divas like Nina Simone or Janis Joplin crying their hearts out so uncompromisingly in the decades to come.” RD Read more.

Frank Sinatra In the Wee Small Hours (1955) Inducted February 2025 as “Top Traditional Pop/Jazz Albums.”

Sinatra’s “break-up with Ava Gardner provided the perfect catalyst” TL for what has been hailed as “the all-time greatest break-up album.” RD “The wisecracking, finger-snapping Sinatra of popular legend is absent;” RD this is an “authoritative take on masculine loneliness.” TL It is also “one of the finest jazz albums of all time.” CAD and “considered by many to be the first concept album.” CAD Read more.

Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely (1958) Inducted February 2025 as “Top Traditional Pop/Jazz Albums.”

“The sad songs come one after another on this album, Sinatra’s definitive ballad collection.” TM “Only the Lonely follows the same formula as his previous down albums, but the tone is considerably bleaker and more desperate.” AM The “world’s greatest saloon singer is in his element” TM playing the part of “a wounded Everyman…who lurk[s] in the lounge nursing their disappointment, bending the ear of the barkeep, seeking consolation in the woozy hues of jazz and cocktails.” TM “It’s a heartbreaking record, the ideal late-night album.” AM Read more.