Take the "A" Train recorded an intentionally inept interpretation of the song under the pseudonym Darlene Edwards. In 1999, National Public Radio included this song in the "NPR 100", in which NPR's music editors sought to compile the one hundred most important American musical works of the 20th century. Take the "A" Train "Take the 'A' Train" is a jazz standard by Billy Strayhorn that was the signature tune of the Duke Ellington orchestra. The use of the Strayhorn composition as the signature tune was made necessary by a ruling in 1940 by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). When ASCAP
Duke Ellington suites for John Steinbeck's novel "Sweet Thursday", Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker Suite" and Edvard Grieg's "Peer Gynt". In the early 1960s, Ellington embraced recording with artists who had been friendly rivals in the past, or were younger musicians who focused on later styles. The Ellington and Count Basie orchestras recorded together with the album "First Time! The Count Meets the Duke" (1961). During a period when Ellington was between recording contracts, he made records with Louis Armstrong (Roulette), Coleman Hawkins, John Coltrane (both for Impulse) and participated in a session with Charles Mingus and Max Roach which produced the "Money Jungle" (United