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 with Fernanda de Castro Monte in the early 1960s. Ellington supported both women for the rest of his life. Ellington's sister Ruth (1915–2004) later ran Tempo Music, his music publishing company. Ruth's second husband was the bass-baritone McHenry Boatwright, whom she met when he sang at her brother's funeral. As an adult, son Mercer Ellington (d. 1996) played trumpet and piano, led his own band, and worked as his father's business manager. Ellington was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha and was a freemason associated with Prince Hall Freemasonry. Ellington died on May 24, 1974, of complications from lung cancer