Duke Ellington and His Orchestra introduced “Sophisticated Lady” with a 1933 recording that featured solos by Toby Hardwick (alto sax), Barney Bigard (clarinet), Lawrence Brown (trombone), and Ellington (piano). The recording entered the pop charts on May 27 and stayed there for 16 weeks, rising to number three. The flip side of the record, “Stormy Weather,” enjoyed nearly the same fortune, rising to number four. Ted Koehler and Harold Arlen’s “Stormy Weather” had been introduced by Leo Reisman and His Orchestra (Harold Arlen, vocal) earlier that year, and Duke Ellington’s cover was just one of many that year.

Other recordings of “Sophisticated Lady” to make the recording charts include:

• Glen Gray and His Orchestra (1933, Glen Gray, #4)
• Don Redman and His Orchestra (1933, #19)
• Billy Eckstine (1948, #23)

As with many Ellington songs, “Sophisticated Lady” started out as an instrumental and was subsequently fitted with lyrics by Irving Mills and Mitchell Parish, a staff writer for Mills Publishing at the time.

The origin of the melody for “Sophisticated Lady” is often a point of contention. Lawrence Brown takes credit for creating the first eight bars and gives recognition to Toby Hardwick for the release. Other accounts give the majority of the credit to Hardwick. In his Ellington biography, Reminiscing in Tempo: A Portrait of Duke Ellington, Stuart Nicholson reports, “The composer credits originally showed Ellington, Hardwick, Brown, and Mills.” When the song was published, however, Hardwick and Brown were given no credit, and as a result, no royalties.

This was not unusual. Musicians were often paid a flat fee for compositions when the future potential was unknown. And most of these works never became hits. But “Sophisticated Lady” proved to be one of Ellington’s most popular and lucrative compositions.

In Beyond Category: The Life and Genius of Duke Ellington, author John Edward Hasse comments that in 1961 Ellington earned about $79,000 in royalties, much of that from recordings of Ellington standards by himself and other artists, especially “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore,” “Sophisticated Lady,” “Satin Doll,” and “C-Jam Blues.” Adjusted for inflation, that would translate to over $400,000 in 2004.

According to William Zinsser in his book, Easy to Remember: The Great American Songwriters and Their Songs, the song “Laura” was born out of a disagreement between composer David Raksin and director Otto Preminger. Preminger wanted to use “Sophisticated Lady” as a theme in the film Laura, but Raksin felt it was wrong for the movie and wrote “Laura” in a weekend as a replacement.

The 1976 Natalie Cole’s hit, “Sophisticated Lady (She’s A Different Lady),” is unrelated.