In 1941 Duke Ellington and His Orchestra introduced “Take the ‘A’ Train,” a composition that was later to become their signature tune. Their February 15 recording entered the pop charts in July and remained there for seven weeks, rising to number eleven. Ellington’s orchestra would see the same recording become a hit two years later, charting at number nineteen for one week.

Coincident with Billy Strayhorn writing “Take the ‘A’ Train,” Duke Ellington was playing at the Casa Mañana in Los Angeles and broadcasting nightly. Due to an ASCAP strike Ellington could not air his compositions, so he enrolled the help of Strayhorn and Mercer Ellington, his son, neither of whom belonged to ASCAP. Ellington’s dilemma turned out to be a great opportunity for both Strayhorn and young Ellington. Neither musician squandered his fortunate circumstance. Strayhorn wrote such songs as “Take the ‘A’ Train,” “Johnny Come Lately,” “Chelsea Bridge,” “Day Dream,” and “After All.” Mercer wrote, among others, “Things Ain’t What They Used to Be,” “Blue Serge,” and “Moon Mist.”

“Take the ‘A’ Train,” however, was almost relegated to the wastebasket. In Stuart Nicholson’s Reminiscing in Tempo–A Portrait of Duke Ellington, Mercer Ellington describes how he retrieved “Take the ‘A’ Train” from the garbage. Strayhorn had thrown it there claiming it was an old thing and too much like Fletcher Henderson.

In The World of Duke Ellington by Stanley Dance, Strayhorn claims the title is about choosing the ‘A’ train over the ‘D’ train. He said he kept hearing about Harlem bound housewives who took the ‘D’ train and ended up in the Bronx, as it only went as far as 145^th Street before turning off. If you want to go to Sugar Hill, you need to take the ‘A’ train! Another account has the title “Take the ‘A’ Train” evolving out of directions Ellington gave Strayhorn on how to get to Ellington’s Harlem apartment by subway.

On February 15, 1941, Duke Ellington and His Orchestra went into the RCA-Victor recording studios in Hollywood to record some of the Mercer Ellington and Billy Strayhorn compositions. Besides Strayhorn’s “Take The ‘A’ Train and “After All” there was Mercer’s “Jumpin’ Punkins,” “John Hardy’s Wife,” and “Blue Serge.” The personnel included Rex Stewart (cornet), Wallace Jones, Ray Nance (trumpet), Lawrence Brown and Joe Nanton (trombone), Juan Tizol (valve trombone), Barney Bigard (clarinet), Johnny Hodges (soprano sax, alto sax, clarinet), Otto Hardwick (alto sax, bass sax), Ben Webster (tenor sax), Harry Carney (clarinet, alto sax, baritone sax), Duke Ellington (piano), Fred Guy (guitar), Jimmie Blanton (bass), Sonny Greer (drums), and Billy Strayhorn (piano, replacing Ellington on “After All.”)

That 1941 recording of “Take the ‘A’ Train” may be considered definitive. Duke Ellington plays solo piano for the four bar introduction and then the A-A-B-A form is repeated three times. The first time the saxophones lead with support from the trumpets and trombones, then Ray Nance (on muted trumpet) leads, and after a four-bar transition and corresponding change of key, the saxophones and Nance (on open trumpet) take turns improvising on the theme, finally closing with fading repetitions of the last eight bars. A clever point-and-click, step-by-step analysis of the song may be found at web.grinnell.edu/.../A_Train_1.4.swf. The original Feb 15, 1941, Victor 27380 recording can be heard on the 3-CD set, Duke Ellington, Blanton-Webster Band, released in 1990 on RCA 5659.

Ray Nance’s trumpet solo would become the best known of his career. In his article, “Braggin’ in Brass,” composer, conductor, and Julliard Professor David Berger comments,

Nance’s solo on ‘Take The ‘A’ Train’ was so integral to the composition that he repeated it nightly verbatim. When he left in 1965, Cootie Williams continued playing [Nance's] solo.