Help me compile a Jazz standards set and recording list. (Game?)

[wenis]

This is something I've been wanting to do for a long time now. I've never gotten into the Fake Book thing, because I never had the collection together to really learn the Jazz tunes and the melody before it was improvised upon hundreds of times.

So, help me compile a list of 10-20 Jazz standards, by either the original artist or most important version. This way I can really learn the original tune and then understand some of the later "takes" Jazzers have put on them over time.

*One note if the original is too hokey, suggest a recording that represents the standard in the form old school Jazz musicians would have learned.

I'll start the list, but put a question next to the recording in case a better recording is suggested.

1. I Got Rhythm - George Gershwin?

[MondoGuitar]

All the songs from the Real Book are on Youtube nowadays too...

Here's an interesting list someone did a nice job on:
http://cafesaxophone.com/jazz-repertoire.html

Not all standards have a set-in-stone original version, some are mainly known by the most popular version of the time.

[nosuch]

How about Round about Midnight (for guitar players: checkout the version done by Grant Green for Blue Note). Not too much notes, so that maybe easier to understand for someone just diggin into jazz. Chitlins Con Carne by Kenny Burrell is another easy to play yet effective song and it uses standard blues changes.

[Noodler]

Great link, Mondo Guitar. Favourited.

wenis, if you are saying you just want to hear the basic melodies, I'd highly recommend an album called:

The Guitar Collection-Jazz
by Salsa Rosso

I bought the album off iTunes and it got me into jazz. May be a little "hokey" or generic but worth a listen. All instrumental, smooth jazz. Great album to play while having dinner. Original isn't always better. Some later versions just sound better, and I'd rather listen to those. If I really like a standard, I'll buy five different versions of it! eg Beginning to See the Light, Favourite Things, I Got Rhythm, Slow Boat To China, Makin Whoopie, Aint MIsbehavin, Don't Get Around Much Anymore, There'll Never Be Another You....but those are songs that I personally really dig. You might like different ones. There's probably at a guess, about 300 standards.

FWIW, I Got Rhythm is a basis for many of them, so good first pick. Just looked. Five versions of that one too! Favourite is Judy Garland.

If you're a jazzer, you're eventually going to want a Fake Book/ Real Book, so after you've listened to enough jazz, just buy one that has the most tracks you want. I made sure I bought one with big notation, because I knew I would not struggle to look at tiny charts, even though mine has less songs.

[jazztele]

the sher real books often list a source for the arrangement.

why not come up with a list of tunes you like first and we can steer you to hear some different versions? everyone's list of 20 would be pretty different, i think.

when i learn a tune, sometimes i like to listen to as many versions as i can and steal things from each, sometimes i like to take one particular version and transcribe it, sometimes i like to go in cold with just my ears and a lead sheet and do my own thing...