“Flamingo” is a jazz standard with music by Ted Grouya and lyrics by Edmund Anderson, a stockbroker and friend of Duke Ellington. In 1940 Grouya gave Herb Jeffries the sheet music before a Philadelphia show with Ellington's orchestra and asked him to pass it to the bandleader. Billy Strayhorn found it, played it, and Ellington asked for a score. Duke Ellington and His Orchestra recorded the song on 28 December 1940 for Victor, with a vocal refrain by Jeffries. It was released in summer 1941 as the B-side of the instrumental “The Girl in My Dreams Tries to Look Like You”, and it briefly reached the Billboard charts, peaking at number 13. The song is a 32-bar ballad in AA'BA form. In Strayhorn's arrangement, trombone and trumpet announce the opening interval motif, and the near-classical harmony makes unexpected resolutions. Ellington listed the recording among his favourite records in Down Beat in 1952, and Jeffries made the song his signature tune. Later versions include Earl Bostic's 1951 King recording, which reached number one on the R&B chart, Carmen McRae's 1958 version, and Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, whose 1966 A&M recording reached number 28 on the pop chart.
