Today in Music (1956): Frank Sinatra Songs for Swingin’ Lovers released

Songs for Swingin’ Lovers Frank Sinatra

Released: March 5, 1956 Peak: 2 US, 13 UK Sales (in millions): 0.5 US Genre: jazz/traditional pop

Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts. You Make Me Feel So Young It Happened in Monterey You’re Getting to Be a Habit with Me You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me Too Marvelous for Words Old Devil Moon Pennies from Heaven Love Is Here to Stay I’ve Got You Under My Skin I Thought about You We’ll Be Together Again Makin’ Whoopee Swingin’ Down the Lane Anything Goes How About You? * (2/28/42, 8 US) * Version with Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra with Sinatra featured as the vocalist. Total Running Time: 43:59

Rating: 3.998 out of 5.00 (average of 13 ratings) Quotable: Of all Sinatra’s albums, this is the “best-remembered, and the most sheerly enjoyable.” – Richard Cook, The Wire Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: “Sinatra’s albums for Capitol introduced the singer’s album, the concept album and the grown-up album all at once.” RC “On 1953’s Songs for Young Lovers, Sinatra’s first album for Capitol Records, Ol’ Blue Eyes and conductor/arranger Nelson Riddle emphasized the romantic aspects of the songs, as they also did with 1955’s In the Wee Small Hours. However, on Swing Easy! and this album, the focus was squarely on churning out up-tempo dance versions of standards. Incidentally, while the phrase “swingin’ lovers” has taken on a different connotation over the years, “back in 1956, ‘swingin’ lovers’ simply referenced those who were hip enough to dig Sinatra and Riddle’s cool (and danceable) interpretations.” SHS While some say this “is unquestionably his most perfect work,” CL others would argue that “Sinatra made…greater albums in the later No One Cares and Where Are You?.” RC Regardless, Songs for Swingin’ Lovers! is the “best-remembered, and the most sheerly enjoyable.” RC One could argue that Riddle’s arrangements, “which manage to rethink these standards in fresh yet reverent ways,” STE “almost upstage the singer, with the band performing some of the best big band solos in recorded history.” CS However, Sinatra’s “voice has matured into a lustrous tenor-baritone, every word carefully sung, and meaning and resonance was imparted with urbane, wordly wisdom.” RC “Sinatra is supremely confident throughout the album, singing with authority and joy.” STE Previous album Wee Small Hours was “ballad-heavy” STE and reflected on Sinatra’s breakup with actress Ava Gardner. On Swingin’ Lovers!, “Sinatra had his strut back.” TL These songs “aren’t pensive, nor do they get blue.” SHS “These songs sound so effortless…he just plows through all the key songbooks: Porter, Gershwin, Mercer, Kahn, …sure in his ability to record the ultimate version of any given standard.” SHS Of course, “according to Riddle, Sinatra did not just dash off these songs. On the contrary, he was a perfectionist, demanding from his orchestra what he demanded from himself: a hard-driving attitude and tireless work ethic that would spice up a song and make it tight.” SHS “Sinatra did, in once sense, make the ‘best’ versions of these songs. Sure, Billie Holiday’s Love Is Here to Stay can make you feel melancholy, mourning for love lost. But Frankie doesn’t do that. With Riddle’s big string orchestra behind him, and with the ecstatic horn section blaring, he plays the tunes totally on the level. Flouting everything that comes after him, the words mean what they say.” SHS “The Chairman’s greatest performance” CS may be I’ve Got You Under My Skin. “With its breathtaking middle section, [it] is a perfect example of how Sinatra works with the band.” STE The band “gave Sinatra such space and freedom that he was able to make already established songs his own.” CL It “swing[s] hard, stretching out the rhythms and melodies but never losing sight of the original song.” STE “The song is filled with Sinatra’s confident swagger and builds to a climax of sheer musical ecstasy.” CS Sinatra’s versions of “Skin,” Pennies from Heaven, and Makin’ Whopee, “have now become the standard interpretations.” TL “The best moment of pure singing is on Cole Porter’s traditionally zippy Anything Goes, which Sinatra negotiates at a composed, I-ain’t-singin’-this-like-no-fruity-show-tune, trot.” TL “Songs for Swingin’ Lovers! never loses momentum. The great songs keep coming and the performances are all stellar, resulting in one of Sinatra’s true classics.” STE

Resources and Related Links: RC Richard Cook, The Wire. The Most Important Records Ever Made. (June 1992, issue 100). STE Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide CL Colin Larkin. Virgin All-Time Top 1000 Albums (1998). London, England: Virgin Books. SHS Scott Holden Smith (12/28/2008). MustHear.com CS Clarke Speicher, The Review The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time (Oct. – Nov. 2001; volume 128, numbers 12-23). TL Time magazine (11/13/2006). “ All-TIME 100 Albums” by Josh Tyrangiel and Alan Light Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 2/27/2010; last updated 3/14/2024.