Songs for Swingin 'Lovers

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Songs for Swingin 'Lovers
Frank Sinatra's studio album

Publication
(s)

March 5, 1956 (US)

Label (s) Capitol W 653 (LP)

Genre (s)

swing

Title (number)

15th

running time

43:59

occupation
  • Violin - Felix Slatkin ( concertmaster ); Victor Bay, Alex Beller, Harry Bluestone, Samuel Cytron, Harold Dicterow, Walter Edelstein, David Frisina , Robert Gross, Henry Hill, Dan Lube, Alex Murray, Paul Nero, Erno Neufeld, Nathan Ross, Mischa Russell, Paul Shure, Marshall Sosson
  • Viola - Alvin Dinkin, Maxine Johnson, Paul Robyn, David Sterkin, Milton Thomas
  • Cello - Cy Bernard, Ennio Bolognini, Ray Kramer, Edgar Lustgarten, Eleanor Slatkin
  • Harp - Kathryn Julye

production

Voyle Gilmore

Studio (s)

KHJ Radio Studios, 5515 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood

  • October 17, 1955 (track 8)
  • January 9, 1956 (1, 4, 10, [16])
  • January 10, 1956 (3, 7, 15)
  • January 12, 1956 (2, 9, 13)
  • January 16, 1956 (5, 6, 11, 12, 14)

Songs for Swingin 'Lovers is in March 1956 at Capitol published Swing - concept album of Frank Sinatra in collaboration with Nelson Riddle . In terms of song selection, arrangement and interpretation, it is one of the most important recordings in the Great American Songbook .

History of origin

Since the end of April 1953, Frank Sinatra worked on his recordings for Capitol Records with the arranger and orchestra leader Nelson Riddle. Preparations for their fourth album project together (after Songs for Young Lovers 1953, Swing Easy 1954 and In the Wee Small Hours 1955) began in the early summer of 1955. On June 30, 1955, a first trial session took place (Sinatra took a previously unreleased version of I Thought About You , and Riddle tried out his arrangements for Memories of You and We'll Be Together Again - all three songs were later recorded by Sinatra for the new album).

By the late autumn of 1955, the song selection had been made, consisting of 15 songs from the years 1923–1947, with a clear focus on pieces from the 1930s, most of which came from Broadway musicals or music films. The recording sessions for the album took place on four evenings between January 9 and 16, 1956 in Hollywood, on which Sinatra recorded a total of 15 pieces. Some of the final arrangements were made by Riddle at very short notice, in collaboration with his copyist Vern Yocum . 14 of the 15 recorded songs found space on the album, another, Memories of You was initially unpublished and was replaced on the album by Love Is Here to Stay , which Sinatra and Riddle had already recorded in October 1955.

Chart successes, editions and awards

Released in early March 1956, the album climbed into the Billboard charts by the end of that month and reached number 2 for several weeks. Overall, the album stayed on the Billboard charts for more than 14 months (66 weeks). The album also reached top positions in the British charts and other European countries. Some later re-releases were also noted in the charts again.

The first edition, which came out as an LP and 4 EP set at the same time , sold around 500,000 times. In addition to the USA and various European countries, the album has since been reissued on LP and CD in Australia , Brazil , Japan and South Africa, with their own pressings, sometimes with different cover designs. Various excerpts from the album were also released in a number of countries of the former Eastern Bloc from the 1960s .

When the album was released, the Grammy did not yet exist - in 2000, Songs for Swingin 'Lovers as a whole received the Grammy Hall of Fame award, after the same honor had been given to I 've Got You Under My Skin .

In 2003 the music magazine Rolling Stone Songs for Swingin 'Lovers ranked 308 among the 500 best albums of all time .

Musical meaning

In the swing area, Songs for Swingin 'Lovers is the first and best example of the "heartbeat rhythm" developed jointly by Sinatra and Riddle, a steady, sustained swinging rhythm that is mostly kept at a moderate tempo compared to other recordings in the genre , which Riddle said is most likely to touch people because it "corresponds to the natural rhythm of their pulse when walking". Since then, this approach has been taken up and copied by a wide variety of artists. In addition, many of the arrangements on the album set the style for the songs themselves, above all Cole Porter's I've Got You Under My Skin , for whose trombone solo Riddle, played by Milt Bernhart , borrowed from compositions by Stan Kenton .

Numerous prominent jazz musicians such as Juan Tizol and Ted Nash took part in the recordings , who for the first time - and then with a similar line-up for many more years - formed the backbone of Sinatra-Riddle's studio orchestra. Many of them had previously worked for other prominent orchestras, notably Stan Kenton, and show corresponding influences in their playing. The album is therefore also a successful synthesis of instrumental improvisation and Sinatra's typical small variations of the lyrics.

The music magazine Jazzwise added the album to The 100 Jazz Albums That Shook the World list ; Keith Shadwick wrote:

“ [...] he influenced pretty much every jazz singer and musician, especially between the 1940s and today, including people like Lester Young , Miles Davis and John Coltrane , who all listened very carefully to Sinatra's ballad singing. This classic session in the mid-50s perfectly stages Frankie's jazz covers and throws the gauntlet to everyone. "

Track list

page 1

Page 2

Not on the original album

Remarks

  1. ↑ Songs For Swingin 'Lovers in Rolling Stone's list of the 500 best albums of all time (2003)
  2. ↑ In original: " [...] he influenced just about every jazz singer and musician worthy of the name between the 1940s and today, including such people as Lester Young , Miles Davis and John Coltrane , all of whom had listened very closely indeed to Sinatra's balladry. This classic mid-50s session puts Frankie's jazz credentials perfectly in order and throws down the gauntlet for everyone else ”.
  3. ^ The 100 Jazz Albums That Shook The World

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