Oh no, Frank Sinatra has another album in the 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die list that I am working my way through. Wasn’t one depressing album enough? Songs For Swingin’ Lovers! has a title à double sens. I will let you figure that one out. It is definitely different than I expected, but in a great way.
The first song on this album is one I have heard in pieces many times somewhere, but I am not sure where. It might be a commercial where I heard “You Make Me Feel So Young” but I had no idea it was Sinatra who was crooning on this tune. Unfortunately I have heard it too many times so I did not care for it.
The rest of the album is so happy in love that I expect Buddy the Elf to burst in my flat at any moment and shout out, “I’m in love, i’m in love and i don’t care who knows it.” I wonder if Sinatra is a great actor or if he had found a new love when he recorded this album. Either way, Nelson Riddle deserves the praise for his arrangement of this journey through love.
The other misstep for me is the popular tune “Makin’ Whoopee” which has been remade by Doris Day to Cyndi Lauper to Michelle Pfeiffer in The Fabulous Baker Boys. I just think the euphemism making whoopee degrades the act of love making between two people in love, so I feel it does not belong on this album.
“Memories of You” was left off of the final album, which would have been a better choice than the Makin’ Whoopee” but they felt it was not swing enough. It was re-recorded later, but eventually the original version was released. Check it out.
Dare I say it. I think Sinatra is growing on me. I would recommend buying this album and skipping two songs unless you like those two songs. It makes me wish I could love, but I cannot or will not allow it to happen for me.
an ocean roars 