April 2010 Week 3
Sinatra already had one youthful career behind him by the time he made Songs for Swingin’ Lovers! His were no longer the lustrous pipes of the kid crooner from Hoboken–the voice that made bobbysoxers swoon–but from the first notes of the opening track (“You Make Me Feel So Young”) he seems to have discovered a musical fountain of youth that fully justifies the exclamation point in the album title. There’s a buoyant new spring in his step, accented by Nelson Riddle’s lighter-than-air arrangements, that makes the Columbia records of Sinatra’s younger days sound stiff and stodgy in comparison. Even chestnuts like “Old Devil Moon,” “Pennies from Heaven,” “Makin’ Whoopee,” and “Anything Goes” are rejuvenated by his vibrant touch. Put this alongside his previous Capitol album, In the Wee Small Hours, and you have the definitive statements by both sides of Sinatra’s mature musical personality: the lonely “saloon singer” and the swaggering, sophisticated swinger. Sinatra’s carefree confidence achieves its supreme expression in “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” a performance that builds steadily to an ecstatic climax. Cole Porter may have hated his lyrical embellishments, but by the time the singer jauntily breaks the “fourth wall” on “Anything Goes” (“…may I say before this records spins to a close…”), you can’t deny he’s taken the title to heart. –Jim Emerson
Frank Sinatra
Audio CD (September 8, 1998)
Original Release Date: 1956
Number of Discs: 1
Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
Label: Capitol
Buy the CD here
Track Listing
1. You Make Me Feel So Young (1998 Digital Remaster)
2. It Happened In Monterey (1998 Digital Remaster)
3. You’re Getting To Be A Habit With Me (1998 Digital Remaster)
4. You Brought A New Kind Of Love To Me (1998 Digital Remaster)
5. Too Marvelous For Words (1998 Digital Remaster)
6. Old Devil Moon (1998 Digital Remaster)
7. Pennies From Heaven (1998 Digital Remaster)
8. Love Is Here To Stay (1998 Digital Remaster)
9. I’ve Got You Under My Skin (1998 Digital Remaster)
10. I Thought About You (1998 Digital Remaster)
11. We’ll Be Together Again (1998 Digital Remaster)
12. Makin’ Whoopee (1998 Digital Remaster)
13. Swingin’ Down The Lane (1998 Digital Remaster)
14. Anything Goes (1998 Digital Remaster)
15. How About You? (1998 Digital Remaster)
