7. Frank Sinatra - Songs for Swingin' Lovers (1956)

 

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One of the most frustrating aspects of getting older is realising that most pop music is aimed squarely at young people. You can only listen to a twenty-something go on about the anguish of young love so many times before you give up, pop a Werther's Original and put on a Steely Dan album. So one of the nice things about doing this project is being introduced to genuinely adult pop music. While the 50s saw the Youth rise to prominence, it was also a golden age for genuinely mature, intelligent pop songs that managed to be fun without being juvenile. I would never, ever want to have to live through the 1950s, but it did produce a lot of great music.  

Songs for Swingin' Lovers is much more in line with what you'd expect from Frank Sinatra. It's a collection of big, brassy pop standards, all performed with great verve and beautifully arranged by Nelson Riddle. This is exactly the sort of album you'd put on at a swanky cocktail party. It's fun, many of the songs are danceable, but at the same time you can let it exist as background music. True, there's not much depth to it  - this is in many ways just a collection of silly love songs. But while it lacks lyrical depth it's nearly flawless musically. Sinatra's voice is gorgeous, and he interprets the songs with a sort of world-weary knowingness that still has plenty of humour behind it. Nelson Riddle's arrangements, on the other hand, are just astonishing. I'm not sure if I'm right about this, but it seems like he basically invented the sound that we associate with classy 50s Swing. On some tracks, he takes a back seat and lets the vocals take the lead, but then you have something like "I've Got You Under My Skin", which starts as a minimal, jazzy groove only to build into a wonderful cacophony of strings and horns. Sinatra's name's on the album sleeve, but quite often the show belongs to Riddle.

Anyway, there's not much more to say about this. If you're fond of the Great American Songbook, or if you want a classy & intelligent pop album, this is indispensable. As someone who for many years despised Sinatra, knowing him only as the drink-toting Rat Packer who belted out the execrable "My Way", being exposed to his earlier work has been a real pleasure.

Best Songs: "You Make Me Feel So Young"; "Makin' Whoopee"; "I've Got You Under My Skin"