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Songs for Swingin' Lovers! | 
 enlarge | Artist: Frank Sinatra
Label: Capitol
Category: Music
List Price: $17.98
Buy New: $10.97
You Save: $7.01 (39%)
New (33) Used (13) Collectible (2) from $4.49
Rating:  85 reviews
Sales Rank: 2666
Format: Original Recording Reissued, Original Recording Remastered
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 96226
UPC: 724349622623
EAN: 0724349622623
ASIN: B00000AEVA
Release Date: September 8, 1998
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
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| Tracks:
| • | 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? |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com essential recording
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
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| Customer Reviews: Read 80 more reviews...
First Rate ALL THE WAY July 9, 2008
Yep I love Frank, just about anything he has ever done sits well with me BUT, this CD here, well it ranks right at the top. Nelson Riddle and Frank were perfect together. The cooking chemistry between these two was nothing short of brilliant and it all fit perfect in this collection of songs. The two cranked out many albums together in the mid and late 50s, all wonderful in their own way (Moonlight Sinatra is my favorite mid 60's), but this one has to be the at the top. Franks chops were in their prime, the selection of songs and Riddles orchestrations, perfect fit.
With a Riddle/Sinatra song you know right off before the singing starts if Riddle arranged the song. Just the introduction speaks volumes. Don't get me wrong, Billy May can also cook but there is just something special about the Nelson/Frank cuts. Sheer perfection..........
Sinatra Swings May 24, 2008
This is one of the very best Sinatra albums, possessing a fine mix of well and not so well-known songs. The rapport between the singer and Nelson Riddle's orchestra is spot-on, ranging from the delicate to the full, and handled with the precision of a piano accompanist. Sinatra has never been in better voice, and his musicality, phrasing, control of tone, and that occasional trademark "smart-mouth" style is used intelligently and not overdone (for instance he changes the lyric in "How About You" from the written "Frank Sinatra's looks" to "James Durante's looks"). For anyone who may be discovering Sinatra for the first time, this makes a fine introduction. For the old fans like myself, it's a joy to be reminded of how good he was (and is, thanks to CDs).
 The Riddle arrangements are not as great as the vocal performance April 16, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
My Dad was a Sinatra fan. We twice thoroughly enjoyed watching a tape I made of a PBS Great Performances broadcast of Sinatra's best television appearances (sadly unavailable on DVD). My own appreciation of Sinatra has grown over the years. When our library purchased this CD, I was eager to audition it.
I agree that Sinatra was at a peak vocally when he recorded this album. Some of his live performances are more loose, but in later years his voice was not up to par. It's a matter of taste. I am perfectly happy with the subtle yet expressive variations that Sinatra uses to perform these songs, many of them classics.
I was less happy with the Nelson Riddle arrangements. They seem excessively busy. They call attention to themselves when they ought to lay back and let the focus be on the soloist, i.e. Sinatra.
Riddle infuses his charts with little ornamentations, flourishes that strike me as a bit hokey, even clownish at times -- invention and variety for its own sake, rather than supporting and deepening the underlying rhythm, chord structure, and melody of the composition. My description here perhaps makes them sound a little more annoying than they actually are. Certainly some songs on this album evidence these flaws more than others. I am far from having encyclopedic knowledge of the big arrangers of the era gone by, but I've heard many by Claus Ogerman, and as a point of contrast, I think he was more serious and at the same time laid back in his charts. Here again, it is a matter of taste. I thought the orchestra called too much of the wrong kind of attention to itself too often on Songs for Swingin' Lovers.
In the final analysis, with great songs and Sinatra himself in great form, I still have to dock one star off a perfect five for the arrangements, which distract me from time to time with their obtrusive, pointless, sometimes silly little flourishes.
On the topic of sound quality, although I have not heard the original CD release, the remastered version truly does sound sub-par. Sinatra's upper registers, brass, strings, all seem to suffer from some subtle distortion that smudges detail and creates a sort of odd, artificial electronic haze. Really, hearing-impaired people should not be involved in mastering classic albums. Whoever did the job on Songs for Swingin' Lovers should probably be doing something more suited to his talents, like driving a cab. Although it is hard to put your finger on it exactly, there is something most definitely "wrong" with the sound. I'm fairly familiar with what recordings from the mid-50s sound like, and I can't believe the original master tape of this Sinatra record ever sounded as bad as this. I may buy this album -- its reputation as a classic is deserved (with my reservation about the arranging) -- but if I do, I will seek out the early release, not the later remastered CD.
"For Parting Is Not Goodbye . . . We'll Be Together Again" April 1, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
"Listening to the marvelously sympathetic, effortlessly swinging orchestrations Riddle provided the singer on these selections, it's easy to understand why the album is rightly considered one of their landmark achievements - as satisfying today as when recorded 30 years ago, and just as fresh-sounding - and why Sinatra described Riddle as "the greatest arranger in the world." ~ Pete Welding ~
I concur with Frank Sinatra when he described Nelson Riddle as "the greatest arranger in the world." I would say that these two musical icons belonged to MAS (Mutual Admiration Society) -- both had nothing but deep admiration for each other's creativity in their respective art, and they brought the very best in each other. "Songs for Swingin' Lovers!" is a true representation of one of the many superb albums they recorded together.
Don't miss out on his ear-catching interpretations of fifteen gleaming standards enhanced by Riddle's sublime chart arrangements, to name a few, "You Brought A New Kind of Love To Me," "Too Marvelous for Words," "Pennies From Heaven" and "Love Is Here To Stay." Don't look any further, the best versions are here for your pure listening delight. And for something special, please listen closely and focus your ears to the Chairman's heartfelt reading of Frankie Laine and Carl Fischer's gem of a song, "We'll Be Together Again."
"Someday, some way
We both have a lifetime before us
For parting is not goodbye
We'll be together again."
When it comes to Frank Sinatra, one can go and on using all the superlatives to write about his recordings, his music and his one-of-a-kind artistry, but mine will remain candid yet nifty ... suffice it to say that this is one of the finest recordings of all-time. I enjoyed listening to it and I'll endlessly spread the word that this gem of an album is worthy to every Sinatra collector.
With my heartfelt recommendation.
Just listen! February 15, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
What does one say about Frank Sinatra? He's probably one of the most written about human beings in history. So how does one add anything meaningful to what has been written about him. I think by being truthful. I grew up listening to AC/DC, Aerosmith, and many other 80's rock acts. To this day I still enjoy them ocasionally. At the time, if I thought about him, Sinatra seemed like some kind of joke. Some old guy with bad hair and a bad act. But those thoughts spoke more about who I was than about Sinatra.
Forget all you think you know about Frank Sinatra. Just listen to the music, because honestly there is nothing like it. And thats why so much has been written about him. Because no matter what kind of life he led, he was just a brillant musician. The music is everything one hopes for in music. This album, considered his finest by many, is just pure joy to listen to. Many talk about the emotion Sinatra conveys in his singing, but it's the emotions that he brings out in the listener that I think truly made him special. Fifty years after he sang these songs, you can truly relate and still understand the emotions he conveys in each song. And I think fifty years from now, these songs will still convey the same emotion to listeners in 2058, as they do today.
Is this Sinatra's best album? Is this the one you should buy? I don't know. I don't think there is an answer to those questions. What I do know is it is one of the finest, of many, albums, by THE finest singer that I have ever listened to. You can't go wrong by owning this album. You'll miss out on something VERY special if you don't listen to it.
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