Monday, December 14, 2009

1036 - Mojo 16. Frank Sinatra - Come Fly With Me (1958)




















Track Listing


1. Come Fly With Me
2. Around The World
3. Isle Of Capri
4. Moonlight In Vermont
5. Autumn In New York
6. On The Road To Mandalay
7. Let's Get Away From It All
8. April In Paris
9. London By Night
10. Brazil
11. Blue Hawaii
12. It's Nice To Go Travellin'


Review

And now for much lighter music. This is a Frank Sinatra concept album of songs thematically linked by theme but also with a more linear plot. It starts with Come Fly With Me daring the listener and after 10 different travels ends with a track talking about how nice it is to come home after travelling.

There is much singing about lush exotic places and stuff people with loads of money would do in the 50s. The whole thing is a lot of fun, there is not, however a lot of depth to it. Some of the lyrics are slightly too silly but this is nicely complemented by very good arrangements which do not necessarily bring anything new but which work extremely well.

This is not what I like most about Sinatra, unlike what might be thought from his public persona I find him substantially better at doing depressing than dandy. Still it is a very fun album which doesn't mean to do anything else than it does, and it does do it very well.

Track Highlights

1. Come Fly With Me
2. On The Road to Mandalay
3. Brazil
4. Moonlight in Vermont

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

In his autobiography All You Need is Ears, famed producer George Martin writes of having visited the Capitol Tower during the recording sessions for the album. According to Martin's book, Sinatra expressed intense dislike for the album cover upon being first shown a mock-up, suggesting it looked like an advertisement for TWA.

Frankie sings Come Fly With Me in 1980:

No comments: