I'd tried so, not to give in

Continuing my trip back through the 1956 album charts.

07/10/56 : Songs For Swingin' Lovers! - Frank Sinatra

We've skipped over two weeks to get here (with Bill Haley and TKAI having had the #1 spots) and I'm really looking forward to this - I like a bit of swingin' Frank.

Oh yes - this is very much of its time, but because someone big always brings out a swing album every couple of years, it really hasn't really dated.  "You Make Me Feel So Young", "I've Got You Under My Skin" and "Everything Goes" are my favourites off the album but that's probably due to familiarity as much as anything else - all the tracks slide by very smoothly indeed.  He had a great voice, but the arrangements are also very well done here as well - minimal to complement him when required and then really going for it when they get their chance.  This is a fine album in a somewhat oversubscribed canon - I'd say Bublé is the only one who comes close in recent years (and he also has the advantage of being a slightly nicer person than Frank was).

We're at #5 at the end of a two week run, but its first run was the big one with it being nine weeks, of which three were at #1 and five at #2.  All in all, it's spent 35 weeks in the charts with it last being seen in '60 - this week, the rest of the top five were soundtracks from TKAI, Oklahoma! and Carousel with Bill Haley making up the numbers.

Wikipedia tells me that the arrangements were done by Nelson Riddle who worked on this sort of thing from the 40s all the way up until his death in the mid 80s, which is pretty impressive - he also won an Oscar for his score for The Great Gatsby.  It's a very well regarded album even today, with Sinatra aficionados generally regarding this or In The Wee Small Hours as his best (I prefer this one) - it's also historically significant because it was the first #1 album in the UK charts.  Wikipedia also helpfully tells us that "the album's title predated the term "swinging" in the sense of partner-swapping sex by 8 years" so you can get your mind out of the gutter right now!

"Customers also listened to" Count Basie, Tommy Dorsey, Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney - some names from back in the day there!  But Frank outshines them all and this is a very fine album indeed which manages to be of its time but still very fresh.

23/09/56 - A most peculiar beast
28/10/56 - A bit samey, but historically important

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