If you can use some exotic booze, there's a bar in far Bombay

Continuing my trip back through the 1958 album charts.

14/12/58 : Come Fly With Me - Frank Sinatra


If it's not Elvis, it must be Frank, mustn't it? This is our twelfth visit with the man, moving him clear in second spot on the most visited list but I have higher hopes for this than most because I love the title track.

Unsurprisingly, the title track is also the opening track and it really is a slice of swing perfection - the vocal and instrumentation is just so smooth. The rest of the album does somewhat suffer in comparison, but it's really not bad at all - Frank's voice was really top notch around this time and the arrangements are all a cut above some of the lazy stuff we've heard on some of his other offerings. It also, for me, benefits from not being just swing or ballads - there's a bit more variety on here than on some of his other offerings.

We're already at an ominously low #6 in the charts this week on his fifteenth week of a 26 week run, with it having peaked at #2 in its fourth, sixth and ninth weeks. The top five this week were South Pacific, My Fair Lady, Elvis, The King And I and yet more Elvis and there are once again no new entries, although we do have a couple of re-entries for Russ Conway (#9) and Oklahoma! (#10).

Wikipedia tells us this is his fourteenth album and his first arranged by Billy May, they also worked together on Come Dance With Me! and Come Swing With Me! Bizarrely, it was recorded in stereo but only available in mono until '61 - apparently that was what they used to do back then. Interestingly, the entry also includes some controversy - this is hip-hop level beef for the 50s, I reckon. "On The Road To Mandalay" is based around a Rudyard Kipling and Elsie Bambridge (his daughter) hated Frank's version so much she exercised her power as the estate's executor to get it banned in the UK until she died in '76 - which is top level grudge holding! Critically, it's viewed as essential Sinatra and commercially did well, particularly in the US where it spent five weeks at #1.

"Customers also listened to" Frank singing with Tony Bennett, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr and various other Rat Pack characters. This is certainly one of his better offerings though - I very much enjoyed it.

07/12/58 - Dated, but surprisingly enjoyable
21/12/58 - nothing of particular note

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