Sinatra’s Swingin’ Session!!! by Frank Sinatra (Vinyl record album review)

Album name: Sinatra’s Swingin’ Session!!!

Artist name: Frank Sinatra

Year: 1961

Number of discs: one

Label: Capitol Records

Collection: Friedman

Distinguishing characteristics: “Sid Friedman / SCRANTON, PA.” stamped twice on back of album

Buy it on Amazon: $39.96

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve never listened to this Sinatra record before, but it will be the fourth of his that I review. The previous three were:

The Best Of Frank Sinatra (1968): 1/5

Frank Sinatra’s Greatest Hits! (1968): 3/5

Frank Sinatra’s Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 (1972): 2/5

What I expected

Smooth swingin’ jazz vocals for people born before 1940.

What it was actually like

This was the best of the Sinatra collections so far, as the songs on it tended to be more lively, upbeat and engaging in general, though I still don’t care for this kind of music.

I also recognized two of the songs on it, When You’re Smiling and Blue Moon.

That one has actually come up twice before in my reviews, first when reviewing The Muppet Show and then when reviewing The Rodgers and Hart Songbook / Ella’s superb interpretations of Rodgers and Hart’s greatest songs. The latter time I wrote:

I also recognized … Blue Moon, which I mentioned when reviewing The Muppet Show, though I still think the Marcels did it best.

Sinatra’s version was fine, with strong trumpet and saxophone, and I considered it the best song on the record[1].

The most boring song was September in the Rain.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me

References[+]

References

↑1 | There are a zillion cover versions of Blue Moon and I’ve just listened to a couple dozen of them to find the best, which is this one, and it also happens to be the most creative and funniest. And evidently it has some cultural meaning for English soccer fans. Go figure.