Track Listing

1. When You're Smiling (The Whole World Smiles with You)
2. Blue Moon
3. S'posin'
4. It All Depends on You
5. It's Only a Paper Moon
6. My Blue Heaven
7. Should I?
8. September in the Rain
9. Always
10. I Can't Believe That You're in Love with Me
11. I Concentrate on You
12. You Do Something to Me
13. Sentimental Baby
14. Hidden Persuasion
15. Ol' Mac Donald

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #62971 in Music
• Released on: 1998-05-26
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Amazon.com
Released in early 1961, Sinatra's Swingin' Session!!! is one of the last albums the Chairman of the Board made for Capitol before leaving for Reprise. Like most of Sinatra's Capitol recordings, this one shows the singer at the peak of his vocal and interpretive abilities. Nelson Riddle's hard-swinging arrangements of standards like Rodgers and Hart's "Blue Moon," Irving Berlin's "Always," and Cole Porter's "You Do Something to Me" would leave most vocalists in the dust, but Sinatra masters them without ever seeming to break a sweat. The CD reissue includes three outtakes from the original sessions, including a sly version of "Old MacDonald" that places a special emphasis on "chicks" but has nothing at all to do with barnyard animals. --Dan Epstein

Customer Reviews

Tail end of the Capitol era with a lot of swing...
Sinatra's Swingin' Session! is a hard-swinging collection of remakes from Sinatra's Columbia years, recorded in Capitol's peerless studios. While all of the songs are perfectly realised -- 1960 was a very good year (one of many) for Sinatra's voice, and the band is on fire -- this is not the best collection of songs turned out by the Sinatra/Riddle team.

There are plenty of gems -- Cole Porter's 'I Concentrate on You', 'September in the Rain' and a few others are stunning -- but you can tell Sinatra is not immersed in the songs the way he was on the earlier Capitol sets. Listen to the 'Only the Lonely' album and you are enveloped in the devastation and despair. 'A Swingin' Affair!' is a sophisticated swinging set that shows Sinatra having a ball with great Gershwin and Porter tunes, tongue-in-cheek lyrics and the usual superb band under Nelson Riddle's baton. 'Swingin' Session! ' shares the superior production and voice of the earlier albums, with one important caveat. Sinatra is singing with his incomparable phrasing, timing and distinctive pitch, but he is not overly invested in any of these songs. Because his own Reprise label was about to be launched, FS recorded this album as part of an obligation to Capitol and likely assembled this set from remakes of songs that he already knew in order to create an album expediently.

Among the bonus tracks, 'Hidden Persuasion' is especially nicely performed, although Sinatra fans probably already own this on the 'Sinatra Sings of Love & Things' collection of singles released about the same time as this album.

This might be too much analysis for most music fans. The bottom line is that Sinatra and Riddle albums are always MUST BUY albums. In the lofty sphere of Sinatra's discography, 'Swingin' Session! ' is not in the top 5 or 10, but you will enjoy it so ... enough said!

"Though Spring Is Here, To Me It's Still September..."
"Frank Sinatra is the most gifted singer of his generation and, as time has shown, the single greatest interpreter of popular song we ever have had the pleasure of hearing." ~ Pete Welding

When I was about eight years old, a classmate of mine from grade school asked me "What's your favorite song?" And when I replied, "I like all the songs by Frank Sinatra." She said, "Who's Frank Sinatra and what are the songs he sung?" This goes without saying that I was exposed to the music of Mr. Sinatra at an early age. And I have learned to appreciate his music through constantly hearing his LPs from my late father's collection when I was growing up. I have loved his music and him as an artist and interpreter of the Great American Songbook. He was truly a one-of-a-kind Entertainer of the Century. And no other singers can surpass him. He maybe gone and missed but not forgotten.

"Sinatra's Swingin' Session!!! And More" is one of my very favorite CDs from my Sinatra collection. The arrangements by none other than the greatest orchestrator of all-time, Nelson Riddle, are the sprightliest and swingiest from among all the Sinatra and Riddle collaborations.

Listening to "Always," an Irving Berlin composition, brings back nostalgic moments to me. This has been one of my late parents' theme songs (the others are "Love Is Here To Stay," "Embraceable You" and "Let Me Call You Sweetheart"). Harry Warren & Al Dubin's "September In The Rain" is very affecting and one of the most poignant ballads I've ever heard.

"To every word of love I heard you whisper
The raindrops seem to play a a sweet refrain
Though spring is here, to me, it's still September
That September in the rain
That September that brought the pain
That September in the rain."

The rest of the tracks are all fabulous but my highlights are the danceable "My Blue Heaven," "When You're Smiling," "I Can't Believe That You're In Love With Me," "It All Depends On You" and "You Do Something To Me." "Sentimental Baby," a composition by Alan and Marilyn Bergman & Lew Spence is a schmaltzy song but a nice one.

Get this CD and be ready to swing with Mr. Sinatra! You'll absolutely enjoy listening to it as much as I do.

Swing-a-ding ding!
Is Sinatra capable of "not" swinging? Does any musician-- instrumentalist or vocalist--have better time, a more unerring sense of the beat? The first track, "When You're Smiling," is all you have to hear to know this is another one for your growing Sinatra library. Sinatra takes this old chestnut and makes it soar, first creating tensions by lagging behind or anticipating the beat, then giving us the satisfying "pay-off" by locking into the time. As musicians are fond of saying, he's "right in the pocket" when he has to be.

In sum, there's nothing hasty, shoddy, second-rate about this session. It kicks from start to finish. But even though Sinatra undeniably grooves "Ole MacDonald," I've still gotta ask, "WHY, Frank?" The same, I'm afraid, goes for "Sentimental Baby" and that immortal classic, "Hidden Persuasion." In any case, 12 out of 15 ain't bad, and the 3 ill-advised selections are conveniently grouped together as the last tracks on an otherwise most worthy outing by Sinatra and Riddle.