File under "F" for Fun

Tired of listening to "children's music" on long family drives? You know what sappy dreck I mean. This is our official family traveling CD. Courtesy of Messrs. Sinatra and Mandel, you can engage in fun family sing-a-longs while teaching your kids how to be cool. My 5 year old and 18 month old have left Raffi at the last rest stop, and love our new hitchiker, Ol' Blue Eyes. Now, if only I can teach them to make a perfect Rob Roy...

Johnny Mandel Fits Sinatra Like a Glove...

A major reason Sinatra peeled away from Capitol Records in 1961 to form his new Reprise label was to work with a variety of arrangers with innovative styles. "Ring-a-Ding-Ding" was the maiden album he recorded for his new enterprise, and what a debut it was! Johnny Mandel's jazz-infused arrangements proved a perfect foil for Sinatra, who at this point was still at his peak of vocal abilities. As was their custom for a number of Sinatra's albums over these years, Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn composed the title track for their long-time buddy, and it certainly sets the tone for this varied and very swinging program. Old standards such as Irving Berlin's "Be Careful, It's My Heart" and "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm" are revitalized with Mandel's winning charts, while a pair of Cole Porter gems, "In the Still of the Night" and "Easy to Love" find Sinatra and Mandel in full sympathy, producing results that are at once swinging and sophisticated. The light-heartedness continues with the witty "Coffee Song" and intoxicating readings of Harold Arlen's "Let's Fall in Love" and the Kern/Fields classic "A Fine Romance." During the same session, they also recorded an excellent rendition of "Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart," which was cut from the final album release, since it was a thirteenth and "odd man out" track. Thankfully, it survived the intervening years and was included in several of Sinatra's Reprise retrospective collections. It is unfortunate Sinatra collaborated with Mandel for just this single occasion. They display real rapport here, and produced one of Sinatra's best albums of his Reprise era...actually, one of his best...period...

Some Of You Just Don't Get It

I agree with most of the reviews on here but some of these people are way off base. This is one of his finest works and indeed should be on the top ten of anyone's FS collection. One of the bonus tracks on the later release, "Zing Went The Strings" was part of these sessions but Frank asked that it be destroyed. Thanks to some engineer he did not do so and it came back on the later release. Frank's voice and his timing are utterly flawless. I listen to this over and over. While I Remember Tommy was a great album, it does not hold a candle to this one.