It Might as Well Be Swing is a 1964 studio album by Frank Sinatra, accompanied by Count Basie and his orchestra. It was Sinatra's first studio recording arranged by Quincy Jones.
| It Might as Well Be Swing | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | August 1964 (LP) October 1986 (CD) | |||
| Recorded | June 9–12, 1964, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California | |||
| Genre | Vocal jazz, traditional pop | |||
| Length | 27:22 | |||
| Label | Reprise FS 1012 | |||
| Producer | Sonny Burke | |||
| Frank Sinatra chronology | ||||
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| Count Basie chronology | ||||
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| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |    [1] |
| Record Mirror | [2] |
| The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide | [3] |
The recording of "Fly Me to the Moon" which appears on this album has become one of Sinatra's most popular. This was Sinatra and Basie's second collaboration after 1962's Sinatra-Basie.
Sinatra's cover version of "Hello Dolly" on the album features a new second verse improvised by Sinatra, which pays tribute to Louis Armstrong, who had topped the Billboard charts with his own version of the song earlier in 1964.
It Might as Well Be Swing is a reference to the title of the well known jazz standard "It Might as Well Be Spring".
Track listing
edit| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Fly Me to the Moon (In Other Words)" | Bart Howard | 2:30 |
| 2. | "I Wish You Love" | Léo Chauliac, Charles Trenet, Albert Beach | 2:56 |
| 3. | "I Believe in You" | Frank Loesser | 2:21 |
| 4. | "More (Theme from Mondo Cane)" | Riz Ortolani, Nino Oliviero, Marcello Ciorciolini, Norman Newell | 3:05 |
| 5. | "I Can't Stop Loving You" | Don Gibson | 3:00 |
| 6. | "Hello, Dolly!" | Jerry Herman | 2:45 |
| 7. | "I Wanna Be Around" | Johnny Mercer, Sadie Vimmerstedt | 2:25 |
| 8. | "The Best Is Yet to Come" | Cy Coleman, Carolyn Leigh | 3:10 |
| 9. | "The Good Life" | Sacha Distel, Jack Reardon | 2:30 |
| 10. | "Wives and Lovers" | Burt Bacharach, Hal David | 2:50 |
| Total length: | 27:22 | ||
Personnel
edit- Frank Sinatra - vocals
- Count Basie - piano
- Quincy Jones - arranger, conductor
- Al Porcino, Don Rader, Wallace Davenport, Al Aarons, George Cohn and Harry "Sweets" Edison - trumpets
- Henry Coker, Grover Mitchell, Bill Hughes, Henderson Chambers and Kenny Shroyer - trombones
- Frank Foster, Charles Fowlkes, Marshal Royal, Frank Wess and Eric Dixon - reeds
- Emil Richards - vibraphone
- George Catlett - double bass
- Freddie Green - guitar
- Sonny Payne - drums
- Other Musicians
- Gerald Vinci, Israel Baker, Jacques Gasselin, Thelma Beach, Bonnie Douglas, Marshall Sosson, Erno Neufeld, Lou Raderman, Paul Shure and James Getzoff - violins
- Virginia Majewski, Paul Robyn, Alvin Dinkin and Stan Harris - violas
- Edgar Lustgarten and Ann Goodman - cellos
- Emil Richards - Vibes/Percussion
- Production
- Sonny Burke - producer
- Lowell Frank - engineer
- Ted Allen - cover photo
- Gregg Geller - 1998 reissue producer
- Lee Herschberg - 20-bit digital mastering
References
edit- ^ Allmusic review
- ^ Jones, Peter (18 September 1964). "Frank Sinatra And Count Basie: It Might As Well Be Swing" (PDF). Record Mirror. No. 184. p. 10. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 April 2022. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
- ^ Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 20. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.
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