Search - Frank Sinatra :: Swingin Affair

This is simply one of the great American recordings. In the early '50s, Frank Sinatra was a has-been. The Tommy Dorsey/Harry James crooner had caused riots in Times Square in 1944, but Columbia fired him in 1952. Capitol signed him to a contract requiring him to pay for his own sessions. Meanwhile, arranger Nelson Riddle was working at Capitol; he had previously written charts for Nat Cole, including the classic "Mona Lisa." He and Sinatra would fit together like ham in a glove, or however the saying goes: Nelson was the velvet glove, and Frank was the prosciutto. Most critics agree that Sinatra's Capitol recordings with Riddle are among his best. A Swingin' Affair, one of the most upbeat and lighthearted Sinatra collections, presents 13 unsurpassable standards from the likes of Porter, the Gershwins, Kern, and Ellington. --Stanley Booth