a swingin' affair!

Frank Sinatra continued his swingin' fixation with this loose and jazzy collection of classic covers and produced one of the best albums of his career.  'A Swingin' Affair!' was a sequel to his 'Songs for Swingin' Lovers!' that continued his collaboration with Nelson Riddle, who arranged and conducted on both albums, as well as Voyle Gilmore, who produced them. 'A Swingin' Affair!' was recorded in four sessions in Hollywood for Capitol Records utilizing a full big band and orchestrated strings.   Saxophonist Don Raffael recalls the first session:  "We had rehearsed the music and we're sitting there. The double doors at Capitol open up and there's Sinatra. He's got a black hat on with a white band, black suit, black shirt, black shoes, white necktie—gangster. He doesn't say anything to anybody, walks into the recording booth, and says: 'You've had plenty of time to get the balance on this thing. I don't want any fooling around or it'll be your ass!' He says that like a hoodlum. We did one take on everything that we did. One! That's it. That's all he wanted to do. No slips, no nothing. He was an evil mother!"   

Neal Hefti, who would later produce for Sinatra, has said:  "As far as I'm concerned, no one has even come close to what Nelson achieved with Sinatra. This isn't taking anything away from any of the other people. It's just that the moon and the stars were in the right position at the same time, with Frank and Nelson plus Capitol Records, plus Frank being so exuberant because he had won the Academy Award. It was all of these things. God! That enthusiasm just keeps going on and on and on! It's just like the Richter scale; each new thing makes the last number ten times higher. It was just unbelievable."    

Drawing heavily from the songbooks of Cole Porter and George Gershwin, the album swings harder than its predecessor, with Frank showing even more confidence and bravado.  'A Swingin' Affair!' went to number seven in the US and spent six weeks at the top of the British album chart. 







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"Night and Day" (Cole Porter)  

"Nice Work if You Can Get It" (G. Gershwin, I. Gershwin)  





"The Lady Is a Tramp" (Rodgers, Hart)

 'A Swingin' Affair!' 

full album:

01. Night And Day

02. I Wish I Were In Love Again 

03. I Got Plenty O' Nuttin' 

04. I Guess I'll Have To Change My Plans 

05. Nice Work If You Can Get It 

06. Stars Fell On Alabama 

07. No One Ever Tells You

08. I Won't Dance 

09. Lonesome Road 

10. At Long Last Love 

11. You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To 

12. I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good

13. From This Moment On 

14. If I Had You 

15. Oh! Look At Me Now