Maps of Music

Come Fly with Me (1958)

Where the lyrics of Come Fly with Me take you, and where it was really made.

Sinatra hated the cover, which showed a TWA aircraft, and suspected a studio executive had taken money for the product placement.

Key places

Capitol Tower during the recording sessions (1958)

Recording site Capitol Studios — Producer George Martin wrote in his autobiography that he visited the Capitol Tower during the recording sessions for this album. The point marks the building area, not an exact studio room. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Come Fly with Me: fourteenth studio album by Frank Sinatra, released 1958
• Designed as a musical trip around the world
• Title track written by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen at Sinatra's request
• Reached No. 1 on the Billboard album chart in its second week
• Ranked number 616 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums in 2000

Background

• First collaboration between Sinatra and arranger/conductor Billy May
• May later arranged Come Dance with Me! (1958) and Come Swing with Me! (1961) for Sinatra at Capitol
• Producer Voyle Gilmore showed Sinatra a mock-up of the cover, and Sinatra strongly disliked it, saying it looked like an advertisement for TWA

Recording

• Recorded simultaneously in true stereo alongside a distinct mono mix
• Released in 1958 in mono only, a standard Capitol practice at the time
• Capitol released the stereo version in 1961
• Producer George Martin visited the Capitol Tower during the recording sessions

Cover

• The cover showed a TWA aircraft
• Sinatra suspected a studio executive had accepted money for this product placement

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Born December 12, 1915 in Hoboken, New Jersey, to Italian immigrants.
• Began singing professionally as a teenager with the Hoboken Four, winning Major Bowes Amateur Hour.
• Joined Harry James's band in 1939, then Tommy Dorsey's band, before going solo in 1942.

Career

• Signed with Columbia Records in 1943 and became a major star of the bobby-soxer era.
• Signed with Capitol Records in 1953; collaborated with arranger Nelson Riddle on albums such as In the Wee Small Hours and Songs for Swingin' Lovers!.
• Founded Reprise Records in 1960, releasing albums including September of My Years and the hit single "My Way".
• Won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for From Here to Eternity (1953).
• Estimated to have sold around 150 million records worldwide.
• Received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1985 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1997.
• Died May 14, 1998 in Los Angeles.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Released in 1958 in mono only, the standard Capitol practice at the time
• Capitol released the stereo version in 1961
• The cover showed a TWA aircraft, which Sinatra disliked

Reappraisal

• 2000: voted number 616 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums
• Nominated for Album of the Year at the inaugural Grammy Awards
• Inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2004

Records

• Reached No. 1 on the Billboard album chart in its second week
• Remained at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart for five weeks
• Nominated for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year at the inaugural Grammy Awards
• Inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2004

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• George Martin wrote that Sinatra was angry about the TWA aircraft on the cover and suspected a studio executive had taken money for the product placement.
• Sinatra recorded a jazzy, controversial arrangement of On the Road to Mandalay, which changed parts of Kipling's text.
• Kipling's daughter Elsie Bambridge, as executrix of the estate, had the song banned in the UK for some years.
• On original UK mono releases, Mandalay was replaced by It Happened in Monterey, and on UK stereo copies by French Foreign Legion, while Chicago was used elsewhere in the Commonwealth.
• Mandalay was restored on the 1984 UK re-pressing.
• In a selection of comments, The New York Times defended Kipling's poem against Sinatra's version.
• In 2025, it was revealed that a rendition of Flying Down to Rio had been cut from the album.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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