Maps of Music

Songs for Swingin' Lovers! (1956)

Where the lyrics of Songs for Swingin' Lovers! take you, and where it was really made.

The first album ever to top the UK Albums Chart did so in a chart that had only been published for the first time in July 1956.

Key places

Capitol Studio A, Hollywood (1956)

Recording site Capitol Studios — The source names Capitol Studio A in Hollywood as the recording location for this album, given as a linked reference in the article text. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Songs for Swingin' Lovers!: tenth studio album by Frank Sinatra
• Sinatra's fourth album for Capitol Records
• Arranged by Nelson Riddle
• Released March 1956 on LP; CD edition January 1987
• First album ever to top the UK Albums Chart

Background

• Followed In the Wee Small Hours (1955) in Sinatra's catalogue
• Took a different approach: existing pop standards recorded in a hipper, jazzier fashion
• Overall exuberance in the vein of Songs for Young Lovers and Swing Easy!
• Built around uptempo 'swinging' numbers

Recording

• Arranged by Nelson Riddle, whose orchestra gave the album its rhythmic drive
• Recording sessions also produced "Memories of You", a slow ballad left off the album
• The ballad was dropped because the album already included "We'll Be Together Again"
• The 1956 Riddle take stayed unreleased until September 1973, as a bonus LP in the Sinatra, The Works boxed set
• It reached a wider audience on The Capitol Years compilation in 1990
• Sinatra re-recorded the song in 1961 for Point of No Return

Cover

• The original cover showed Sinatra facing away from the young couple
• In 1957 Capitol changed the cover to a new image of Sinatra facing the couple
• Most CD releases kept the new cover; Apple Music uses the original
• The 2014 Mobile Fidelity hybrid disc (SACD + CD) reused the original 1956 front cover art

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

Reappraisal

• Uncut ranked it number 18 in its 2025 list of The 500 Greatest Albums of the 1950s
• Contributor Nick Hasted wrote that Sinatra answered rock and roll with hip teenage exuberance from the spirited end of the songbook
• Hasted argued that the album's standards sounded freshly minted, with sleek contemporary lines and sexy intimacy
• Hasted described 'I've Got You Under My Skin' as being as rock 'n' roll as anything released that year
• Sinatra aficionados often rank it his best or second best album, after In the Wee Small Hours
• Many music critics consider it one of the greatest albums of its era

Records

• Inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2000
• Ranked number 306 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time in 2003
• Ranked number 308 in the revised Rolling Stone list of 2012
• Voted number 100 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums in 2000
• The LP was the first number one album in the UK
• It was knocked off the top after two weeks by the Carousel soundtrack

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The original cover showed Sinatra facing away from the young couple, and Capitol replaced it in 1957.
• Most CD releases kept the 1957 cover, while Apple Music uses the original.
• The 1956 Memories of You recording stayed unreleased until 1973, when it appeared as a bonus LP in a boxed set.
• Sinatra re-recorded Memories of You with Axel Stordahl in 1961 for Point of No Return.
• Mobile Fidelity's 2014 hybrid disc reused the original 1956 front cover art.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Maps of Ages ↗ (mapsofages.com)

Privacy · Contact