Capitol Stereo CD, with 3 Bonus Tracks* arranged & conducted by Nelson Riddle

1. Come Fly With Me
2. Around The World
3. Isle Of Capri
4. Moonlight In Vermont
5. Autumn In New York
6. On The Road To Mandalay
7. Let's Get Away From It All
8. April In Paris
9. London By Night
10. Brazil
11. Blue Hawaii
12. It's Nice To Go Trav'ling
13. Chicago - (mono, bonus track) *
14. South Of The Border - (mono, bonus track) *
15. I Love Paris - (bonus track) *

Bonus tracks not on original LP

[C.R.E.]

Great concept album! Isle of Capri is super as is Mandalay

A great Sinatra-Billy May collaboration. Come Fly With Me, which became a great Sinatra signature song. The song wouldn't sound right with anyone but Frank singing it.

Moonlight In Vermont, April In Paris, Autumn In New York, just terrific. One of these albums you never tire of listening to. Then and again, there aren't too many Sinatra songs that I grow tired of listening to.

Dennis

If you're just starting a Sinatra collection, this isn't a bad place to start. A virtually perfect album, with a nice mix of swingers and ballads, which is rare for his Capitol albums. Makes me wish that Frank had tried out Billy May for a whole album of slow ones.

This was his first #1 album, by the way, topping the Billboard album charts for 5 weeks in 1957.

PJ

Chicago is a great song. I once wondered if it and My Kind of Town were written around the same time.

Also, one other person gives the most excellent version of Come Fly With Me, James Darren. FS is obviously better, but James Darren is definitaly second!

***Chicago is a great song. I once wondered if it and My Kind of Town were written around the same time.***

No. "Chicago" was written in 1922 and became a hit of the "swinging 20s". Sinatra's recording however was made just a few weeks before the album sessions in 1957.
"My Kind Of Town" was written for Sinatra (or rather, the movie where he introduced it in, Robin & The Seven Hoods) in 1963.

It should be noted that "On The Road To Mandalay" did not appear on the original album release in the United Kingdom, actually being replaced by "Chicago".

The Mandalay song is based on a poem by the famous British poet and author Rudyard Kipling, and Kipling's heirs thought the recording by Sinatra did not keep up with the high standards of Kipling's written legacy.

So through a lawsuit they prevented Capitol to issue the recording anywhere within what was at the time left of the British Empire, while they did not succeed in banning the song from being released on the US issues of the album.

Sinatra reacted cleverly, instantly adding the song to his concert repertoire (the ban did not include any live performances), and as can be heard on the Capitol/Blue Note release of his 1959 Australian performances for instance, he never missed commenting on the affair with ironic remarks about Kipling's estate and their policy when introducing the song on stage.

A few years later, the case was settled and "Mandalay" got its well-deserved British release as well. Strange affair, isn't it... how could any note sung by Frank Sinatra harm any legacy, in this case?

Bernhard.

[Rich K]

The album has a wonderful flow to it (I'm speaking here of the original 12 song album) and "Moonlight in Vermont" is one of the truly great Sinatra recordings.

[Yvonne]

I do love this album. My favourite song of it certainly is
London By Night.

[Watertown]

Brazil is an underated number on this CD. The horns are very lively. The kind of Sinatra song I listen to with the volume all the way up.

-Steve

[russkish3]

"MOONLIGHT IN VERMONT" followed by "AUTUMN IN NEW YORK." NEED I SAY MORE?

Sheer perfection.

Russell Kishi
Glendale, California

Come Fly With Me is one of my favorite - no, it is my favorite - Sinatra album. Moonlight in Vermont is my fav track and the cover art is sooooo groovy.

Rick,

Thank you for taking the time and being so thoughtful to post the information about the Come Fly With Me album.

Another one of my favorites!

I must say that Come Fly With Me is a wonderful album in a few aspects. 1. Sinatra is in great voice at the peak of his career 2. the songs on this album are exquisite arrangements (moonlight in vermont cough cough) and 3. The songs never get old

I would have to rate this album "A number one"

Bumping up in memory of the late Billy May, who arranged this masterpiece.

Sinatra mostly used May for uptempo arrangements, but the ballads here (especially "Autumn In New York" and "Moonlight In Vermont") are some of the Chairman's most enduring, and prove that Billy was as gifted with ballads as he was with swingers.

PJ

[Marty]

Contact. Please stow your tray tables for take off.

bumping up for James

(and far too less commentary here still on this LANDMARK album, come on guys!)

Bernhard.

[JamesDeFrances]

Thanks for the bump Bernhard! And to read about On the Road to Mandalay was my Frank Sinatra lesson for the day. Now onto my review of the Come Fly With Me album.

The album itself is one of the greatest works of the 20th century. It contains definitive pieces of the American Songbook in their definitive versions, sung by the master interpreter Francis Albert. This album visits so many different moods as well as locations. And it is with Mr. May's smooth accents that this album becomes irresistable. I myself am capable of listening to it everyday without even getting slightly bored. Come Fly With Me is a great swinger and a great way to open the album. Moonlight in Vermont is among Sinatra's most superb recordings, IMO. Autumn in New York gets brilliant new meaning with a new arrangement and a richer Sinatra vocal. I believe at this point in his career his voice was at it's zenith. It just doesn't get any better folks. Then you have On the Road to Mandalay which is really a unique piece of music. No one else could even consider pulling it off. Then their is an interesting recording of Isle of Capri. And so much more on this album. I wish I had time to elaborate on every nuance of it. But I will leave on this note, 5 out of 5 stars any day of the week!!!!

Amen to everything, James, and don't be too shy about posting your age with your review. If I understand correctly, it was 32 years 9 months before your birth that Sinatra recorded this album. If it gets such praise from young listereners today: What better testimony could there be to the fact that the music of Francis Albert Sinatra escapes "time": It's perennially the best.

Bernhard.