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Reviews: Frank Sinatra: Ring-A-Ding Ding!

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From the opening notes of the first track, "Ring-A-Ding Ding," this remastered Frank Sinatra CD of the same name is a joyous, crisp ride through some of his best, most shaken-and-stirred-with-an-olive-on-top hits. The Chairman of the Board has never sounded better as he vocally dances through his bubbly, sweet as champagne tunes of romance.

Songs like "Let's Fall in Love," "Be Careful it's My Heart," "You'd Be So Easy to Love," and "A Fine Romance" may be very familiar, but who could ever grow tired of the king of the Cocktail Culture's evergreen odes to amor? This Concord Music June 7, 2011 release contains fourteen tracks, including one bonus one "Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart" and the previously unreleased "Have You Met Ms. Jones?," which is as feathery and light as a summer cloud. From beginning to end, this satisfies any jazz or music lover's yearning for Grade-A aural bliss.

Frank Sinatra remains one of the biggest selling solo acts in recent history. Ring-A-Ding Ding reinforces why.

Review: Examiner
http://www.examiner.com/classic-rock-in-national/sinatra-remastered-ring-a-ding-ding-is-shaken-and-stirred-bliss-review

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The end of 1960 was a good time to be Frank Sinatra to say the least. He was in his Rat Pack prime, his albums and concerts were both artistic and commercial triumphs and his efforts, at least partially, led to John F. Kennedy winning the presidency. Still he felt stifled at Capitol Records and decided to form his own record label where he’d answer to no one. Reprise was the label and it became Sinatra’s home for most of the rest of his career.

Sinatra's first album for the label needed to reflect this positive period in his life. It needed to swing. This presented a problem as his frequent arranger, Nelson Riddle, was contractually obligated to Capitol until 1963. Similarly, Sinatra favorite Billy May was also signed long-term. Capitol was not thrilled about Sinatra leaving — they did, after all, provide him a home when his career was stalling in the early 1950s — and they were not about to let their prize arrangers work for Sinatra’s label anytime soon. Luckily for Sinatra, Johnny Mandel — a jazz composer who Sinatra was a fan of — was available and he helped Sinatra bring his vision to life with Ring-A-Ding Ding!, a hard-swinging album and one of Sinatra’s favorite catch phrases of the day.

Now celebrating its 50th anniversary, Ring-A-Ding Ding! is getting the expanded edition treatment from Concord Records. Never a sonic marvel — previous editions had been muddy, with Sinatra’s voice drenched in reverb — Ring-A-Ding Ding! has been remixed by Larry Walsh and the difference is striking. Sinatra’s voice is clear and sounds as if he were in the room with you while the brass is bright and punchy, as evidenced in the title track, which roars out of the speakers.

"Let's Fall In Love" finds Sinatra and the orchestra in a bouncy, playful mood. Sinatra adds to the proceedings by suggesting two bars of silence in the song, leaving the listener wondering where he and the band would go next. Sinatra pushes the limits of his vocal range on "Be Careful, It's My Heart," hitting a "double F" and bringing the song to an exciting close. Ring-a-ding ding indeed.

Sinatra and company are confident enough to give a novelty number such as "The Coffee Song" a cocky swagger while his following it up with "When I Take My Sugar To Tea" recalls the thematic elements of his legendary concept albums for Capitol. It's their take of Cole Porter's "In The Still of The Night" that has become a best-loved track by fans with Sinatra and the band swinging perfectly over Mandel's sophisticated jazz arrangement — a stunning display of virtuosity by all involved.

The CD includes two bonus tracks — "Zing! Went The Strings Of My Heart" and "Have You Met Miss Jones." The latter is of particular interest to fans as it includes 10 minutes of studio outtakes with Sinatra and the orchestra learning the song as they go, bum notes and all. The ballad was originally slated to be included on Ring-A-Ding Ding! but was deemed too different stylistically to fit.

Sinatra couldn't have asked for a better debut album on his new label. Sinatra, Mandel and the musicians knew what was at stake and their performances didn't disappoint. This new CD finally presents the material in a matter worthy of its importance and belongs in any Sinatra collection.

Review: Blinded By Sound
http://blindedbysound.com/post/viewPost/review_frank_sinatra_-_ring-a-ding_ding/f0955e2a33a3d10223f432f44d902c18

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Frank Sinatra became a mega-star during the 1940s both as a solo artist and as the featured singer of the Tommy Dorsey and Harry James big bands. He solidified his popularity during the 1950s with a series of studio albums, which sold tens of millions of copies, for the Capital label. As the 1960s dawned, he tried to purchase the Verve label. Rebuffed in his efforts, he decided to start his own label, and thus Reprise Records was born. It would be his music home for the rest of his career.

The Concord Music Group has been issuing his Reprise catalogue, complete with bonus tracks. The latest entry is his first release for the label, Ring-a-Ding-Ding, which was issued in March of 1961. It would continue his commercial popularity by reaching number four on the Billboard Pop Album Chart.

The original idea was to issue an album without ballads, which was very close to the concept that Capital had used to put together Sinatra's Swingin' Session, which they had issued two months previous, after he had left the label.

The music comes very close to returning Sinatra to the big band idiom of the 1940s. It is finger snapping light jazz, with a beat. While Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn wrote the title song specifically for the album, Sinatra mainly recorded older songs from the Great American Songbook.

Even though "Ring-a-Ding-Ding" was the newest song, the blaring horns and the upbeat rhythms set the tone for the rest of the album.

Most of the material was taken from the 1930s. Ira and George Gershwin's "A Foggy Day" was originally written for the Broadway play, A Damsel In Distress. Here Sinatra resurrects the song as a light jazz classic. The song would appear on five of his albums down through the years. Listening to his interpretation of "Let's Fall In Love," one can immediately discern why he was considered a master of diction. "You and the Night and the Music" was from a failed Broadway show, but it would become a jazz standard. Sinatra gives a relaxed and informal performance. The best track is the old Cole Porter tune, "In the Still of the Night." It was a Tommy Dorsey standard, and here Sinatra performs it in the big band tradition, complete with brass and heavy percussion.

Ring-a-Ding-Ding was a fine debut for Sinatra's fledgling label. He would go on to use Reprise to explore a variety of styles and issue creative duets projects across a number musical styles. Here, it is the swinging Sinatra at his best.

Review: Blog Critics
http://blogcritics.org/music/article/music-review-frank-sinatra-ring-a/

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Ring-a-ding ding! It can be used as an adjective or an interjection. But when Frank Sinatra chose the expression to title his very first album for his very own label, it was simply an ecstatic expression of pure joy. Sinatra was no longer tethered to Capitol Records, the label at which he’d made history with a series of “concept” albums. He had the freedom to make some new history, his way, when he launched Reprise. And Ring-a-Ding Ding!, now definitively reissued and sparklingly remastered for its 50th anniversary as part of Concord’s ongoing campaign (Concord CRE-32929), didn’t merely reprise the Capitol sound. Nelson Riddle, arguably Sinatra’s most renowned collaborator, was unavailable due to a contract over at the Tower. For the same reason, Billy May was out of the question. And Sinatra instinctively knew that Gordon Jenkins’ lush, reflective string charts wouldn’t fit the bill to usher in a new decade on a new label. So when it was decided to reach out to young jazz composer Johnny Mandel to arrange and conduct, there was excitement in the air.

The Chairman’s intentions were anything but subtle when Mandel’s thrilling, brassy introduction to the first track began. The delicious cut was the latest in a line of title songs made to order for Sinatra by his pallys Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen. “Don’t know if it’s morning, nighttime, winter or spring – what’s the difference? Ring-a-ding ding!” announces Sinatra. When he asserts that “life is swell,” accompanied by swaggering horns, trilling bells and tinkling keys, who could argue?

What follows is a tour of Sinatra’s favorite songwriters in the pantheon. These names are legendary now, and were legendary then, even though many were still active writing for Hollywood, Broadway or even television. A trio was selected from Irving Berlin (“Be Careful, It’s My Heart,” “Let’s Face the Music and Dance,” and one standard now most played at the holidays, “I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm”) and a duo from Cole Porter (“In the Still of the Night,” “You’d Be So Easy to Love”), with whose music Sinatra always evinced a sympathetic sensibility. “In the Still of the Night,” in fact, may be the most enduring track on the album, with an arrangement that remained in Sinatra’s book throughout his lifetime. The Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields songbook yielded “A Fine Romance,” a worthy precursor to the singer’s immortal reading of “The Way You Look Tonight” a few years later. The George and Ira Gershwin catalogue was tapped for “A Foggy Day,” with its evocative introduction and playful vocal. Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz’ moody, jazz standard “You and the Night and the Music” as well as Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler’s “Let’s Fall in Love” seriously upped the romantic ante.

Sinatra never sounded more assured and confident, and he was ready to take risks even beyond the launch of a new label. There’s famously the extended two-bar pause in “Let’s Fall in Love.” (Was Brian Wilson listening when he similarly inserted a dramatic silence into his sophisticated pop song, “The Little Girl I Once Knew,” to the chagrin of Capitol executives?) The pause gives listeners more time to savor what had come before. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s famous orchestrator Skip Martin was one of two arrangers brought in to augment Mandel’s work. (Dick Reynolds was the other, and he handled “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm.” Reynolds was a major arranger for the Four Freshmen and in another Beach Boys connection, arranged Side Two of their Christmas album.) Martin took on Irving Berlin’s “Be Careful, It’s My Heart.” The mood on the album is so bold and so bright that the idea of anyone raining on Sinatra’s parade seems an impossibility, but that voice – indeed, The Voice – was incapable of dishonesty. And so a spot-on note of vulnerability creeps into the song. When Sinatra admits that it’s “the heart with which so willingly I part,” he effortlessly makes Berlin’s poetry sound conversational. But he was equally ready for some fun. Bob Hilliard and Dick Miles’ “The Coffee Song,” first recorded by Sinatra in 1946, is a bit goofy, to say the least: “Why, they put coffee in the coffee in Brazil!” But in Mandel’s freewheeling, wild arrangement, it’s one of the singer’s best, most hard-swinging performances and made an instant (pun intended) classic of the delightful tune.

Hit the jump to find out what’s new on this 50th anniversary edition!

Make no mistake, this is a classy, prestige reissue in every sense. The stereo sound, remixed from the original three-track tapes by Larry Walsh, restored by Leon J. Smith III and mastered by the folks at BluWave Audio, is crisp, dry and clean. In other words, it’s stellar, as if a veil of gauze has been removed from every prior Ring-a-Ding Ding! CD. (Only a three-channel SACD, a la the Nat “King” Cole reissues coming from Analogue Productions, could better this achievement!) Liner notes aren’t courtesy of Stan Cornyn this time around but rather by Frank Sinatra Jr., a 16-year old onlooker during the recording sessions. The younger Sinatra’s notes aren’t only friendly and accessible but they’re filtered through the sensibility of a musician. Hence, he admonishes us to pay attention to Irv Cottler’s drumming on the title track, Conrad Gozzo’s stunning lead trumpet parts, Frank Sr.’s double “F” on “Be Careful, It’s My Heart,” and the construction of the slam-bang finish of “Let’s Face the Music and Dance.” These observations handily enhance the listening experience. The booklet is beautifully designed with great attention to detail. The Concord logo has elegantly replaced the original Reprise on the album cover, while the rare alternate cover prepared for the reel-to-reel issue is included on the inside back cover. Ralph J. Gleason’s original liner notes have also been included on both the inside tray card and rear of the booklet, where they are easier to read. Even the typography on the spine and tray card will be familiar to Reprise enthusiasts.

And then there are the bonus tracks. Sinatra’s outtake performance of James Hanley’s “Zing! Went The Strings of My Heart” premiered on the 1990 box set The Reprise Collection and was recorded at the same December 21, 1960 session as “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm,” “When I Take My Sugar to Tea” and “You and the Night and the Music.” The song is reprised here, but appears to be a different, equally superb take. The real treasure is the second bonus track, a full 10+ minutes of sessions for Sinatra’s abortive attempt at Rodgers and Hart’s “Have You Met Miss Jones.” Over a luscious introduction, Sinatra is heard ruminating “This sounds like a different album!” which may ultimately explain why the song was abandoned and re-recorded in May 1961 with Billy May. The session chatter and multiple attempts at the song are illuminating. The Sinatra team has long been reluctant to release session material, hopefully its inclusion here signals a change in the weather. Sinatra’s sessions are clearly deserving of a commercial release in a boxed set form; I was instantly transported to United Recorders, circa 1960, for a master class in musicianship and interpretive singing. The rapport Sinatra shared with his musicians is in evidence, and what a group they were: Conrad Gozzo, Don Fagerquist and John Anderson on trumpet, Emil Richards on vibes, Bud Shank on flute, Frank Rosolino on trombone, Irv Cottler on drums, and Sinatra’s longtime pianist Bill Miller. Both bonus tracks are presented in punchy mono.

Three further Cahn/Van Heusen songs were committed to tape on December 21, 1960. “The Last Dance,” “The Second Time Around” and “Tina” were all recorded with surreptitious Nelson Riddle charts credited to conductor Felix Slatkin. The latter two tracks formed Sinatra’s first Reprise single. All three recordings have been released on CD in the past but are currently orphaned in the catalogue, and they might have nicely filled out the disc for a full picture of Sinatra’s first work at Reprise.

Word from The Sinatra Family Forum is that Sinatra-Basie: The Complete Reprise Studio Recordings is coming in September. Well, if that’s the case, the fall can’t come too soon! Ring-a-Ding Ding! is hands-down the best album reissue yet from the Frank Sinatra Enterprises/Concord Music Group partnership, and an altogether remarkable release that belongs on the shelf of every serious music fan. Ring-a-Ding Ding! may have just turned 50, but its fine romance is as fresh as ever.

Review: The Second Disc
http://theseconddisc.com/2011/06/07/review-frank-sinatra-ring-a-ding-ding-expanded-edition/

Posted by: Nancy | Jun 8, 2011 6:33 AM | Comments(0)

Frank Sinatra: Ring-A-Ding Ding

LOS ANGELES, CA — Concord Records marks the 50th anniversary of a pivotal transition in Frank Sinatra’s career with a digitally remastered version of Ring-A-Ding Ding. Under license from Frank Sinatra Enterprises (FSE), the album is set for release on June 7, 2011.

By the end of the 1950s, Sinatra had spent nearly ten years on Capitol, where he’d made some outstanding recordings. But at the dawn of a new decade, he was eager to establish a creative environment of his own making — one that would open up new territory to explore and take him a step closer to realizing his unique creative vision.

The result was the establishment of Reprise, his own record label and his primary base of operations for the remainder of his career. His initial recording on the new label was Ring-A-Ding Ding, a 1961 album that not only captured Sinatra at the top of his game with a self-confident swagger, but — with the help of songwriters like Sammy Cahn and James Van Heusen, and arrangements by Johnny Mandel — also captured the optimistic tenor of the period.

In addition to the 12 songs from the original recording, the 50th anniversary reissue also features two bonus tracks — “Zing! Went The Strings of My Heart” and a previously unreleased version of “Have You Met Miss Jones?” The packaging also includes extensive new liner notes by Frank Sinatra Jr., who shares personal memories of his father during the founding of Reprise and the making of the album as well as annotations and insights for each track.

“As the new decade began, like Midas, everything Sinatra touched turned to gold,” says Frank Jr. “His movies were box office blockbusters, his records were gold, his concerts were standing room only, and with the help of his tireless efforts, he had been very instrumental in helping his friend John F. Kennedy become the 35th President of the United States. It was no wonder that for Frank Sinatra, the period of time in which he was living could only be referred to as ‘Ring-A-Ding Ding.’ The music in this premier Reprise recording reflected that state of mind in every note.”

TRACK LIST
Ring-A-Ding Ding
Let’s Fall in Love
Be Careful, It’s My Heart
A Foggy Day
A Fine Romance
In The Still of the Night
The Coffee Song
When I Take My Sugar to Tea
Let’s Face the Music and Dance
You’d Be So Easy To Love
You and the Night and the Music
I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm

BONUS TRACKS:
Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart
Have You Met Miss Jones? (previously unreleased)

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For more information about Frank Sinatra’s Ring-A-Ding-Ding, please contact:
Cary Baker • conqueroo • (323) 656-1600 • cary@conqueroo.com
Lellie Capwell • Frank Sinatra Enterprises • 818-384-1180 • Lellie@sacksco.com

Frank Sinatra Enterprises (FSE)
Frank Sinatra Enterprises (FSE) is a joint venture between the Sinatra family and Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG). FSE owns Sinatra’s recordings from the Reprise era as well as a treasure trove of films, television specials and unreleased footage, photos and audio recordings, which collectively represent one of the foremost bodies of artistic work of the modern era. FSE also owns and manages Sinatra’s name and likeness rights and represents the artist’s rights to the Columbia and Capitol catalogues. FSE evaluates innovative new product and venture opportunities with respect to the legendary entertainer’s name and likeness, as well as Sinatra's audio and visual recordings. (www.sinatra.com)

Posted by: Nancy | May 17, 2011 4:00 AM | Comments(229)