{"id":528,"date":"2011-06-07T05:42:36","date_gmt":"2011-06-07T10:42:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=528"},"modified":"2011-06-07T05:42:36","modified_gmt":"2011-06-07T10:42:36","slug":"album-review-frank-sinatra-ring-a-ding-ding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2011\/06\/07\/album-review-frank-sinatra-ring-a-ding-ding\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Frank Sinatra – Ring-A-Ding-Ding"},"content":{"rendered":"

From its assertive opening snare roll — followed quickly by about ten seconds of bombastic, big band brio — Frank Sinatra<\/strong>\u2019s Ring-A-Ding-Ding<\/em> makes its presence known: it\u2019s here and it\u2019s now, baby.<\/p>\n

Sinatra earned the right to introduce himself in such a manner on this 1961 LP. His chart-topping recordings had helped put Capitol Records on the map, and Ring-A-Ding-Ding<\/em> capitalized on his long run of success by being the inaugural release on Reprise, Sinatra\u2019s own label. It\u2019s worth recalling that while custom\/vanity\/boutique record labels would become relatively commonplace in later years (see also: Apple, Paisley Park, Bizarre\/Straight), at the dawn of the 1960s such an occurrence was all but without precedent.<\/p>\n

But the Chairman earned it. And on his home label debut, he kicked things off in style. The record features arrangements by Johnny Mandel<\/strong> and sources compositions from the best on offer. Like all of the dozen sides on Ring-A-Ding-Ding<\/em>, the title track serves up all of the qualities fans across the globe had come to expect: dynamic instrumentation with clever, winking flourishes, top-notch songwriting and effective delivery from Sinatra that \u2013 nearly always \u2013 claims the song as the singer\u2019s own, no matter whose name is on the writer credit.<\/p>\n

Those writers credits read like a who\u2019s-who of the American Songbook, and of the best adult pop had to offer in the era. Harold Arlen<\/strong>, Irving Berlin<\/strong>, the Gershwins<\/strong>, and Cole Porter<\/strong> all got the nod for tunes on this set.<\/p>\n

The songs are masterpieces in miniature: each tune packs all of the aforementioned features into a tidy two or three minutes (only \u201cIn the Still of the Night\u201d breaks the three-minute mark). Within those strict confines, the songs are fully developed; each starts, builds and finishes with nary a misplaced note. \u201cBe Careful, It\u2019s My Heart\u201d builds and builds, and if you\u2019ve heard this sort of music, you know how it will end. But these songs aren\u2019t mimicking a style: they\u2019re developing it, and each is an exemplar of the genre.<\/p>\n

Sinatra is typically at the top of his game. Few singers in any style have been in possession of such an innate sense of what a song needs. Frank Sinatra had a preternatural understanding of when to ebb vocally, when to flow. Adept in a shocking spectrum of styles, he\u2019s as at home singing \u201cA Fine Romance\u201d \u2013 redeeming its admittedly spotty lyrics with swinging delivery \u2013 as he is with the south-of-the-border romp \u201cThe Coffee Song.\u201d (The latter\u2019s clever lyrics more than make up for any deficiency in the former, anyway: \u201cThe politician\u2019s daughter \/ was accused of drinking water \/ and was fined a great big fifty dollar bill \/ They\u2019ve got an awful lot of coffee in Brazil.\u201d What\u2019s not to love?)<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the Still of the Night\u201d serves up a romantic, cinematic arrangement; give a close listen to the bass line, and for that matter all of the instrumentation. Mere mortal singers would be cowed by the finesse and power of the band, but Sinatra is out front as ever. There was a reason they called him the Chairman. When he steps away from the mic, the band kicks it out in supreme style. The music is so damn good on Ring-A-Ding-Ding<\/em>, the album would earn five stars as an instrumental record. With Frank out front, it\u2019s a six (or seven) out of five.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not all <\/em>swagger on Ring-A-Ding-Ding<\/em>. Subtlety and romance are the order of the day as \u201cYou and the Night and the Music\u201d opens. Frank starts out quietly, and once again the song unfolds; two-plus minutes later it\u2019s swinging hard into the finish. Some luscious vibraphone frames \u201cI\u2019ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm,\u201d which also features a lovely Irving Berlin melody and lyric. In its final phrase, Frank — for the first time \u2013 seems like he might actually be breaking a sweat. Any other singer would already be passed out on the studio floor.<\/p>\n

A pair of bonus tracks have been appended to the 2011 Concord reissue. In the new liner notes, Frank Sinatra Jr.<\/strong> explains that \u201cZing! Went the Strings of My Heart\u201d was planned to be on the original album, but that the tapes went missing. Its retrieval is a welcome occurrence; the song fits the album like a glove. A bit of studio chatter on the front end is fun, too.<\/p>\n

On paper, ten minutes of a Sinatra tune might seem excessive. As Frank Jr. explains, \u201cHave You Met Miss Jones\u201d was \u201cdeemed improper for a swing album\u201d and was left off. In fact Frank Sr. is heard speaking over the band, observing that \u201cit sounds like a different album.\u201d The track displays a series of breakdowns with studio chatter and off-the-cuff singing from Frank; for anyone interested in what the sessions for these songs \u2013 essentially cut live in the studio \u2013 were like, it\u2019s an essential listen. The recording shows in Sinatra a man who was so much more than a vocalist: he\u2019s in complete command of the proceedings, catching the slightest perceived imperfection. Though it should be noted that it is<\/em> a bonus track; if one were to set their CD player on random, the track wouldn\u2019t show up at the end, and it would be jarring.<\/p>\n

The Concord 2011 reissue of Frank Sinatra\u2019s Ring-A-Ding-Ding<\/em> is three steps beyond essential.<\/p>\n

Lots more of my Frank Sinatra reissue reviews are here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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From its assertive opening snare roll — followed quickly by about ten seconds of bombastic, big band brio — Frank Sinatra\u2019s Ring-A-Ding-Ding makes its presence known: it\u2019s here and it\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","cat-65-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}