It Might as Well Be Swing
Encyclopedia
It Might as Well Be Swing is a 1964 studio album
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...

 by Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...

, accompanied by Count Basie
Count Basie
William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...

 and his orchestra
Count Basie Orchestra
The Count Basie Orchestra is a 16 to 18 piece big band, one of the most prominent jazz performing groups of the swing era, founded by Count Basie. The band survived the late '40s decline in big band popularity and went on to produce notable collaborations with singers such as Frank Sinatra and Ella...

. It was Sinatra's first studio recording with Quincy Jones
Quincy Jones
Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...

.

This was Sinatra and Basie's second collaboration after 1963's Sinatra-Basie
Sinatra-Basie: An Historic Musical First
Sinatra-Basie: An Historic Musical First is a 1962 studio album by Frank Sinatra, arranged by Neal Hefti.As the title indicates, this was the first recording that Sinatra made with the Count Basie Orchestra...

.

Sinatra's cover version of "Hello Dolly" on the album features a new second verse improvised by Sinatra, which pays tribute to Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....

, who had topped the Billboard charts
Billboard charts
The Billboard charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs or albums in the United States. The results are published in Billboard magazine...

 with his own version of the song earlier in 1964.

It Might as Well Be Swing is a reference to the title of the well known jazz standard "It Might as Well Be Spring
It Might as Well Be Spring
"It Might as Well Be Spring" is a song from the 1945 film, State Fair. With music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, it won the Academy Award for Best Original Song that year. State Fair was the only original film score by Rodgers and Hammerstein. In the film the song was...

".

Track listing

  1. "Fly Me to the Moon
    Fly Me to the Moon
    "Fly Me to the Moon" is a popular standard song written by Bart Howard in 1954. It was originally titled "In Other Words", and was introduced by Felicia Sanders in cabarets...

    " (Bart Howard
    Bart Howard
    Bart Howard was the composer and writer of the famous jazz standard "Fly Me To The Moon", which has been performed by singers Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Nancy Wilson, Della Reese, Diana Krall, June Christy and Astrud Gilberto...

    ) – 2:30
  2. "I Wish You Love
    I Wish You Love (song)
    "I Wish You Love" is a popular song. The music was written by Léo Chauliac, with French lyrics under the title "Que reste-t-il de nos amours ? " by Charles Trenet....

    " (Léo Chauliac, Charles Trenet
    Charles Trenet
    Charles Trenet was a French singer and songwriter, most famous for his recordings from the late 1930s until the mid-1950s, though his career continued through the 1990s...

    , Albert Beach) – 2:56
  3. "I Believe in You" (Frank Loesser
    Frank Loesser
    Frank Henry Loesser was an American songwriter who wrote the lyrics and scores to the Broadway hits Guys and Dolls and How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, among others. He won separate Tony Awards for the music and lyrics in both shows, as well as sharing the Pulitzer Prize for...

    ) – 2:21
  4. "More (Theme from Mondo Cane)
    More (Theme from Mondo Cane)
    "More " is a film score song written by Riz Ortolani and Nino Oliviero for the 1962 Mondo film Mondo cane. Originally composed as an instrumental and titled "Ti guarderò nel cuore", lyrics were later provided by Marcello Ciorciolini, which were adapted into English by Norman Newell...

    " (Riz Ortolani
    Riz Ortolani
    Riziero "Riz" Ortolani is an Italian film composer.In the early 1950s Ortolani was founder and member of a jazz band of national Italian renown...

    , Nino Oliviero, Marcello Ciorciolini, Norman Newell
    Norman Newell
    Norman Newell, OBE was born in Plaistow, Essex , and was a successful British record producer in the 1950s and 1960s, as well as co-writer of many notable songs...

    ) – 3:05
  5. "I Can't Stop Loving You
    I Can't Stop Loving You
    "I Can't Stop Loving You" is a popular song written and composed by country singer, songwriter and musician Don Gibson, who first recorded it on December 30, 1957, for RCA Victor Records...

    " (Don Gibson
    Don Gibson
    Donald Eugene "Don" Gibson was an American songwriter and country musician. A Country Music Hall of Fame inductee, Gibson penned such country standards as "Sweet Dreams" and "I Can't Stop Loving You", and enjoyed a string of country hits from 1957 into the early 1970s.-Biography:Don Gibson was...

    ) – 3:00
  6. "Hello, Dolly!
    Hello, Dolly! (song)
    "Hello, Dolly!" is the title song of the popular 1964 musical of the same name. Louis Armstrong's version was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001....

    " (Jerry Herman
    Jerry Herman
    Jerry Herman is an American composer and lyricist, known for his work in Broadway musical theater. He composed the scores for the hit Broadway musicals Hello, Dolly!, Mame, and La Cage aux Folles. He has been nominated for the Tony Award five times, and won twice, for Hello, Dolly! and La Cage...

    ) – 2:45
  7. "I Wanna Be Around
    I Wanna Be Around
    "I Wanna Be Around" is a popular song. In the lyrics, the singer declares that he "wants to be around" when the woman who spurned him inevitably gets her heart broken....

    " (Johnny Mercer
    Johnny Mercer
    John Herndon "Johnny" Mercer was an American lyricist, songwriter and singer. He is best known as a lyricist, but he also composed music. He was also a popular singer who recorded his own songs as well as those written by others...

    , Sadie Vimmerstedt) – 2:25
  8. "The Best is Yet to Come
    The Best Is Yet to Come (song)
    "The Best is Yet to Come" is a 1959 song composed by Cy Coleman, with lyrics by Carolyn Leigh. It is associated with Frank Sinatra, who recorded it on his 1964 album It Might as Well Be Swing, accompanied by Count Basie, under the direction of Quincy Jones...

    " (Cy Coleman
    Cy Coleman
    Cy Coleman was an American composer, songwriter, and jazz pianist.-Life and career:He was born Seymour Kaufman on June 14, 1929, in New York City to Eastern European Jewish parents, and was raised in the Bronx. His mother, Ida was an apartment landlady and his father was a brickmason...

    , Carolyn Leigh
    Carolyn Leigh
    Carolyn Leigh was an American lyricist for Broadway, movies, and popular songs. She is best known as the writer with partner Cy Coleman of the pop standards "Witchcraft" and "The Best Is Yet to Come."-Biography:...

    ) – 3:10
  9. "The Good Life
    The Good Life (1962 song)
    "The Good Life" is a popular song by Sacha Distel and 1934 born composer Jack Reardon, published in 1962. It was featured in the movie Seven Capital Sins....

    " (Sacha Distel
    Sacha Distel
    Sacha Distel was a French singer and guitarist who had hits with a cover version of the Academy Award-winning "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" , "Scoubidou", and "The Good Life". He was born in Paris.-Career:Sacha Distel, born Alexandre Distel, was a son of Russian White émigré Leonid Distel...

    , Jack Reardon) – 3:10
  10. "Wives and Lovers
    Wives and Lovers
    Wives and Lovers is a song by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. It has been recorded by numerous male and female vocalists, instrumentalists and ensembles. Jack Jones released a recording in 1963, earning the 1964 Grammy Award for Best Vocal Performance, Male, and Bacharach included it on the 1965 LP...

    " (Burt Bacharach
    Burt Bacharach
    Burt F. Bacharach is an American pianist, composer and music producer. He is known for his popular hit songs and compositions from the mid-1950s through the 1980s, with lyrics written by Hal David. Many of their hits were produced specifically for, and performed by, Dionne Warwick...

    , Hal David
    Hal David
    Harold Lane "Hal" David is an American lyricist. He grew up in Brooklyn, New York. David is best known for his collaborations with composer Burt Bacharach.-Career:...

    ) – 2:50

Personnel

  • Frank Sinatra
    Frank Sinatra
    Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...

     - vocals
    Singing
    Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...

  • Count Basie
    Count Basie
    William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...

     - piano
    Piano
    The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

  • Quincy Jones
    Quincy Jones
    Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...

     - arranger
    Arrangement
    The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...

    , conductor
    Conducting
    Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...


The Count Basie Orchestra
Count Basie Orchestra
The Count Basie Orchestra is a 16 to 18 piece big band, one of the most prominent jazz performing groups of the swing era, founded by Count Basie. The band survived the late '40s decline in big band popularity and went on to produce notable collaborations with singers such as Frank Sinatra and Ella...

:
  • Al Porcino, Don Rader, Wallace Davenport, Al Aarons, George Cohn and Harry "Sweets" Edison - trumpets
  • Henry Coker, Grover Mitchell, Bill Hughes
    Bill Hughes (musician)
    William Henry "Bill" Hughes is an American jazz trombonist and bandleader. He has spent most of his career with the Count Basie Orchestra and was the director of that ensemble until September 2010.- Early life and career :...

    , Henderson Chambers and Kenny Shroyer - trombones
  • Frank Foster
    Frank Foster (musician)
    Frank Foster was an American tenor and soprano saxophonist, flautist, arranger, and composer. Foster collaborated frequently with Count Basie and worked as a bandleader from the early 1950s.-Biography:...

    , Charles Fowlkes
    Charles Fowlkes
    Charlie Fowlkes was an American baritone saxophonist, best known for his time with Count Basie, which lasted for more than twenty-five years....

    , Marshall Royal
    Marshall Royal
    Marshall Royal was an American clarinettist and alto saxophonist best known for his work with Count Basie, with whose band he played for nearly twenty years....

    , Frank Wess
    Frank Wess
    Frank Wess is an American jazz musician, who has played saxophone and flute.-Biography:...

     and Eric Dixon - reeds
    Woodwind instrument
    A woodwind instrument is a musical instrument which produces sound when the player blows air against a sharp edge or through a reed, causing the air within its resonator to vibrate...

  • Emil Richards - vibraphone
    Vibraphone
    The vibraphone, sometimes called the vibraharp or simply the vibes, is a musical instrument in the struck idiophone subfamily of the percussion family....

  • George Catlett - double bass
    Double bass
    The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...

  • Freddie Green
    Freddie Green
    Frederick William "Freddie" Green was an American swing jazz guitarist. He was especially noted for his sophisticated rhythm guitar in big band settings, particularly for the Count Basie orchestra, where he was part of the "All-American Rhythm Section" with Basie on piano, Jo Jones on drums, and...

     - guitar
    Guitar
    The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

  • Sonny Payne
    Sonny Payne
    Sonny Payne was an American jazz drummer, best known for his work with Count Basie and Harry James.His father was Wild Bill Davis's drummer Chris Columbus...

     - drums
    Drum kit
    A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....

  • Gerald Vinci, Israel Baker, Jacques Gasselin, Thelma Beach, Bonnie Douglas, Marshall Sosson, Erno Neufeld, Lou Raderman, Paul Shure and James Getzoff - violin
    Violin
    The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

    s
  • Virginia Majewski, Paul Robyn, Alvin Dinkin and Stan Harris - viola
    Viola
    The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...

    s
  • Edgar Lustgarten and Ann Goodman - cello
    Cello
    The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...

    s

Production
  • Sonny Burke
    Sonny Burke
    Sonny Burke was a big band leader. In 1937, he graduated from Duke University where he had formed and led the jazz big band known as the Duke Ambassadors....

    - producer
  • Lowell Frank - Engineer
  • Ted Allen - Cover photo
  • Gregg Geller - 1998 reissue producer
  • Lee Herschberg - 20-bit digital mastering
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK