Come Fly with Me (Frank Sinatra album)

Background

Sinatra's first collaboration with arranger/conductor Billy May, Come Fly with Me was designed as a musical trip around the world. Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen wrote the title track at Sinatra's request.

May would arrange two other Capitol albums for Sinatra, Come Dance with Me! (1958) and Come Swing with Me! (1961).

In his autobiography All You Need Is Ears, producer George Martin wrote of having visited the Capitol Tower during the recording sessions for the album. According to Martin's book, Sinatra expressed intense dislike for the album cover upon being first shown a mock-up by producer Voyle Gilmore, suggesting it looked like an advertisement for TWA.

The album reached #1 on the Billboard album chart in its second week, and remained at the top for five weeks. At the inaugural Grammy Awards Come Fly with Me was nominated for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year.

Though recorded simultaneously in true stereo alongside a distinct mono mix, "Come Fly with Me" was released to record stores in 1958 in monaural only, a standard practice by Capitol records at the time. The label finally released the stereo version in 1962.

Track listing

1. "Come Fly with Me" (Sammy Cahn, Jimmy Van Heusen) – 3:19
2. "Around the World" (Victor Young, Harold Adamson) – 3:20
3. "Isle of Capri" (Will Grosz, Jimmy Kennedy) – 2:29
4. "Moonlight in Vermont" (Karl Suessdorf, John Blackburn) – 3:32
5. "Autumn in New York" (Vernon Duke) – 4:37
6. "On the Road to Mandalay" (Oley Speaks, Rudyard Kipling) – 3:28
7. "Let's Get Away from It All" (Matt Dennis, Tom Adair) – 2:11
8. "April in Paris" (Duke, Yip Harburg) – 2:50
9. "London by Night" (Carroll Coates) – 3:30
10. "Brazil" (Ary Barroso, Bob Russell) – 2:55
11. "Blue Hawaii" (Leo Robin, Ralph Rainger) – 2:44
12. "It's Nice to Go Trav'ling" (Cahn, Van Heusen) – 3:52
13. "Chicago" (Fred Fisher) – 2:14
14. "South of the Border" (Jimmy Kennedy, Michael Carr) – 2:50
15. "I Love Paris" (Cole Porter) – 1:49

Personnel

"On the Road to Mandalay"

"On the Road to Mandalay", based on Rudyard Kipling's poem Mandalay was replaced on some versions of the album after the Kipling family objected to Sinatra's interpretation. When the album was initially released in the United Kingdom, the song "French Foreign Legion" replaced "Mandalay", while the song "Chicago" (and "It Happened in Monterey" on some pressings) were used in other parts of the British Commonwealth. Sinatra sang the song in Australia, during a concert tour in 1959, and relayed the story of the Kipling family objection to the song and how the Australian release of Come Fly with Me came to contain "Chicago".