If there was only one album I could take to a desert island I would be torn between this and something by Nat King Cole.
For an album (originally two records) released in the 1950s, Songs for Young Lovers/Swing Easy! sounds quite modern. It was the first in a series of concept albums by Sinatra assisted by the ever talented Nelson Riddle.
Sinatra’s voice of the 1950s is deeper than the Sinatra of the 1940s Columbia era, it was his best period.We also love the third album of the Sinatra-Riddle Swing series; A Swingin’ Affair 1957.
Songs for Young Lovers consists of a satisfying set of ballads that formed the nucleus of a Sinatra catalogue and showed up in concert through the 1960s and later.
Swing Easy, originally the second side of the Capitol LP (when the two albums were married and released). Put simply, there is nothing retro-sounding about this set, except that it was recorded in mono because hey it was the 1950s. But magnetic tape mus have been used because the sound quality is amazing. I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter, later popularised by Dean Martin, is timeless.
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