Top Arrangers – Billy May

Frank Sinatra – Come Fly With Me

More Frank Sinatra

  • Come Fly With Me touches down on the site for the first time ever, here with KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades on both sides of this 60s Stereo Capitol pressing
  • This copy was doing everything we wanted it to — and on both sides — with an abundance of energy and the kind of immediacy that can put Frank Sinatra front and center right in your very own listening room
  • We all owe a debt of gratitude to the recording and mastering engineers from the era (50s and 60s) for the glorious sound they managed to achieve, a sound unequalled to this day
  • Marks in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these early pressings – there simply is no way around them if the superior sound of vintage analog is important to you
  • 5 stars: “There may be greater albums in Sinatra’s catalog, but few are quite as fun as Come Fly With Me.”

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Stick with the Tri-Tone Stereo Originals on Swing Along with Me

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Frank Sinatra Available Now

When advising our fellow audiophiles about how to find the best sounding pressings, we tend to favor discussions about records in which the original is not the best over records in which the right reissue is not the best. (And there are practically discussions for when the modern reissue is the best. Just one so far!)

The same would be true for English bands whose records sound better when they are made in any country other than England, bands whose recordings you may think you know well, such as Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath.

You might say our record collecting philosophy revolves aroung the contrarian idea that rules were made to be broken.

But let’s face it, most record collecting rules hold up most of the time. That’s how they got to be rules.

In the case of Sinatra’s Swing Along with Me album from 1961, the second label reissues which came along later in the 60s are not merely a shadow of the originals. They’re nothing like the originals.

Side one was so gritty and hot (bright) that we couldn’t even be bothered to play side two. Trust me, you do not want to play a vintage Sinatra record that is gritty and hot.

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The Mono Pressings of Come Dance With Me Are Just Awful

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Frank Sinatra Available Now

We had two mono pressings, one on the first label, one on the second, and both were unacceptable, especially the reissue.

Side one of the early label pressing was big and tubey but the vocals were gritty. Side two was hot, crude and midrangy.

Which raises the question: what is the general sound of the mono pressing on the early label?

Answer: it has no sound, or more accurately, it has two very different sounds, and if we had ten of them we could probably say it has a lot more sounds than the ones we described. Our advice:Beware of small sample sizes, especially sample sizes of two.

The stereo pressings we listed recently had superb sound. The monos, however, just sounded like old records, and not very good ones at that. The typical record collection is full of them.

Only an old school audio system can hide the faults of a pressing such as this one. The world is full of those too, even though they might comprise all the latest and most expensive components.

The mono pressings are hopeless on today’s modern stereos, and for that reason we say stick with stereo. For other albums that don’t sound good in mono, click here.

If you see this album in mono at a garage sale, pick it up for the music, and then be on the lookout for a nice stereo original to enjoy for the sound.

More on the subject of mono versus stereo.

Want to find your own top quality copy?

Consider taking our moderately helpful advice concerning the pressings that tend to win our shootouts.

As of 2025, shootouts for this album should be carried out:

Nothing else will do for the sound of a Sinatra recording with him fronting Billy May’s orchestra.

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Frank Sinatra – Trilogy: Past, Present and Future

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  • With outstanding Double Plus (A++) sound or BETTER on all SIX sides, this copy of Sinatra’s wonderful 1980 release will be very hard to beat – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • The sound here is rich and full-bodied with much less grain and much more Tubey Magic than most of the other copies we played in our recent shootout
  • Credit the brilliant engineering of Frank Laico for the excellent sound – this record doesn’t sound like 1980, and that’s a very, very good thing
  • “An audacious, ambitious way to stage a comeback, each of the album’s three records was conceived as an individual work, and each was arranged by one of Sinatra’s major collaborators. . . the best moments are triumphant, proving that the Voice was still vital in his fourth decade of recording.”

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Frank Sinatra and Duke Ellington – Francis A. & Edward K.

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More Duke Ellington

  • Superb Double Plus (A++) grades bring this wonderful collaboration to life on this original Reprise stereo pressing – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Sinatra is both natural and present – he actually sounds like he is standing on the same stage as Ellington’s band, and maybe he is!
  • The highs are extended and silky sweet, the bass is tight and punchy – this copy gives you more life and energy than most by a long shot
  • “Recorded on Sinatra’s birthday in 1967, this collaboration between America’s most popular singing icon and pre-eminent jazz composer still endures as one of Sinatra’s most enjoyable Reprise-era albums.” – Amazon
  • If you’re a fan of either of these two fine gentlemen, this early pressing from 1967 surely belong in your collection

Recorded one year after the remarkable Sinatra-Jobim record that we treasure here at Better Records, Sinatra takes the opportunity to work with one of the greatest bandleaders in the history of jazz, the Duke himself. We had good luck with the stereo originals on the lovely Blue and Green Reprise labels — they can be as big, rich and warm as Sinatra’s legendary Capitol recordings when you find the right pressing, and that’s really saying something.

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Frank Sinatra – My Kind of Broadway

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  • Here is a superb copy of Sinatra’s 1965 release (one of only a handful to hit the site in three years) with two solid Double Plus (A++) or BETTER sides – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • The superb Tubey Magical mid-60s Sinatra sound was recorded in various sessions from 1961 to 1965
  • Both sides of this original Reprise LP are richer, fuller and smoother than most other pressings we played in our most recent shootout
  • “When Sinatra delivers, as he does on the show-stopper ‘Luck Be a Lady,’ the results are pretty spectacular…” – All Music.

With the Count Basie Orchestra backing him on some tracks (“Ev’rybody Has The Right To Be Wrong” on side one and “Nice Work If You Can Get It” and “They Can’t Take That Away From Me” on side two just to mention a few we especially liked) the swinging Sinatra is heard in his prime and he sounds just great to us.

“Without a Song” has a killer big band arrangement and a stellar performance from Ol’ Blues Eyes himself.

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Frank Sinatra / Swing Along With Me – A Top Sinatra Title (You Probably Never Heard Of)

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  • With INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them throughout, this original Reprise pressing (only the second copy to hit the site in over three years) is doing practically everything right
  • Both of these vintage stereo sides are superb — rich, smooth and full-bodied with wonderfully present vocals and all of the Tubey Magic that’s missing from most copies
  • This album is very tough to come by in stereo in anything but beat condition, let alone with this kind of sound
  • Such is the trade-off here, with some bad marks on “Falling in Love With Love” and scattered stitches throughout “I Never Knew” and “Don’t Be That Way,” but once you hear how incredible sounding this copy is, you may be inclined, as we were, to stop counting ticks and stitches and just be swept away by the music
  • “Twelve of the most uninhibited Sinatra things ever recorded!”
  • “Recorded with Billy May, Sinatra Swings was Frank Sinatra’s first straight swing album for Reprise Records. In terms of content and approach, the record is remarkably similar to his final Capitol swing effort, Come Swing with Me.”

Also known as Sinatra Swings.

Five for Five in 1961

Of the five records Sinatra released in 1961 (Sinatra’s Swingin’ Session!!!; Come Swing with Me!; Ring-a-Ding-Ding!; Swing Along with Me; and I Remember Tommy), this is clearly one of our favorites. (And by the way, what’s with all the exclamation marks?)

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Frank Sinatra – Come Dance With Me!

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  • Come Dance With Me! returns to the site for only the second time in three years, here with superb Double Plus (A++) sound throughout this early Capitol stereo LP
  • This pressing was doing pretty much everything we wanted it to — and on both sides — with an abundance of energy and the kind of immediacy that can put Frank Sinatra front and center right in your very own listening room
  • One of the more fun Sinatra albums we’ve had the pleasure of playing recently, and this is a copy that delivers big time
  • It also plays about as quiet as we can find them, and finding one without marks that play is practically a miracle
  • 5 stars: “Working with Billy May again, Frank Sinatra recorded his hardest swing album ever with Come Dance with Me! . . . an intoxicating rush of invigorating dance songs.”

Get ready to swing with the Chairman of the Board on this superb pressing of his classic album from 1959! Billy May and his orchestra back Frank with wonderful arrangements here, and a copy like this lets you appreciate everyone’s hard work. On the better pressings, the brass blasts on side two are to die for!

It’s tough to find good-sounding copies of almost any Sinatra album, finding amazing copies of his most classic albums like this one is a ridiculously tough task. Even for us, the guys who do nothing but search for and audition records all day every day! So we were thrilled to play a copy like this one that did just what we wanted from music like this.

If you never thought you’d hear a Sinatra record sound as powerful as the man himself came across — this is the pressing that you’ve been looking for. Most copies were either smeary or edgy, but this one was wonderfully smooth with impressive clarity.

Sinatra fans, don’t miss out — we don’t find records like this too often.

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Ella Fitzgerald – Sings the Harold Arlen Song Book

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More Pop and Jazz Vocal Recordings

  • These early Verve Stereo pressings are close to the BEST we have ever heard, with roughly Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) grades on all FOUR sides – just shy of our Shootout Winner
  • This copy will teleport a living, breathing Ella Fitzgerald directly into your listening room like no album of hers you have ever heard
  • The First Lady of Song’s voice is noticeably breathier, fuller, more relaxed and more musical here than on practically all the other stereo copies we played
  • The mono pressings were constistenly flat, dry and veiled – lesson learned, we will never bother with another one
  • The single disc pressing of volume 2 was ridiculously bright – based on this shootout, it seems clear that the original double album is the only way to go
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Sings the Harold Arlen Song Book is an exquisite album, a classic in vocal jazz, and one of Fitzgerald’s best recordings.”

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Peggy Lee – Sugar ‘N’ Spice

More Peggy Lee

  • An excellent copy of Sugar ‘N’ Spice with Double Plus (A++) sound throughout
  • So hugely spacious and three-dimensional, yet with a tonally correct and natural sounding Peggy, this is the way to hear it
  • This ’60s LP has the kind of Tubey Magical Midrange that modern pressings barely BEGIN to reproduce
  • Folks, that sound is gone and it sure isn’t showing any sign of coming back
  • “Peggy Lee is in fine voice throughout this jazz-flavored set, backed by ensembles arranged by Benny Carter, Billy Byers, Billy May, and Shorty Rogers. One of [her] better recordings from the early ’60s.”
  • “Peggy is in fine voice and brings her sweet feminine tones to her ballads and her salty, seductive sounds to the more uptempo material.”
  • If you’re a fan of Miss Lee,  or vintage pop and jazz vocals in general, this album from the Golden Age of 1962 is surely one that belongs in your collection. (As one reviewer noted below, ignore the bad wig and lousy cover art.)

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