Tom Moon on Frank Sinatra

"Honoring Sinatra with a Grammy Legend Award in 1994, U2 lead singer Bono described the singer's gift this way: 'Comin' through with the big stick, the aside, the quiet compliment, good cop/bad cop all in the same breath.' Songs for Swingin' Lovers is one of the best showcases for that dizzying sequence of uppercuts and jabs, in which unbridled cocksure exuberance is followed by moments of anguished soul-searching. It's among the early collaborations between Sinatra and arranger Nelson Riddle, and it shows how even when the rhythms are designed to not rattle the china, Sinatra somehow rattles the soul. On chart after ambling chart, each one decorated with a slightly different set of studio-orchestra colors, the Chairman of the Board demonstrates all the little ways exacting placement and phrasing can light up the room. His lines fall fitfully against the pattering rhythms. Or they glide along, gently increasing altitude, helped aloft by trembling strings. Or … his phrases are steeped in a besotted, lovestruck haze. No other American singer entertained this way, in sly bursts that formed their own iconographic musical language" (1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die, pp. 706-707).