Ring-A-Ding Ding! – FRANK SINATRA*****

Ring-A-Ding Ding/Let’s Fall In Love/Be Careful Its My Heart/A Foggy Day/A Fine Romance/In The Still Of The Night/The Coffee Song/When I Take My Sugar To Tea/Let’s Face The Music & Dance/You’d Be So Easy To Love/You & The Night & The Music/I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm

Ring-A-Ding Ding! was the first Frank Sinatra album release on the new Reprise label, which he founded. His new arranger Johnny Mandel swings harder and jazzier. (US:4 UK:8)

“Sinatra's first Reprise record is of Capitol quality. This is a fantastic and decidedly upbeat record. One of the last consistently great Sinatra albums.”

“Frank's first album for his own company is one of his best. Amazingly enough, Cahn and Van Heusen were able to actually write a song using Frank's catch phrase. This album has what in my opinion is the greatest arrangement of the Cole Porter classic In The Still Of The Night. The arrangements by Johnny Mandel swing hard and fast and Frank just glides over the band like a wave.”

“This record launched Frank's Reprise years and what a debut. Five stars isn't sufficient for an album that contains some of the greatest vocal tracks ever sung by Sinatra. This is an album where you can put it on, hit play and never fast forward, all the songs are eminently Sinatra-esque and exuberant.”

“This album is among his best. Johnny Mandel's arrangements are more jazz oriented and this music really swings even more than his other swing LPs, if that were possible.”

“In his premiere recording for his own label, Reprise, Sinatra scored a direct hit. From the swinging title tune to the end, he swings as well with Johnny Mandel's arrangements as he did with Riddle's. In fact I'm surprised that they didn't follow with more albums together since in a way, Mandel's charts are jazzier than Riddle's.”

“A major reason Sinatra peeled away from Capitol Records in 1961 to form his new Reprise label was to work with a variety of arrangers with innovative styles. Ring-A-Ding-Ding was the maiden album he recorded for his new enterprise, and what a debut it was. Johnny Mandel's jazz-infused arrangements proved a perfect foil for Sinatra, who at this point was still at the peak of his vocal abilities.”