Fly Me to the Moon
A 1954 ballad first called In Other Words, turned into a swinger by Quincy Jones and Count Basie.
Frank Sinatra (1964)
- Written by
- Bart Howard
- Released
- 1964
Bart Howard wrote it in 1954 under the title In Other Words, and Kaye Ballard made the first recording that year. By 1995 it had been recorded more than 300 times. Sinatra's version is on It Might as Well Be Swing (1964), made with Count Basie. Quincy Jones arranged it and changed the time signature from 3/4 to 4/4. The change was made at Sinatra's request, and Jones, then 29, recalled that Sinatra "just died" when he first heard the arrangement.
The Sinatra recording was played on a cassette player on Apollo 10 and Apollo 11. It is certified Platinum in the UK, for 600,000 sales. A live version with Basie appears on Sinatra at the Sands (1966).
More songs by Frank Sinatra
I've Got You Under My Skin, The Girl from Ipanema, Strangers in the Night, My Way, Theme from New York, New York, It Was a Very Good Year, In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning
Sources
- Fly Me to the Moon, Wikipedia
- Sinatra at the Sands, Wikipedia
- Quincy Jones and Frank Sinatra: the audacious partnership that rocketed them to another planet, The Guardian (2024-11-05)