Frank Sinatra’s 1960s Collabs With Count Basie & Duke Ellington to Be Reissued   

Frank Sinatra had his biggest hit single of the 1960s with “Somethin’ Stupid,” a light pop duet with his daughter Nancy Sinatra that topped the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks in 1967. But he also recorded full-length albums in that era with two certified jazz legends — Count Basie and Duke Ellington. UMe, in conjunction with Frank Sinatra Enterprises, is releasing a double-vinyl collection entitled The Giants of Jazz, out Sept. 26.

The release consists of a pair of albums — It Might as Well Be Swing with Basie and His Orchestra, and Francis A. & Edward K. with Ellington — newly remastered from the archival recordings. The package includes a new gatefold jacket design that incorporates rare photographs as well as the original artwork.

It Might as Well Be Swing was released in August 1964, at the height of Beatlemania. It saw Sinatra accompanied by Basie and his orchestra on 10 tracks, including “The Best Is Yet to Come” and what many consider to be the definitive recording of “Fly Me to the Moon (In Other Words).” The latter track has eclipsed 766 million Spotify streams. This was Sinatra’s first studio album arranged by legend-to-be Quincy Jones, who was then just 31.

It Might as Well Be Swing was the second Sinatra/Basie collab, following Sinatra-Basie, which reached No. 5 on the Billboard 200 in 1963. It Might as Well Be Swing reached No. 13 in 1964. The two titans teamed a third time in 1966 for the classic live album Sinatra at the Sands, which reached No. 9.

It Might as Well Be Swing also included the Oscar-nominated song “More,” which was a standard of the era; “Hello, Dolly,” the Grammy winner for song of the year in 1965; and three Grammy nominees for song of the year – “I Wanna Be Around,” “The Good Life” and “Wives and Lovers.”

The title It Might as Well Be Swing was a play on the title of an Oscar-winning song from 1945, “It Might as Well Be Spring” written by Rodgers & Hammerstein. The original cover of It Might as Well Be Swing bears the phrase “A Meeting of Giants,” which provided the title for this reissue.

Francis A. & Edward K. was first released in January 1968, uniting Sinatra with Ellington and his big band. The title is a play on their full names – Francis Albert Sinatra and Edward Kennedy Ellington.

“Indian Summer,” from the album, includes a solo by saxophonist Johnny Hodges. Jazz legends Cootie Williams, Cat Anderson, Paul Gonsalves, Russell Procope, and others are also part of the Ellington orchestra. Long time Sinatra arranger Billy May wrote the arrangements for the album.

All three principal artists received lifetime achievement awards from the Recording Academy. Sinatra and Ellington were just the second and third artists, respectively, to receive that accolade, following Bing Crosby. Basie got the honor in 2002. Ellington, warmly saluted in the title of Stevie Wonder’s smash “Sir Duke,” died in 1974. Basie died in 1984; Sinatra in 1998.

The collection is now available for pre-order via the Official Store. The release continues a series of reissues of Sinatra music. First up, a special 4-inch Tiny Vinyl Edition of “Jingle Bells/Silent Night” hits shelves on Sept. 12.

Here are the full tracklistings for the two original albums.

It Might as Well Be Swing

Francis A. & Edward K.