I’ve Got You Under My Skin — Sinatra Version
Frank ‘steps up’ to record a twenty-year-old Cole Porter song
It starts at a lope, in 2/4 time, with the now-famous repeating figure — bum-ba-dum-BOM ba-dum-BOM ba-dum-BOM James Kaplan Sinatra
Elvis Presley’s debut album was released, like Songs for Swingin’ Lovers!, in March 1956…. Though Sinatra may have thought it beneath him, his record effectively answered the new sound…with sleek contemporary lines, purring power and sexy intimacy, making hoary standards sound freshy minted. “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” is as rock’n’roll as anything released that year.
Was I’ve Got You Under My Skin a ‘hoary standard’ in the mid-fifties? Not amongst jazz singers and musicians. They were attracted by its flexibility and harmonic possibilities.
But it’s true that for the broader public, it was a second-tier tune and perhaps a little old-fashioned.
Then, in 1954, all was shook up by the arrival of Elvis. Sinatra, only two years before widely written off as a has-been, was also on the march. He triumphantly returned from his career slump with a new sound, orchestrated by a young arranger named Nelson Riddle.
On the evening of 12 January 1955, the best jazz players in Los Angeles were summoned to the Capitol Studio. There, Nelson Riddle presented them with a hastily prepared new chart. This blended the emerging cool jazz sound with the big band swing, capitalizing on advancements in recording technology.
So new, then, and the top musicians tended to be wary of new. They asked to play it through. A very nervous Nelson Riddle agreed and retreated to the control booth. Four minutes later, applause spontaneously rang out around the studio. They loved it — and so did Frank.
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Just before midnight, they began recording.
{Sinatra} asked for a crescendo that would carry the orchestra up and then come on down for him to finish … Nelson Ridley
There are many outstanding features of the Sinatra version, but the key is the bridge — or turnaround — that steers the melody away from the main theme before then moving smoothly back into it. In jazz, a bridge is often built around a virtuosic solo.
Crucially, however, in the 1950s, radio formats imposed length restrictions. (IGYUMS comes in at just under the upper limit (03:43). None of the fourteen tracks on Songs For Swinging Lovers is over four minutes long). This ruled out the free-wheeling extended solos of later recordings like Coltrane’s version of My Favourite Things.
Evans sketched out eight bars of chord symbols for trombonist (and fellow Stan Kenton alumnus) Milt Bernhart to use as a framework. Bernhart’s solo itself was to be totally improvised.
Early takes went very well, but Sinatra, usually a ‘one take Charlie’, sensed they could do better still. He asked for the trombone to be closer to the highest microphone. When informed that this was not logistically possible, he went and found a box for Bernhart to stand upon.
Now they were ready for Take 22 — and lift-off for those incredible 32 measures/bars:
The strings lift the long crescendo higher and higher and higher until it seems they can go no higher. And then Milt Bernhart, drawing on reserves he didn’t know he possessed….
Not going to beat that, Frank, though the ever musically restless Chairman didn’t stop trying. He recorded spirited live versions with Count Basie & Quincy Jones and revisited the tune on his own label, Reprise.
All admirable, but our collective internal juke box is not accepting alternatives. Got to be Frank and Nelson, with Milt going wild on his slide trombone, simply blowing his lungs out.
I’ve Got You Under My Skin — Song FAQ — song structure, original version, interesting interpretations etc
