6. Frank Sinatra – Songs for Swingin’ Lovers

Well, this is Frank’s second time on the list, and the fact that we’re only 6 in shouts about how big the guy was back in the day (we’re still only in 1956 pop pickers). And this time around it’s the Sinatra we all think of when we hear the name. “Songs for Swingin’ Lovers” is a markedly different album to “In the Wee Small Hours”. While that basked in a rich scotch-soaked melancholy, this is Sinatra tearing through the Cole Porter songbook with upbeat covers of “I’ve got you under my skin” and “Anything Goes”. There’s the class of “Pennies from Heaven”, the joy of “You make me feel so young”, the winking charm of “Making Whoopee” and the frankly (no pun intended) shocking emotion of “We’ll be together again”.

This is one of those albums, like “Exodus” or “Tea for the Tillerman”, that’s so full of classic moments you can’t help wondering if you picked up a greatest hits compilation by accident. What is true though is that listening to this album is listening to a little bit of history bursting into life at 33 rpm.