Artist:Frank Sinatra
Song:Night and Day
Album:The Fabulous Frank Sinatra and Tommy Dorsey
The Cole Porter standard Night and Day was Frank Sinatra's first solo recording in 1942. He was already very successful singing with Tommy Dorsey's band. But Sinatra felt it was time to go. His timing wasn't the best but I'll get to that in a minute. In 1939, Sinatra left the Harry James band for Tommy Dorsey. His recordings with Dorsey made Sinatra the very first teen idol. But by the end of 1941, it became clear to Sinatra that he had outgrown the Dorsey band and he needed to go solo. After bugging Dorsey relentlessly, he was allowed to record Night and Day and three other songs for RCA's Bluebird label in January 1942 with Dorsey's arranger Axel Stordahl. The record reached #16 on the Hit Parade. Now Sinatra really wanted to go solo. It wasn't easy but Sinatra was able to get out of his contract with Dorsey in August 1942. He also took Stordahl with him. Of course later that year, Sinatra made his famed appearance at New York's Paramount Theater where Sinatramania was born. Then he signed with Columbia Records. Unfortunately, this was during the musician's strike. Columbia's solution was to release the 1939 recording of All or Nothing at All that Sinatra made with Harry James as a Sinatra recording. It was his first big solo hit. Though Sinatra would record Night and Day many times over the years, the 1942 version is a discography orphan. This the only time Sinatra recorded for RCA. Over the years RCA has released comps with Sinatra's Dorsey recordings with Night and Day added. That's what this budget comp is. Sony released a career spanning Sinatra box set in 2007 but it's too expensive. Here's Frank Sinatra performing Night and Day in the 1943 film Reveille with Beverley.
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