AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Frank Sinatra Count Basie

Artist:Frank Sinatra Count Basie

Song:The Best Is Yet to Come

Album:The Complete Reprise Studio Recordings

It's likely that if Frank Sinatra had stayed with Capitol Records, he would have never recorded with Count Basie's band. He recorded two studio albums with Basie and The Best Is Yet to Come is probably Sinatra's best known recording from those two albums. The song was a regular part of Sinatra's repertoire despite not being released as a single. Sinatra was feuding with Capitol Records VP Alan Livingston over creative control. He tried to buy Verve Records from Norman Granz. But they couldn't work out a deal and Granz sold Verve to MGM. So he started Reprise Records in 1961. He ran the company himself at first. But most of the artists signed to Reprise were nostalgia acts and didn't sell. So Sinatra sold Reprise to Warner Bros. in 1963 and Mo Ostin made the label successful by signing contemporary artists. Sinatra still recorded for Reprise and he continued to have commercial success until his first retirement. Creative control was the main reason Sinatra started Reprise in the first place. So he got to do what he wanted. And what he really wanted to do was record with jazz bandleader Count Basie and his orchestra. The album Sinatra-Basie: A Historical Musical First was released in 1962. Neal Hefti was Basie's arranger at the time. The songs are mostly standards including a couple that Sinatra had previously recorded. The Best Is Yet to Come is from the 1964 album It Might As Well Be Swing. This is generally considered to be the better album of the two mostly because Quincy Jones was brought in to write the arrangements. This was the first time Jones had worked with Sinatra. Sinatra and Basie did some shows together and a live album was released in 1965. The Best Is Yet to Come was written by jazz pianist and composer Cy Coleman and his longtime partner Carolyn Leigh for Tony Bennett's 1962 album I Left My Heart in San Francisco. Others to record the song were Peggy Lee, Sarah Vaughan, Nancy Wilson and Blossom Dearie. Sinatra continued to perform The Best Is Yet to Come and and it was the last song in his final performance on Feb. 25, 1995 at the Palm Desert Marriott Ballroom. It was also etched on Sinatra's original tombstone though that was changed a few years ago. Both Sinatra Basie albums were released on one CD and that is available as a digital download. Here's Frank Sinatra performing The Best Is Yet to Come on the CBS TV special The Milestone Birthday Special. This was filmed at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sinatra's birthday Dec. 12, 1979.

 

AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Ralph Alessi

Artist:Ralph Alessi

Song:Chuck Barris

Album: Baida

Jazz trumpeter Ralph Alessi straddles the line between progressive jazz and avant garde. He currently records for ECM Records. The 2013 album Baida is probably his best known album. He is also a very busy sideman and an educator. He was born Mar. 5, 1963 in San Francisco. His parents met as performers at the Metropolitan Opera. His father Joseph Alessi Sr. was principal trumpet for 15 years. His mother Maria Leone sang in the chorus. His brother Joseph Alessi plays trombone in the New York Philharmonic. The Alessi brothers took trumpet lessons as children. As a teen, Ralph Alessi played with the San Francisco Symphony and San Francisco Opera. He attended the California Institute of the Arts where he studied with legendary bassist Charlie Haden. Alessi earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Jazz trumpet and a Master of Fine Arts in bass. He played with Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra and saxophonist Bill Perkins and pianist Ralph Strazzeri. Alessi moved to New York City in 1990. He recorded as a sideman with avant garde saxophonist Steve Coleman. After releasing a 1999 album on his own label, he released three albums on Ravi Coltrane's RKM label. The two became friends in school. Alessi also recorded for the European labels CAM Jazz and Clean Feed. Meanwhile, Alessi founded The School for Improvisational Music in Brooklyn and has taught at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester. Alessi signed with ECM for the 2013 album Baida. ECM owner Manfred Eicher produced the album. Musicians are Jason Moran on piano, Drew Gress on bass and Nasheet Watts on drums. Supposedly, Alessi named the song Chuck Barris after The Gong Show host because Barris wrote in his autobiography that he was a secret CIA operative. So the title is a joke. This album is available as a digital download. Alessi left ECM for a while. But he returns to the label with the 2026 album A Sun That Never Sets featuring his brother Joseph Alessi on trombone. Alessi is not touring right now. He was on tour earlier this year. I am sure he will tour in 2027. Here's Ralph Alessi with Gary Versace on piano, Drew Gress on bass and Nasheet Watts on drums performing Chuck Barris in Muri, Switzerland Mar. 20, 2016.

 

AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Oscar Peterson

Artist:Oscar Peterson

Song:Sweet Georgia Brown

Album:Genesis

Most jazz fans are familiar with pianist Oscar Peterson's recordings on Norman Granz' labels Verve and Pablo. But you may not be familiar with Peterson's recordings before he signed with Verve. This recording of Sweet Georgia Brown was released in 1949 on RCA. Fortunately, these early recordings are easy to find and cheap too. As most folks know, Peterson was born and raised in Montreal. He was classically trained but Peterson loved jazz and boogie woogie. And if you've ever watched Peterson play, no one can keep up with him. He was known as The Brown Bomber of Boogie Woogie. He practiced four to six hours a day. So he wasn't messing around. His big break came when he won a 1940 national music competition organized by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He dropped out of high school and played in a band with trumpeter Maynard Ferguson. He had a weekly radio show and performed in local hotels. RCA Records' Canadian office heard Peterson and offered to record him. So he recorded for RCA from 1945-49. This recording of Sweet Georgia Brown was released on a 78rpm disc in 1949. Musicians are Austin Roberts on bass an Clarence Jones on drums. Sweet Georgia Brown is a jazz standard written by Ben Bernie, Maceo Pinkard and Kenneth Casey. Bernie was the first to record it. But Bing Crosby was the first to score a hit with the song in 1932. But Sweet Georgia Brown really became popular when Brother Bones and His Shadows recorded it in 1949. That's Brother Bones AKA Freeman Davis doing the whistling. This recording was adopted by the basketball team The Harlem Globetrotters as their theme. Sweet Georgia Brown became a jazz standard played by many jazz musicians. You can get Peterson's 1949 recording on this 4CD comp from the British label Proper Records. All of Peterson's early recordings are here. And it's available at a budget price. Norman Granz was in a cab on the way to the Montreal airport and heard Peterson on the radio. Granz told the cab driver to take him to the club. Granz brought Peterson to New York to appear on Jazz at the Philharmonic. And the rest is history. Granz became Peterson's manager and Peterson recorded for Granz' labels Verve and Pablo for most of his career. Here's Oscar Peterson with Ray Brown and Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen on bass performing Sweet Georgia Brown at the 1974 Montreux Jazz Festival. I think this is a changing of the guard with NHOP taking over from Brown. NHOP played with Peterson for the next decade.

AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Robert Plant/Alison Krauss

Artist:Robert Plant/Alison Krauss

Song:Please Read the Letter

Album:Raising Sand

At first most folks will think that Robert Plant and Alison Krauss are an odd couple. But in recent years Plant has experimented with different kinds of music. And their 2007 album Raising Sand was very successful. The album won five Grammys. According to American Songwriter magazine, Plant and Alison met when both appeared on a 2004 Lead Belly tribute show in Cleveland. He already knew about Alison as he heard her on the radio. He contacted her a year later to see if she would like to record with him. Alison suggested that T-Bone Burnett should produce the album. And she also brought in her record label Rounder Records. Plant told the Guardian that Alison taught him how to sing duets. The 2007 album Raising Sand is mostly folk and bluegrass standards. Please Read the Letter is a song written by Plant and Jimmy Page. They recorded it as Page and Plant on the 1998 album Walking into Clarksdale. As I said, the album won five Grammys including Record of the Year for Please Read the Letter and Album of the Year. As you will see in the video, Alison played a fiddle solo. T-Bone Burnett produced and played guitar. The other musicians are session men Marc Ribot on guitar, Dennis Crouch on bass and Jay Bellerose on drums. This album is available on CD. They toured to support it. A follow up album was planned in 2009 and they did record. But it didn't work out. The two released the 2021 album Raise the Roof and toured to support it. Here's the video of Please Read the Letter by Robert Plant/Alison Krauss. 

 

AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Stella Lefty

Artist:Stella Lefty

Song:Boston

Album:Long Way Home

I guess it could be said that singer Stella Lefty is the next big thing. She scored a top five hit with the 2026 single Boston and she released her debut album last month. Will she take the country pop queen crown from Taylor Swift? That remains to be seen but I have my doubts which I will express later. Besides, isn't Ella Langley supposed to inherit that crown? I'll get to that too. She was born Stella Lefkofsky Aug. 13, 2002 in Los Angeles and grew up in the Chicago suburb of Glencoe, IL. Her father is Groupcon co-founder Eric Lefkofsky so he's a billionaire. Stella started writing songs and playing guitar as a child. But she suffered from stage fright so she didn't perform. Not surprisingly, Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus are big influences. After graduating from high school, Stella studied public health at Tulane University in New Orleans. At the time, she had no plan to do anything in music. While studying in Amsterdam, Stella started posting videos of her music on TikTok. After posting her 2024 debut single on TikTok, she was contacted by producer Jacob "J Kash" Hindlin who has worked with many pop singers. Stella released the 2025 EP Tragic, Really and the single Thinkin' 'Bout You charted. And then she signed with Atlantic Records' country label Atlantic Outpost. So they were going to market her as a country singer. Then she released the EP Is This Heaven? and the single Boston topped the Country Singles chart and reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. Stella wrote the song with her friend Grace Enger, the album producer Joe Reeves and J Kash. The record is based on the 2022 Noah Kahan single Stick Season so he got a songwriting credit. Stella posted a snippet of herself performing the chorus of Boston on TikTok. She hadn't even finished the song and it spread virally. The main criticism of Boston is it is too similar to Stick Season. But now she's a big deal. The album Long Way Home was released in August. Stella wrote most of the songs with Grace Enger and Joe Reeves produced. So can Stella Lefty inherit Taylor Swift's crown? First, I don't think Taylor is giving up that crown. Second, Ella Langley is her main competition and is already a bigger star than Stella. Plus there are already accusations about "industry plants" and that Stella is a "nepo baby". Her manager Adam Alpert categorically denied this. I think her big mistake was basing Boston on Stick Season. It was so similar that Noah Kahan's manager contacted her about it. That's how Kahan got a songwriting credit. That's a big red flag. So we'll see how Stella does. She could be a star or a one hit wonder. Here's the video for Boston by Stella Lefty. 

AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Mercedes Sosa

Artist:Mercedes Sosa

Song:Todo Cambia

Album:Oro

Argentine singer Mercedes Sosa was popular throughout Latin America and Europe for over 40 years. Her roots are in Argentine folk music but she liked to record songs by young songwriters. She won a Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004. She was born July 9, 1935 in Tucuman, Argentina which is in Northwest Argentina. She was of Spanish, French and Diaguita descent. Her nickname La Negra is because of her darker complexion due to her indigenous (Diaguita) heritage. Mercedes was 15 years old when she started singing for the local Peronist Party as Gladys Osorio. Then she won a singing competition at a local radio station. Mercedes recorded her debut album in 1965. Folksinger Jorge Cafrune brought her onstage at the 1965 Cosquin National Folklore Festival. That got her enough attention so she could record an album of Argentine folk songs. This got her a record deal with Philips Records for the 1966 album Hermanos. She recorded for Philips, Polydor and Mercury for over 30 years. Mercedes started touring in the US and Europe. She recorded albums with Ariel Martinez and Felix Luna and popularized Brazilian songwriter Milton Nascimento and Cuban Silvio Rodriguez. She recorded women's songs in the 70s along with songs about political and social issues. After the military junta of Jorge Videla came to power in 1976, the atmosphere in Argentina became increasingly oppressive. After Mercedes was barred from performing in 1979, she moved to Europe and lived mostly in Spain. She returned to Argentina in 1982 just before the regime collapsed due to the Falklands War. This is when Mercedes became very popular in Argentina for recording young songwriters. Todo Cambia is from her 1984 album Sera Posible El Sur. The album songs are about political and social change. The song Todo Cambia was written by Chilean singer songwriter Julio Numhauser. The album was produced by her husband Fabian Matus. You can get Todo Cambia on this comp which is available as a budget CD. Philips, Polydor and Mercury are all now Universal labels. She left Universal in 1999 for RCA. Mercedes received many lifetime achievement awards in her final years. She died on Sept. 18, 2009 at age 74. Here's the video for Todo Cambia by Mercedes Sosa.

  

AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Randy Scruggs

Artist:Randy Scruggs

Song:Lonesome Reuben

Album:Crown of Jewels

Randy Scruggs was the son of bluegrass legend Earl Scruggs. Mostly he was a Nashville studio musician, songwriter and producer. The 1998 album Crown of Jewels was Scruggs' only solo album and it has an all star cast. So most country music fans will want to get it. Scruggs was born Aug. 3, 1953 in Nashville. He recorded two albums with his brother Gary Scruggs for Vanguard Records in the early 70s. Meanwhile, he played bass on John Hartford's 1971 album Aereo-Plain. He played with his dad on a couple of Flatt & Scruggs records. After they split up, he was a member of The Earl Scruggs Revue. Scruggs was also a member of The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and played with Tom T. Hall and Waylon Jennings. In 1980, Scruggs opened his own recording studio Scruggs Sound Studio in Berry Hill, TN. Among the albums recorded there were Will the Circle Be Unbroken Vol. 2 by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in 1989 and the 2002 follow up album and the 1994 album Keith Whitley: A Tribute Album. Scruggs sold the studio just before his 2018 death. He also got into songwriting and wrote two top ten country hits; the 1986 single Right Hand Man by Eddy Raven and the 1989 single Call on Me by Tanya Tucker. So he was probably too busy to record his own album. And the 1998 album Crown of Jewels on Reprise Records was an all star extravaganza. Of course the instrumental Lonesome Ruben was written by his dad Earl Scruggs and an all star band performed it on the 1998 CMA Awards show broadcast. Other guests on the album include Vince Gill, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Trisha Yearwood, Travis Tritt, Bruce Hornsby, John Prine, Emmylou Harris, Jerry Douglas, Joan Osborne and Rosanne Cash. This album is available as a digital download. Scruggs returned to his studio activities including playing on albums by Sara Evans, Lee Ann Womack and Rodney Crowell. As I said, Randy Scruggs sold his studio in 2018 and died on Apr. 17, 2018 at age 64. Here's Randy Scruggs with an all star band including his dad Earl Scruggs and Chet Atkins performing Lonesome Ruben on the 1998 CMA Awards broadcast. All the musicians are identified on screen.