Sinatra's first collaboration with arranger/conductor Billy May, Come Fly with Me was designed as a musical trip around the world. Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen wrote the title track at Sinatra's request.[5]
In his autobiographyAll You Need Is Ears, producer George Martin wrote of having visited the Capitol Tower during the recording sessions for the album. According to Martin's book, Sinatra expressed intense dislike for the album cover upon being first shown a mock-up by producer Voyle Gilmore, suggesting it looked like an advertisement for TWA.[6]
Though recorded simultaneously in true stereo alongside a distinct mono mix, "Come Fly with Me" was released to record stores in 1958 in monaural only, a standard practice by Capitol records at the time. The label released the stereo version in 1961.[9]
13/14-August-1957 (Tue/Wed) - Hollywood. Conrad Gozzo, Pete Candoli, Harry Edison, George Seaberg (tpt); Tommy Pederson, Russell Brown, Jimmy Priddy (tbn); Juan Tizol (v-tbn); Skeets Herfurt, Harry Klee, Champ Webb, Ted Nash, Joe Koch (sax/wwd); Paul Nero, Alex Beller, Victor Bay, Marshall Sosson, Mischa Russell, Dan Lube, Jacques Gasselin, Emo Neufeld, Harry Bluestone (vln); Maxine Johnson, Barbara Simons (via); Cy Bernard, Armand Kaproff, Edgar Lustgarten (vlc); Kathryn Julye (harp); Bill Miller (p); Al Viola (g); Joe Comfort (b); Alvin Stoller (d).
Track 14:
30-April-1953 (Thursday) - Hollywood. Conrad Gozzo, Mannie Klein, Mickey Mangano, Zeke Zarchy (tpt); Si Zentner, Joe Howard, Jimmy Priddy, Milt Bernhart (tbn); Skeets Herfurt, Jack Dumont, Ted Nash, Ted Romersa, Joe Koch (sax/wwd); Bill Miller (p); Al Hendrickson (g); Phil Stephens (b); Alvin Stoller (d).[10]
"On the Road to Mandalay"
Part of sleeve of first UK mono release LCT 6154, showing "On the Road to Mandalay" substituted by "It Happened in Monterey".
Sinatra recorded a jazzy, controversial arrangement of On the Road to Mandalay, in which elements of the Kipling text were changed, notably Temple-bells becoming crazy bells, for the album. Rudyard Kipling's daughter, Elsie Bambridge, so disliked Sinatra's lyrical improvisations and jazzy arrangement of the song that she exercised her authority as executrix of Kipling's estate {because Kipling's poem was still copyrighted in the United Kingdom [copyright in the U. K. extended for 70 years after his death in 1936)] to have the song banned for some years in the U.K.
When the album was released in the United Kingdom, "On the Road to Mandalay" was replaced by "It Happened in Monterey" on original mono releases and "French Foreign Legion" on stereo copies, while the song "Chicago" was used in other parts of the British Commonwealth. Sinatra sang the song in Australia during a concert tour in 1959 and relayed the story of the Kipling family objection to the song and explained how the Australian release of Come Fly with Me came to contain "Chicago".[11] "Mandalay" was eventually restored on the 1984 UK re-pressing, and has been included on all subsequent releases.
Kipling's daughter was not alone in being upset with Sinatra’s version. In a selection of comments on various topics, The New York Times said, "We applaud Mrs. Bambridge on her defense of good taste against the inroads of 'slanguage.' . . . It is a form of sacrilege to alter [great poetry] because it has been entrusted to us as part of our permanent heritage."[12]>
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