“Fly” on Vanity Fair’s best song list
Frank Sinatra’s “Fly Me to the Moon,” the landmark 1964 recording arranged and conducted by Quincy, has made Vanity Fair’s list of the 25 best songs of all time.
The magazine’s editors compiled 25 best of everything lists in conjunction with its 25th anniversary and are asking readers to vote for their favorites on vanityfair.com.
While “Fly Me to the Moon” is the only track Quincy worked on featured on the list, several of the artists on the list have worked with or have connections to Q, including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Peggy Lee, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin, Simon & Garfunkel, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Dave Brubeck, and Sarah Vaughan.
Working on “Fly Me to the Moon” was a particular thrill for Quincy, since the recording featured both Sinatra and another legend, Count Basie & His Orchestra.
“It was heaven, man,” Quincy told Don Heckman. “I had met Frank for the first time in France in 1958, but there was very little conversation going on because everybody was scared to death of him. Then six years later he called me in New York from Hawaii and said he’d like me to do his next album with him and the Basie Band and he asked how long it would take me to get over there. I said, ‘In a New York minute.’”
Look for a full Q Song Spotlight on “Fly Me to the Moon” in the future. In the meantime, you can listen to “Fly Me to the Moon” below and vote for the song here.
Which Quincy-related songs to you think should have made the list of 25 best songs?
You would have to put “FLY ME TO THE MOON” when done by Quincy Jones, Frank Sinatra and Count Basie in a category of one, because of the new perspectives each bought to the song. Where do you start to enjoy it? Especially ingenious is how each master exemplary style meshed under Maestro Jones.
The contemporary composition of “Fly Me to The Moon’s melodic style was expanded even though being atonal (without harmonies), but given us in colorful clusters. Add the rhythmic piano playing of Count Basie with his signature end, how could you ask for more? I don’t care please give us more! Genius!
That tune is totally brilliant!