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I’m in love with this video, and the song it’s wrapped around. The song is “I’VE GOT YOU UNDER MY SKIN” by Cole Porter – Nelson Riddle’s arrangement and sung by, The Chairman of the Board, Frank Sinatra – the Patron Saint of Italianesque Americana.

It’s the first time I’ve expierienced this cut with a video. There’s a smoke’n horn section at the bridge? And a photo of a bridge at the bridge. Sinatra’s versions of this song are pure (black) magic. The contrast of volume levels help make this song one of the best ever recorded. The long, loud 3/4 of the way in crescendo / trombone solo is ridiculous.

from Richard Williams -The Guardian,
Wednesday 4 February 2004 02.57 GMT

“Nowadays the idea of a trombone solo igniting a great pop record might seem quaint. But there was nothing quaint about the solo halfway through Frank Sinatra’s classic version of I’ve Got You Under My Skin, with which Milt Bernhart, who [] died of heart failure aged 77, created something as electrifying in its time as anything devised by Jimi Hendrix or Eric Clapton in a later generation.
Recorded on January 12 1956, during one of five sessions that produced the album Songs For Swingin’ Lovers, I Got You Under My Skin is one of Sinatra’s finest performances. Nelson Riddle’s arrangement propels Cole Porter’s song at an easy, finger-snapping medium tempo, introduced by the unorthodox combination of a bass clarinet riff with celeste punctuation.”

“Sinatra, a month past his 40th birthday and at the height of his powers, delivers the first verse with a devil-may-care sexiness. For the instrumental interlude, Riddle creates a 12-bar ramp by juxtaposing syncopated trombone figures with sustained high notes in the violins, building a crescendo whose tension is thrillingly released by the sudden blaze of trumpets which launches Bernhart’s solo. In a mere eight bars, his rampaging brassiness lifts the song to a new level of intensity, providing a counterpoint of Dionysian ecstasy to the singer’s Apollonian self- control.”

The video, uploaded to YouTube by utubeLyrics102, is pretty much just a slideshow of romantic photographs of lovers, from very young to very old. Constant slow panning of the photographs creates a sense of drama and cinematic movement. 50s chicks in tight American jeans holding on to their men. Old folks watching boats (that are) in their slips. Black and White photographs of lovers in that first embrace. The exact moment that you fell in love. Is there anything better. And that iconic Kiss photo, snapped in Times Square just after WW ll ended. Pure, beautiful Americana! Lover’s embracing under bridges and on sidewalks. This is a well-crafted video that is completely respectful to Frank Sinatra’s vocal rendition of the song. I’ll do some research later on – about who put this video together. It’s a damn good job. He/she has been in love.

The music is empowered by Sinatra’s presence. It was recorded at a time when the US was as sweet as Apple Pie. Frank Sinatra was living beyond the American Dream, mega-large. All that excitement, success, high-life-living and magic is captured in the recordings.

Visit the Sinatra’s Family Website

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