Sinatra and Bim Bam Baby

Am I crazy for loving this record? It never fails to bring a smile to my face and get me singing along with it. Pretty sure Sinatra was enjoying singing this in spite of himself. My recollection is this is from the last full Columbia session he did. Of all the trips Sinatra took outside Sinatraville to a harder, r&b, rock-n-roll sound, I find this to be the closest he got (certainly better than the egregious Two Hearts, Two Kisses and From The Bottom To The Top) along with going full Nancy Sinatra on This Town.

I know late Columbia isn't for everybody, and you can make an argument that a lot of it shows how much he needed Nelson Riddle to come into his life, but there's a lot there that I enjoy.

 

I agree! I really like those late Columbia recordings... Don't Ever Be Afraid To Go Home, Walking In The Sunshine, Castle Rock, Deep Night, Why Try To Change Me Now and many others. Disc 12 is the one I play the most from the Complete Columbia box set.

But then there's Mama Will Bark. The one Sinatra song I refuse to listen to.

 

I enjoy Walking In The Sunshine a lot. I can almost hear him struggling to break out of the Siravo arrangement on that one and really swing at the end. Another one I enjoy is Love Me---which to me is REALLY an Ava performance.

Mama Will Bark? AWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

 

Just discovered Bim Bam Baby.

Man, reminds me of early Bill Haley, ala: Rock This Joint and Crazy Man Crazy.

If anything it shows that Frank could pull-off this kind of Rock And Roll. Just think, if he had pursued this kind of music, he could have eventually starred in B- movies with Alan Freed. I'm glad he didn't, of course, but, with BBB, he showed all those youngins, like Elvis, that he could have conquered their territory, if he had wanted to.

 

I do think even though he had a lot of fun with the tune that he just wasn't comfortable with that style--and it didn't do too badly on the charts, hit #20, I've Got The World On A String hit #14. I think late Columbia gets a bad rap, because it is, to me anyway, a very interesting recording.

 

The idea of Frank going into the "rim-ram room" still makes me a bit nervous.

 

Oh, I have no doubt he was uncomfortable with the Rock And Roll style. Witness the many disparaging comments he made about it during the course of the rest of the decade.

It is an interesting recording and I plan to include it the next next time I make an Early Rock And Roll Mix.

 

Yeah...Mrs. B. picked-up on that one [I had missed it...or, perhaps, didn't want to hear it] and shook her head. Just another case, I suppose, of some square cat trying to write a 'cool' song.

 

Where else will she run her greasy fingers through his greasy hair?

 

I assume you're referring to a statement he gave to what my recollection tells me was a French magazine. Whenever there's any mention of Frank and rock, they quote it. It's always been my opinion that some press flack wrote those words for him, much like the oft-quoted 1963 Playboy interview. I'm sure Frank did hate rock n roll, or at least hated that the music he loved and considered superior was going stylistically and commercially irrelevant, but it always bugs me to see that 1957 (?) quote.

 

This is where I first heard the song:

 

When I was around 19 or 20, I chanced across a VG copy of the Columbia LP Love Is a Kick, which was for sale for $1 at a punk rock record store in DC (the much-missed Vinyl Ink). Since it was so cheap, I bought it, even though it was "grandpa music." Not only did I love the LP and become a lifelong Sinatra fan, but "Bim Bam Baby" was the song that caught my attention.

There is a certain swagger and attitude in that number that transcends the genre. On that song, Sinatra grabbed my ear the way Joe Strummer or Paul Weller had. With his tone, he seemed to be saying something beyond the lyrics, in other words. I played it to friends in college who were not inclined to like Sinatra, and the reaction was generally favorable.

I know now the circumstances that prompted him to record semi-novelties like this. But that doesn't detract from my enjoyment of it.

Every artist should get some leeway to record silly/experimental stuff without it being considered "a sin" by their faithful. The Beach Boys had "She's Goin' Bald," the Fabs had "You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)" and Sinatra has this and a few others. In a few years I'd discover In the Wee Small Hours, and much more of his truly great work, but I wonder if I'd have ever gotten there had it not been for this one.

And that "Kids in the Hall" clip is hysterical -- perfect use of the song.

 

I agree with this wholeheartedly--and the knowingness in Sinatra's delivery has rescued and informed a lot of mediocre material. To my mind, he is one of the great communicators, not just actors, of lyrics.