Fly Me to the Moon - Frank Sinatra

In my opinion, there is no finer Sinatra song out there, and I'd like to think I know a lot of them. This song holds a very special place in my heart, pertaining to a dance at a wedding I attended with a very lovely woman I was seeing at the time.

The 8 bar intro of the brushes on the snare drum that lead into the first verse are so iconic, I know after the first two hits what the song is. From this, the snare makes a little jump, answered by the piano with two notes, right into Frankie just sliding into the verse. He's backed up by a walking bass, with a flute playing harmony behind him as the snare continues the beat. Right near the end of this verse, we are graced with the presence of some alto-saxes joining into the party with an answer to the flute's harmony, right before the snare drum gets hit hard, and the horn section comes roaring in to add to the rising cacophony of this piece.

This leads right into the second verse, with the horns providing a backup to Frankie's voice, amping up the energy. This verse is much more accented, building in intensity. After this verse, everything comes to a point and the horn section explodes, with the alto's getting the spotlight for a second, carrying the tune, and the flute getting a tiny quick solo to slow things down for a sec.

But the snare answers with a building of a quick beat, catapulting the band right back into the Chorus with Frankie belting out his notes with more intensity, repeating the second verse. This plays up to a point, with a rising crescendo as Frank holds 'in other words,' for the climax of the song. Then the piano answers with 3 slow notes by itself, and Frankie ending the song with 'you' with an accent from the Bass.

Overall, in a short period of time, Frank takes us from a simple melody, to a rising, exciting climax in less than 3 minutes, but he never leaves you dissatisfied at the end. Simply put, this is one of the best jazz arrangements.

PS: Thought you might get a kick out of this link, as we are starting to near this age in Jazz development. In this, Spongebob is trying to become a grown man. This is the final step.