FRIDAYS ARE FOR FRANK: “Fly Me To The Moon”

“Fly me to the moon
Let me play among the stars
Let me see what spring is like
On Jupiter and Mars”

“Fly Me to the Moon”, the popular song written in 1954 by Bart Howard, was originally titled “In Other Words.” As is often the case with jazz standards, Frank Sinatra‘s 1964 version off his album with Count Basie It Might As Well Be Swing (arranged by Quincy Jones) became the authoritative recording.

The song was closely associated with the Apollo missions to the Moon. A copy of the Sinatra version was played on the Apollo 10 mission orbiting the Moon, and later became “the first music ever heard on the Moon” when it was supposedly played on a portable cassette player by Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin after he stepped onto the lunar surface.

“Fill my heart with song
And let me sing for ever more.”

Here’s some inspiration, for those of us aiming to fly just a little bit higher…