Young At Heart

Album: This Is Sinatra! (1953)
Charted: 2
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Songfacts®:

  • This pop standard was written by Johnny Richards and Carolyn Leigh. Originally an instrumental by Richards called "Moonbeam," it became "Young at Heart" when Leigh added the lyrics. Frank Sinatra, who had been absent from the pop charts for a few years, came back with a million-selling hit when he was the first to record the song in 1953. Three years after releasing it as a single, he would include it on his 1956 album This Is Sinatra!
  • Sinatra's friend and frequent arranger Nelson Riddle introduced him to the song. "Nelson told me he had a song that had been floating around Vine Street [Capitol Records] and other companies for weeks or months," he recalled in Frank Sinatra: An American Legend by Nancy Sinatra. "'I think it's a good song,' Nelson said, 'but nobody wants to do it.' I didn't even ask him if I could hear it. I just said let's do it, and it turned out to be 'Young at Heart.' We did a single, and it was a big hit."
  • The single was so successful on the (pre-Billboard Hot 100) pop charts that the film Sinatra was working on with Doris Day was renamed Young at Heart. The song plays during the opening and closing credits.
  • This was featured in several movies, including The Front (1976), starring Woody Allen and Zero Mostel; Sweet Dreams (1985), a Patsy Cline biopic starring Jessica Lange; It Could Happen to You (1994), starring Nicolas Cage and Bridget Fonda; and Space Cowboys (2000), with a cover by Willie Nelson.
  • Michael Buble recorded this for his 2013 album, To Be Loved. It's also been covered by Rosemary Clooney, Tony Bennett, Connie Francis, Jimmy Durante, and Perry Como, among others.

Comments: 1

  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn this day in 1954 {April 29th} "Young At Heart"* by Frank Sinatra peaked at #2 {for 1 week} on Billboard's 'Best Sellers In Stores' chart, for the week it was at #2, the #1 record for that week was "Wanted" by Perry Como...
    Also at the time, "Young At Heart" was at position #5 on the Billboard's 'Most-Played On Juke Boxes' chart...
    Between 1939 and 1980 the Hoboken, New Jersey native had one hundred ninety eight charted records, sixty seven made the Top 10 with eleven reaching #1...
    His first four charted records were with the Harry James Orchestra, and his next forty charted records with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra...
    Ten of his charted records were duets, two with the Ken Lane Quintet, and one each with the Charioteers, the Pied Pipers, the Page Cavanaugh Trio, the Tony Mottola Trio, the Jeff Alexander Choir, Keely Smith, Sammy Davis, J., and Nancy Sinatra...
    Francis Albert Sinatra passed away at the age of 82 on May 14th, 1998...
    May he R.I.P.
    * "Young At Heart" was Frank Sinatra's third of three of his records to peak at #2, his other two #2 records were "Oh!, Look At Me Now" for five weeks in March of 1941 and "Saturday Night (Is The Loneliest Night In The Week)" for one week in March of 1945...
    And from the 'For What It's Worth' department, the remainder of the 'Best Sellers In Stores' Top 10 on April 29th, 1954:
    At #3. "Cross Over The Bridge" by Patti Page
    #4. "Make Love To Me" by Jo Stafford
    #5. "Oh, Baby Mine" by the Four Knights
    #6. "Little Things Mean A Lot" by Kitty Kallen
    #7. "Man With The Banjo" by the Ames Brothers
    #8. "Answer Me, My Love" by Nat 'King' Cole
    #9. "If You Love Me (Really Love Me)" by Kay Starr
    #10. "The Man Upstairs" by Kay Starr
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