Dear listener, Thank you for purchasing, copying, downloading, pirating or shoplifting my new album. Seriously, I am happy you have chosen, in one fashion or another, to acquire it. Whatever form you have chosen, it still serves to provide my fragile ego with some validation! 'Truth is, I'm a singer and it's all I've ever been good at. Just give me a place where I can sing to swing and jazz fans and I'll be happy forever. This album came about as a result of some leftover studio time last fall. I had just finished my previous album and had several hours left over. Ryan, the owner/engineer of the studio asked if there was anything else I'd like to do and I said “Yes, give me a minute. I've got some orchestrations in my car and we can try them out.” Those tracks were The Coffee Song and Well Did You Evah. The Coffee Song was a no brainer whereas Well Did You Evah needed another singer because, obviously, Cole Porter wrote it as a duet. Since no other singer was available at that particular moment, I decided to put up impressions of Bing and Frank on the vocals, doing my best as I had recalled their version from many years back. I did one take for Bing and one take for Frank*. Those tunes came out ok so I added two others and shipped them off to my manager Geoff Littlefield for a bit of a laugh. I received his response within 24 hours and he was a bit more serious than I was. Fast forward to the spring of 2014 and you have 12 tracks with yours truly singing to some very swinging musicians backing me up with some classic swing and ballad arrangements, written by some of the industry's finest arrangers. I have to point out, that choosing these songs and arrangements was not an easy thing to do. There is a reason for each one of them...and I would tell you, if this copy wasn't costing me 5 cents per character! Well, I'll clue you in to a couple of them at least. Back in the late '90s, early 00's, I was singing with a big band lead by my friend Tony Corbiscello. Tony was a great drummer and great guy. Unfortunately, he became ill with MS and eventually cancer, which finally took his life at the age of 52. Not too long before he passed, he and I were talking about the arrangements he had in his book and those that he'd like to, eventually, have written for him. He said “Joey, I'm going to get a clean copy of Johnny Mandel's Coffee Song for you. You and the band would swing your asses-off on that!” We never got the chance to do it. That always left a little empty space in my heart as he was a dear friend. So, it came to pass that I had the opportunity to acquire some arrangements, the Coffee Song was among them and this album was born. Please don't think that because I'm not giving a reason for choosing each song, that each song doesn't have a reason for being included here. It's just that, how much of this are ya really gonna read? Ok, here are a couple more... Don't Cry Joe was chosen because at the time, my eldest son was going through his first heartbreak. As a parent, I did my best to counsel him but probably confused him more than not. Soliloquy was chosen because, as a father of 5, you don't realize until much too late how little control you have over the fates. Well Did You Evah was chosen because...well...just listen. Listen to all 12 tracks and somewhere within these ballads and swingers, you'll get a glimpse inside my head. But don't get lost. Joe Francis