This was written by Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn. Van Heusen had a passion for flying and moonlighted part-time as a test pilot during World War II. (thanks, Keely - Bronx, NY)
This song went well with Sinatra's image as a debonair jet-setter, and it was a song he often played at his concerts.
Van Heusen and Cahn were very successful American songwriters. Other songs they wrote for Frank Sinatra include "High Hopes" and "Love And Marriage."
Other artists to record this include Michael Bublé, Count Basie, Dean Martin and Lou Rawls.
This was featured in the 1980 biopic Raging Bull, starring Robert De Niro as boxer Jake La Motta, and in the 2002 film Catch Me If You Can, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks.
In an interview with Songfacts, Charles Pignone, Vice President of Frank Sinatra Enterprises, talks about the popularity of this song: "They wrote 'Come Fly With Me' with him in mind. And I think that epitomized that decade and the good life and having a good time. America was just picking up the pieces from World War II, and the decade before that they were in a war, and things were changing in America. That song caught on and that was one of his most popular albums."
Sinatra was a forerunner of the concept album. Pignone told us about the singer's vision to present a better listening experience with albums like the travel-themed Come Fly With Me: "He was just very lucky that they were able to go from the 10-inch to the 12-inch [records]. But he had envisioned that instead of people just making singles, to do a whole album thematically so it would hold people's attention. It's all changed now, because everything's digital or on an iPod and people shuffle it, but you have to remember what a what a revolutionary concept - pardon the pun - it was because I think Frank felt that when people would drop that needle down, there's 15 or 18 or 20 minutes on one side, and it's pretty jarring if you're all over the place with a ballad, then a tempo song. He really came up with the idea of doing these concept albums where they thematically, musically and orchestrally would fit together."
