Fly Me to the Moon

Frank Sinatra recorded Fly Me to the Moon in 1964 with Count Basie and his orchestra for the album It Might as Well Be Swing, with Quincy Jones writing the arrangement that turned a quiet waltz into a swinging four four. Bart Howard wrote the song in 1954 under the title In Other Words, and it was recorded many times before Sinatra's version fixed it in the public mind. Couples choose it because the lyric is a request to be taken somewhere extraordinary by one person, and the tempo suits a confident couple who have learnt a few steps. Astronauts on Apollo 10 played the record on their way to the moon.