‘Fly Me to the Moon’: The pioneering gay love song made famous by Frank Sinatra
Before becoming one of the world’s best-selling music artists of all time, Frank Sinatra found his start as a teenager, joining a local group called the 3 Flashes, who quickly changed their name to the Hoboken Four. Various other musical jobs ensued before Sinatra led The Tommy Dorsey Band, recording over 40 songs within his first year working with Dorsey.
However, by 1942, Sinatra knew he had to embark on a solo career to succeed. In Nancy Sinatra’s book, Frank Sinatra, My Father, she explained that entertainer Jack Benny recalled her father’s performance at New York’s Paramount Theatre by saying, “I thought the goddamned building was going to cave in. I never heard such a commotion … All this for a fellow I never heard of.” Sinatra had amassed a vast following in a short time, particularly among teenage girls, paving the way for phenomenons such as Beatlemania.
Soon enough, Sinatra was a star, releasing his debut album, The Voice of Frank Sinatra, in 1946. The record topped the Billboard charts for seven weeks straight and remained in the charts for another 11 weeks. After his career began to slump in the late 1940s, he experienced a massive revival marked by a relentless schedule in the early 1950s, with Sinatra embarking on as many film and music endeavours as possible. He signed a contract with Capitol Records in 1953, and his first album for the label, Songs for Young Lovers, was released the following year.
In 1960, he formed his own label, Reprise Records. He released many albums under Reprise, including 1964’s It Might as Well Be Swing, which contained one of Sinatra’s biggest hits, ‘Fly Me To The Moon’. The song was written ten years before the singer covered it, but his performance of the track became the definitive and best-known version. Penned by Bart Howard, the song was initially called ‘In Other Words’ and was first performed by Kaye Ballard. As a cabaret pianist, Howard began playing his song at the Blue Angel cabaret venue before Ballard officially recorded it.
Many musicians covered the song before Sinatra got his hands on it, including Johnny Mathis and Peggy Lee, the latter of whom made the composition popular after performing it on television. Shortly after, with its name changed to ‘Fly Me To The Moon’, Julie London, Connie Francis and Paul Anka covered the track, eventually leading to Sinatra’s take on it. However, his version featured a musical arrangement provided by Quincy Jones, who changed the time signature from 3/4 to 4/4.
Yet, it is a little-known fact that ‘Fly Me To The Moon’ was written as a love song from Howard to his male partner, Thomas Fowler. The pair stayed together for 58 years until Howard passed away in 2004. The fact that ‘Fly Me To The Moon’ was so popular at a time when homosexuality was a criminal offence in the United States (and, sadly, countless other countries) makes the song extra special.
It has taken many years for LGBTQ+ people to find acceptance in the United States. Certain states began decriminalising homosexuality in the early 1960s, with sex acts between same-sex people becoming legal in every state from 2003 onwards. Shockingly, the U.S. Supreme Court only legalised same-sex marriage nationwide in 2015. Therefore, it is quite magnificent that one of the country’s most well-known love songs was written about a gay romance.
