Song of the Day 2/10: Frank Sinatra, “Fly Me to the Moon”

After 20 years of blathering about his intention to colonize the Red Planet, big-brained super-genius Elon Musk announced yesterday that because Earth and Mars only align every 26 months, he was switching his focus to the Moon, which is, scientifically speaking, much closer.

Of course, that’s been true for hundreds of millions of years, not just the past two decades. But Musk has insisted, most recently just last month, that “the Moon is a distraction.” No, Musk isn’t so stupid that he just realized that the closer object will be easier to reach. What he realized is that his planned IPO for SpaceX isn’t going to go so hot if he keeps blathering about spending countless billions on a money-losing venture like a Mars colony.

So suddenly the Moon isn’t a distraction, it’s where he’s going to build a “self-growing city” in “less than 10 years.” Considering that so far his big rocket hasn’t been able to get a payload bigger than a satellite into orbit, maybe he intends to reach the Moon on a towering pile of bullshit.

Singers have been talking about flying to the moon since before the launch of Sputnik. Bart Howard wrote this song, originally titled “In Other Words,” in 1954. Kaye Ballard recorded it first, as did more than 100 other artists before Frank Sinatra included it on his 1964 album with Count Basie, “It Might as Well Be Swing.”

Arranger Quincy Jones sped the tempo, changed it from 3/4 to 4/4 time and the song took off – literally. Apollo 11 astronauts gave it a worldwide audience when they played a tape of it on the way to their Moon landing.

The song’s popularity grew after Peggy Lee sang it on the Ed Sullivan show in 1960. It still had its original title until she convinced Howard to change it to “Fly Me to the Moon,” since that’s what everyone called it anyway. Her version includes the seldom-included introductory verses.