The twelve tracks on this album are all musical responses to songs from the 1930s and 40s.
They take their cues from standards by esteemed artists such as Peggy Lee, Chet Baker, Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra.
The CD booklet contains an extended, and predictably enthusiastic, summation of the whys and wherefores of Kaplan's project and a track by track guide written by Montague Z. Young.
Young explains: "Some of the songs are answers to questions posed by the original, some are variations on themes presented therein, others are retorts, replies, even ripostes.... pastiches all"
To give a couple of examples, tracks include Sad To be Happy (instead of Rodgers and Hart's Glad to be Unhappy) and Let's Not Fall In Love (instead of the 1934 hit sung by Eddy Duchin Let's Fall In Love) - you get the picture?
With regard to this treatment of the original recordings, Kaplan's album is most definitely an affectionate homage rather than a parody.
The album title itself references the 1954 album 'Songs For Young Lovers' and Kaplan uses this as a pretext to adopt an Ol' Blue Eyes pose for the album cover, emulating the cover shot for Sinatra's 1955 album In The Wee Small Hours.
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This is Kaplan's seventh album and a departure from his kid-friendly releases that brought him rave notices from Parenting Magazine and Family Man Online and from his 'adult' releases in the bluegrass/country/blues/folk genres.
To prevent any confusion as to which release is which, Kaplan's website now has separate sections for kids and adults.
The album was produced by Mike West in Lawrence, Kansas. Kaplan sings and plays acoustic guitar and is backed by a slick band of seven musicians on piano, upright bass, percussion, clarinet, trombone, trumpet and flugelhorn.
But, as the man said, it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing and for me this ain't got it.
As a result the project is a clever but ,to my mind, pointless exercise in style over substance.
Randy Kaplan's website
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