"Nice 'n' Easy": Song history, Commentary, Discography, Performances on Video

"Nice 'n' Easy"

Will Friedwald, Sinatra! The Song Is You A Singer's Art,
New York: Scribners, 1995.
Da Capo Press paperback edition
(shown above) 1997

Count Basie and his Orchestra play
"April in Paris" (1956) including the "One More Time" Sinatra alludes to at the conclusion of "Nice 'n' Easy."

The 1960 Frank Sinatra Reprise recording, final version *Generally speaking, Lew Spence wrote music and Alan and Marilyn Bergman (born Marilyn Keith) wrote lyrics yet various editions of the sheet music for "Nice 'n' Easy" list words and music by all three while other editions give the music as being by Spence and the lyrics as being by the Bergmans. The 1960 edition published by Barton Music Co. Ltd., London & New York (Sinatra's own publishing company) uses the "words and music by" formulation but goes even further including credit for Sinatra as well as the others. No matter which attribution of credit is technically correct, there can be little doubt that Spence wrote most of the music and the Bergmans took care of the bulk of the lyric. It is inevitable, however, that no matter how much or, more likely, how little Sinatra may have contributed to the writing, in any discussion of the matter Frank will wind up being the center of attention. Our two cents belwo is no exception. Will Friedwald in his book Sinatra The Song Is You gives an account of the origin of the song that may explain Sinatra's writing credit. According to Friedwald, Spence had composed a fragment of the melody and although he didn't much care for it, played it for the Bergmans during a work session on another song. Alan Bergman quickly thought of "Nice 'n' Easy," as a title and with that getting them started they had soon completed the song, both words and music. (The way Friedwald describes it gives reason to believe that all three contributed to the music as well as the lyric.) In any case, Spence must have thought it was worth a shot with Sinatra because during a break in the filming of Ocean's Eleven, he ran it by the singer. Sinatra, for whatever reason, reacted with contempt, picking up the sheet music between thumb and forefinger and dropping it as if it were contaminated. Fortunately for all concerned, Sinatra's associate Hank Sanicola thought the song worthy enough to hold onto, playing a few bars whenever Sinatra was hanging around until finally the singer asked what that tune was, now with a much more positive attitude toward it. It worked because before anyone knew it, Sinatra, at least acting as if he had no recollection of trashing it earlier, had it delivered to Riddle and even favored using it as the opening track on the new album. Furthermore, the song, not long before having been discarded like garbage, became the title track for the album. The credit Sinatra here and there receives for co-writing "Nice 'n' Easy" (though he isn't listed as a writer for it with ASCAP), is most likely owing to the coda or tag that closes the song and which quotes Count Basie. Sinatra alludes to Basie's famous tag line just before the Count reprises the final bars of "April in Paris" in a 1955 concert: "one more time," Basie says to his orchestra. At the conclusion of "Nice 'n' Easy," Sinatra says, "like the man [meaning Basie] says, 'One more time'." That Sinatra might have been making a connection between reprising a portion of the song and reprising his career with this song, album and his new label named Reprise can only be a conjecture. The coda did not spring fully formed from Sinatra's mouth. Before he got to the final version, he went through a revision process as writers usually do, (though in this case somewhat unconventionally) not at his desk but in the studio, live, so to speak, during the earlier takes. These early drafts, as it were, include the bawdy "Just put your hand on it, baby, that's all," "slowly baby," and "isn't that better baby," all of which were discarded in favor of the Basie reference that is used on the record. No doubt Sinatra made the right choice, not just because of his comment, "That record may get everyone here arrested" but because the spontaneous evolution of the ending led to what was just right. The out-takes reveal to us not that Sinatra had a down and dirty side (What else is new?) but that laying down a track with him, at least in this case, is a charming, spontaneous collaboration -- as the song says, nice 'n' easy.
The case for giving songwriting credit to Sinatra for "Nice 'n' Easy" is perhaps weakened a bit when it is noticed that none of the other performances of the song, at least the ones available on this page, include his coda, not even Basie's studio version.

Charles Granata gives a full account of the sessions during which Sinatra records the album Nice 'n' Easy as well as it's title song. Germane to the discussion above regarding Sinatra creating the coda for the song, he tells is that lyricists Marilyn and Alan Bergman were in the studio's production booth while the recording process was going on. Granata quotes Alan Bergman:

The tag [coda] was a big surprise, and his doing it twice delighted us."

"Especially fascinating," Granata comments," is how Sinatra works to find the proper wording and rhythmic cadence for the half spoken, half-sung tag.

Nice 'n' easy does it, nice 'n' easy does it, nice 'n' easy does it every time [spoken] like the man says one more time . . . Nice 'n' easy does it, nice 'n' easy does it, nice 'n' easy does it every time

"On the familiar record, the song then ends with a seven-note acoustic bass fill and one Sinatra finger snap on the last beat" (Granata, p. 144).

David Jenness and Don Velsey while writing about the Bergmans and Lew Spence in their uniquely important study of what might be called volume two of The Songbook (for them songs written between 1950 and 2000) comment on "Nice 'n' Easy." They point out that it's the Bergman's first big hit and of their songs, it's "the nearest to a hard swinging song, owing to the persistent syncopation and dotted rhythm, which is often quite subtle."

They also like the "playful" rhymes (of course is with hold your horses) and adding to all the other discussions of the song's sexual innuendo, cite, "We're on the road to romance, that's safe to say; but let's make all the stops along the way" as a particularly amusing example contributing to the overall "sexy and insinuating" effect produced, especially when the song is taken at a slow tempo.

Jenness and Velsey are also interested in the way the songwriters of "Nice 'n' Easy" play "melodically with half-steps," in a style that almost demands bending the intervals." They compare this extended use of half-steps to being "like a puppy worrying about a bone . . . . 'It's such fun, please don't make me stop!'"

(See Jenness and Velsey, pp. 101, 247)

Click here to read the lyrics for "Nice 'n' Easy," as sung on the original 1960 Sinatra recording,
or read them as they are streamed on the video above.

Research Resources: Alan and Marilyn Bergman

• The Official Website of Alan and Marilyn Bergman;
• Amazon (books by and about, recordings, videos, etc.);
• Alan: Songwriters Hall of Fame (biography and song list);
• Marilyn: Songwriters Hall of Fame (biography and song list);
• Also Alan and Marilyn discuss songwriting at ASCAP;
• Wikipedia article;
• Alan: Internet Movie Database (brief biography, filmography, movie song credits);
• Marilyn: Internet Movie Database (brief biography, filmography, movie song credits);
• Alan: Internet Broadway Database (Broadway productions and song credits);
• Marilyn: Internet Broadway Database (Broadway productions and song credits);
• Alan: The New York Times (articles about the songwriter);
• Marilyn: The New York Times (articles about);
• Alan: New York Public Library (catalog entries including books, personal papers, recordings, sheet music, etc.);
• Marilyn: New York Public Library (catalog entries including books, recordings, sheet music, personal papers, etc.);
• Fresh Air Interview, Aug. 21, 2007; More on the Bergmans at NPR Music.
• Verve Music Group (Alan Bergman at)
• Blog, Things We Love (Alan Bergman and Gene Bertoncini);
• David Ewen. American Songwriters, An H. W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary. New York: The H. W. Wilson Co., 1987 (includes 146 bios of composers and lyricists). -- a wide selection of used copies is available at abebooks.com (Bergman entry, pp. 27-29).
• Christopher Loudon. A Conversation with Alan Bergman. Jazz Times. Oct. 25, 2010.
• Shirley Horn (main stage): thejazzsingers
• Count Basie, April in Paris: chesterst10
• Frank Sinatra, 1960: SuperSheetmusic
• Sinatra and Kelly: FrankSinatra

Notes

• "On the released record, the reprise and tag play out like this:
• David Jenness and Don Velsey Classic American Popular Song: The Second Half-Century, 1950-2000 New York: Routledge, 2005

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