I'm a Fool to Want You

"I'm a Fool to Want You" is a 1951 song composed by Frank Sinatra, Jack Wolf, and Joel Herron.^[1] Frank Sinatra co-wrote the lyrics and released the song as a Columbia Records single. The ballad is considered a pop and jazz standard.

Frank Sinatra first recorded the song with the Ray Charles Singers on March 27, 1951, in an arrangement by Axel Stordahl in New York. It was the second song recorded at the sessions that began with "I Whistle a Happy Tune" and ended with "Love Me". It is commonly thought by many listeners that Sinatra was navigating his stormy marriage to Ava Gardner at the time, but Sinatra and Gardner didn't marry until November 7, 1951, nearly 8 months after the song was recorded. It is more likely that he was melancholy about his wife Nancy's refusal to grant him a divorce so he could marry Gardner and his guilt for the impact his very public affair with Gardner was having on his family, especially his three children. To complicate matters, his career was in a freefall and he and Nancy were both Catholics and the Church forbade divorce. His emotional rendering of the song is haunting and it instantly became one of the classic "saloon songs" in his repertoire along with "One for My Baby", "Angel Eyes", "Don't Worry 'bout Me", "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning" and "Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry" among many others.

It would not have escaped Sinatra that his unbridled and uncontrollable passion for Gardner and the consequential collateral damage it caused his family, reputation, and career made him a fool, not only in his own eyes, but to the world. So, he felt the song was perfect for his current situation and, for him personally, somewhat cathartic. As Gay Talese wrote in his 1966 article for Esquire, "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold," "A friend who was in the studio when Sinatra recorded it recalled: 'Frank was really worked up that night. He did the song in one take, then turned around and walked out of the studio and that was that ...'"^[2] Writer Mark Steyn quotes longtime Sinatra arranger Nelson Riddle as saying, "It was Ava who taught him how to sing a torch song. That's how he learned. She was the greatest love of his life and he lost her."^[3]

Sinatra recorded a second version at the Capitol Records Tower in Hollywood on May 1, 1957, arranged and conducted by Gordon Jenkins, which was released in 1957 on the album Where Are You?. This album was Sinatra’s first stereo recording. Capitol also released the song as part of an EP, EAP-2-855, EBFI-855.

The song was released as a Columbia Records 10" 78 B side single in 1951 backed with "Mama Will Bark" (with Dagmar) as #39425, Matrix # CO-45185-1. The single reached #14 on the Billboard pop singles chart in a seven-week chart run beginning in June and #27 on Cashbox the same month in a 5-week chart run.^[4] "Mama Will Bark" reached #21. The song was re-released in 1954 as an A side Columbia single with "If I Forget You" as the B side. Columbia also released the song as part of an EP, 2559, which also featured "I Should Care", "I Could Write a Book", and "If You Are But a Dream".

The Columbia recording appeared on the 1966 album Frank Sinatra's Greatest Hits: The Early Years, Volume Two. The song also appeared on the 1986 4-disc collection The Voice: Frank Sinatra, the Columbia Years (1943–1952) and the 1993 box-set album The Columbia Years 1943-1952: The Complete Recordings. The song also appeared on Frank Sinatra: The Best of the Columbia Years: 1943-1952 in 1995 and Frank Sinatra Sings His Greatest Hits in 1997 both on Columbia. In 2003, the song was included on the Sony collection The Essential Sinatra: The Columbia Years.

The song was featured on the 1992 Sinatra: Soundtrack to the CBS Mini-Series released on Reprise Records.

The song has become a pop and jazz standard that has been recorded by more than 100 other performers, including Mitski, Billie Holiday, and Bob Dylan, who recorded a heartfelt reading^[5] for his 2015 Sinatra-covers album Shadows in the Night.^[6]

v t e Frank Sinatra singles
Discography
Columbia singles (1939–1940)	"It's Funny to Everyone but Me" "On a Little Street in Singapore" "Ciribiribin" "All or Nothing at All"
RCA Victor singles (1940–1942)	"Imagination" "I'll Be Seeing You" "East of the Sun (and West of the Moon)" "I'll Never Smile Again" "The One I Love (Belongs to Somebody Else)" "Our Love Affair" "We Three (My Echo, My Shadow and Me)" "Stardust" "Dolores" "It's Always You" "Oh! Look at Me Now" "Without a Song" "Let's Get Away from It All" "This Love of Mine" "Blue Skies" "Pale Moon (An Indian Love Song)" "Embraceable You" "Just as Though You Were Here" "Take Me" "In the Blue of Evening" "How About You?" "There Are Such Things"
Bluebird singles (1942–1943)	"Night and Day" "The Night We Called It a Day" "The Song Is You"
Columbia singles (1943–1953)	"Close to You" "You'll Never Know" "Sunday, Monday, or Always" "People Will Say We're in Love" "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'" "A Lovely Way to Spend an Evening" "White Christmas" "Saturday Night (Is the Loneliest Night of the Week)" "I Dream of You (More Than You Dream I Do)" "Ol' Man River" "Stormy Weather" "When Your Lover Has Gone" "Dream" "If I Loved You" "You'll Never Walk Alone" "Mighty Lak' a Rose" "Nancy (with the Laughing Face)" "America the Beautiful" "Day by Day" "Full Moon and Empty Arms" "Soliloquy (Part 1 & 2)" "Begin the Beguine" "Silent Night" "Adeste Fideles" "Jingle Bells" "Oh! What It Seemed to Be" "September Song" "Five Minutes More" "Sweet Lorraine" "Time after Time" "Mam'selle" "Almost Like Being in Love" "Tea for Two" "My Romance" "So Far" "A Fellow Needs a Girl" "But Beautiful" "I've Got a Crush on You" "All of Me" "Nature Boy" "Everybody Loves Somebody" "My Melancholy Baby" "Autumn in New York" "Why Can't You Behave?" "Some Enchanted Evening" "Bali Ha'i" "Let's Take an Old Fashioned Walk" "I Only Have Eyes for You" "The Old Master Painter" "Peachtree Street" "Goodnight, Irene" "Nevertheless (I'm in Love with You)" "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" "We Kiss in a Shadow" "April in Paris" "I Could Write a Book" "The Birth of the Blues"
Capitol singles (1953–1961)	"I'm Walking Behind You" "I've Got the World on a String" "My One and Only Love" "South of the Border (Down Mexico Way)" "I Love You" "Young at Heart" "Don't Worry 'bout Me" "Three Coins in the Fountain" "The Gal That Got Away" "Someone to Watch Over Me" "Melody of Love" "Learnin' the Blues" "Love and Marriage" "(Love Is) The Tender Trap" "You're Sensational" "True Love" "Well, Did You Evah!" "Mind If I Make Love to You?" "Hey! Jealous Lover" "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" "All the Way" "Chicago (That Toddlin' Town)" "Witchcraft" "Mistletoe and Holly" "French Foreign Legion" "High Hopes" "Old MacDonald" "My Blue Heaven" "I'll Remember April" "I Love Paris"
Reprise singles (1961–1983)	"Granada" "I'll Be Seeing You" "The One I Love (Belongs to Somebody Else)" "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You" "Polka Dots and Moonbeams" "Without a Song" "Stardust" "Come Rain or Come Shine" "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" "Me and My Shadow" "Call Me Irresponsible" "I Have Dreamed" "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" "My Kind of Town" "Softly, as I Leave You" "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" "The Little Drummer Boy" "It Was a Very Good Year" "Strangers in the Night" "Summer Wind" "You Make Me Feel So Young" "That's Life" "The September of My Years" "Somethin' Stupid" "The World We Knew (Over and Over)" "My Way of Life" "My Way" "Goin' Out of My Head" "Something" "Bein' Green" "Send In the Clowns" "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" "Theme from New York, New York" "Here's to the Band" "To Love a Child"
Qwest singles (1983–1984)	"Teach Me Tonight" "Mack the Knife" "It's All Right with Me" "Until the Real Thing Comes Along"
Compositions	"This Love of Mine" "Sheila" "Peachtree Street" "Take My Love" "I'm a Fool to Want You" "Mistletoe and Holly" "Mr. Success"
Category

I'm a Fool to Want You

References

Sources

External links

Related Articles