Ol' Yellow Eyes Is Back Explained

Ol' Yellow Eyes Is Back
Type:	studio
Artist:	Brent Spiner
Cover:	Ol'_Yellow_Eyes_is_Back_album_cover.jpg
Released:	June 11, 1991
Genre:	Traditional pop
Length:	34:11
Label:	Bay Cities, Inc.
Producer:	Wendy Neuss, Dennis McCarthy, Brent Spiner

Ol' Yellow Eyes Is Back is an album by Brent Spiner, best known for his role as Data in the American television series , first released in June 1991. The title is a parodic reference both to Frank Sinatra's Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back and the Data character, whose eyes are golden yellow. On the album, Spiner is backed by the orchestra from that series as he sings a number of old pop standards, mostly from the 1930s and 1940s.

Background

In the liner notes, Spiner wrote of Sinatra's "You Make Me Feel So Young":

Sinatra at his awesome best. This song and dozens of others accompanied every dinner I ate between the ages of five and thirteen. My stepfather, an amateur saxophone player and a hell of a mambo dancer, had put together one of the all time great collections of popular music recordings anywhere. So, to my good fortune, we dined each night with the likes of Ol' Blue Eyes, Judy Garland, Nat "King" Cole, Rosemary Clooney, Louis Prima and Keely Smith and every other singer that ever performed on Capitol, Decca or R.C.A. records.

Production

Spiner had help from a number of his colleagues from Star Trek: TNG. Wendy Neuss, associate producer for the series, and Dennis McCarthy, who scored the music for many of the episodes, co-produced the album with Spiner. Several fellow cast members (LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Jonathan Frakes, and Patrick Stewart) even joined him to sing "It's a Sin (To Tell a Lie)," appearing under the group name of "The Sunspots", a word play on The Ink Spots, the first group to perform this song.^[1] McCarthy praised the recording experience, and compared it to the time he spent earlier in his career on tour with Glen Campbell.^[2]

Release

According to Spiner, the album was released in Europe against his wishes after he had rejected attempts by the record company to renegotiate his contract.^[3]

Track listing

1. "Time After Time" (w. Sammy Cahn m. Jule Styne)
2. "The Very Thought of You" (w.m. Ray Noble)
3. "More Than You Know" (w. Edward Eliscu & Billy Rose m. Vincent Youmans)
4. "Toot Toot Tootsie" (w.m. Ted Fio Rito, Robert A. King, Gus Kahn & Ernie Erdman)
5. "Embraceable You" (w. Ira Gershwin m. George Gershwin)
6. "It's a Sin (To Tell a Lie)" (w.m. Billy Mayhew^[4])
7. "Long, Long Time" (w. Sammy Cahn m. Jule Styne)
8. "Carolina in the Morning" (w. Gus Kahn m. Walter Donaldson)
9. "Marie" (Randy Newman)
10. "Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart" (w.m. James F. Hanley)
11. "When I Fall in Love" (w. Edward Heyman m. Victor Young)
12. "Goodnight, Sweetheart" (w.m. Ray Noble, Jimmy Campbell, Reg Connelly, adapted by Rudy Vallee)

Personnel

• Brent Spiner

Lead vocals

• The Sunspots: Back-up vocals for "It's a Sin (To Tell a Lie)"
  • LeVar Burton
  • Michael Dorn
  • Jonathan Frakes
  • Patrick Stewart
• Ralph Humphrey

drums

• Ken Wild

Bass

• George Doering

Guitar

• Jim Cox: Piano
• John Kavanaugh

Piano

• Bob O'Donnell

Trumpet

• Bob Findley

Trumpet

• John Rosenberg

Trumpet

• Dick Hyde

Trombone

• Lew McCreary

Trombone

• Ernie Carlson

Trombone

• Pete Christlieb

Woodwinds

• Gene Cipriano

Woodwinds

• Brian O'Connor

French horn

• Joe Meyer

French horn

• Asa Drori

String concertmaster

• Bob Joyce: Additional back-up vocals on "It's A Sin"
• David Joyce: Additional back-up vocals on "It's A Sin"
• Randy Crenshaw: Additional back-up vocals on "It's A Sin"

Notes and References

1. Bornfield, Steve (1991) "This and That", Albany Times Union, June 4, 1991, retrieved 2012-04-21 via Highbeam Research
2. Web site: Exclusive Interview: Dennis McCarthy, Part 2. StarTrek.com. July 29, 2015. July 28, 2015.
3. Millar, John (1996) "You'd never get me up in one of those things", Daily Record, 5 December 1996
4. Web site: It's a Sin to Tell a Lie - Fats Waller | Song Info . . 2016-08-22.