“I’ve Got You Under My Skin” was written by American composer Cole Porter in 1936 for MGM’s musical, “Born to Dance” (Encyclopaedia Britannica (ed), 2018). The performance I have chosen to analyse was recorded live in Japan on April 18 and 19 1985 (Universal Music Japan, 2018). This song was initially intended to be performed as a longing, lyrical musical moment in a movie. Frank Sinatra, with the help of arranger Nelson Riddle, transformed the piece into a standalone swinging melody that became a staple in Sinatra’s repertoire. The genre of swing emerged in the 1920s and really thrived between 1935 and 1945. It was the amalgamation of racial segregation in the United States of America and the music of white America that enabled swing to appear (Kamien, 2015d). The main features of swing, such as an anchoring rhythm section, emphasis on the off beat and improvisation can all be witnessed in this recording of “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” and it is through the analysis of these elements that one can see the development of musical genres.
Swing music is a genre of jazz. The roots of jazz stem all the way back into West African culture. In the early development of jazz music, the most prominent characteristics were the use of a rhythm section, syncopation, a swung drum rhythm and improvisation. These characteristics were maintained throughout the development of New Orleans jazz, the genre that later gave rise to swing (Kamien, 2015b). The New Orleans style developed from 1900 to 1917 and its biggest features were the small group size, usually only five to eight performers, and the high use of improvisation by soloists who were supported by a rhythm section (Kamien, 2015c). Swing was developed in the 1920s when highly improvised New Orleans jazz was combined with heavily orchestrated big band dance music (Kamien, 2015d). Swing bands often had approximately fifteen musicians and performed arranged pieces (Kamien, 2015d). While the performances still featured a rhythm section, a swung drum beat, improvisation and call and response elements, there were some differences that appeared between the earlier New Orleans style and the more recent swing genre, most prominently, the increased size of the band and the reduced improvisation (Kamien, 2015d).
In terms of structure, “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” takes a fairly standard swing structure. A typical swing song has an AABA structure (Kamien, 2015d), similar to the pop songs of today. “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” has more of an AABCB structure, where A is a verse, B is a pre-chorus and chorus and C is the instrumental passage. Before the first A section there is also a simple introduction. In this recording, Sinatra takes the audience by surprise and, after the initial ending (03.03), repeats the B section once more, giving this performance of the song more of an AABCBB structure, with a small coda played at the end of the last two B sections. This is fairly in line with popular music of the 1980s where songs, such as “Jessie’s Girl” by Rick Springfield (Springfield, 1981), would repeat their choruses two or three times before ending with an outro. Sinatra uses this double B section ending both as a bit of a surprise encore for the audience and as a way to conform more closely to the popular music of the time that he was competing with. Popular music of today follows a similar structure to Sinatra’s. Generally they will have an introduction and then follow an ABABCB structure, where A is the verse, B is the pre-chorus and chorus and C is the instrumental (Farish, 2010).
The rhythm section is the backbone of swing music. It originated with the development of jazz music in the early 20th Century and usually features plucked double bass, percussion and piano (Kamien, 2015c). In “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” by Sinatra, a rhythm section can be heard consistently throughout the entire song. The rhythm section consists of a drum set, a plucked double bass and a piano. The rhythm section creates the introduction while the brass plays some chordal riffs to accompany (00.01-00.10). The piano can be heard playing short chords alongside the double bass’s plucked notes and it drops out (00.23) when the chords in the brass and strings become more romantic in nature before returning at the beginning of the second verse (00.35). The double bass can be heard anchoring the rhythm of each chord on beats one and three of each bar and can be heard prominently in the introduction (00.01-00.10). The only places where the bass emphasises more than just beats one and three are in the two small codas (02.57-03.00 and 03.49-03.52). The drum set can be heard consistently, keeping the typical swung beat, emphasising beats two and four through the use of a hi-hat and bass drum (Marucci, 2011). This can be heard very clearly in the introduction (00.01-00.10). The swung beat that the drummers use in this genre of music developed in the early 1920s when the hi-hat was added to the drum kit (Rhythm, 2017). The use of a swung rhythm and a rhythm section has, for the most part, stayed within the jazz genre and its subgenres, such as jazz rock (Kamien, 2015a). When comparing the roles of a rhythm section and the drum, bass and guitar or keyboard in a rock band today, one can see the similarities. In both swing and rock music the instruments of the rhythm section keep the beat and provide an underlying harmony for a solo instrument to be heard over the top.
Elements such as call and response and improvisation are extremely important in swing music. These are two elements that were developed in early jazz music and maintained their prominence in swing music. Call and response originated out of West Africa and the name outlines the interactions between instruments where one instrument or a group of instruments is answered by another instrument or group of instruments (Kamien, 2015b). This can be heard in “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” where Sinatra sings the word “stop” (01.30-01.33) and the band responds with a sudden, accented chord that mimics the way Sinatra performed it. Not only is the band implementing the use of call and response here, but the instrumentalists are playing with a vocal quality, something jazz musicians are known for (Kamien, 2015b). Call and response can also be heard in the instrumental portion of the song (01.50-02.02) between the brass section and the trombone soloist. The brass section plays short passages from the vocal melody and the trombone replies with an extended, improvised statement. Improvisation is a key element of jazz and has spread into other musical genres such as Bebop and Mento (Crauwels, 2016). Call and response spread into other genres such as Hard Bop (Crauwels, 2016).
“I’ve Got You Under My Skin” grew to have a fundamental role in the repertoire of Frank Sinatra. It features many of the vital elements that made swing music what it was. Nelson Riddle harnessed the elements of a strong rhythm section, a swung drum beat, call and response, improvisation and followed the structural norms of the time to produce a song that Sinatra would sing for over forty years. These elements have all developed over time and made their way into new genres to create new sound worlds for global audiences to experience.