Boys Night Out by Various Artists/The Rat Pack

In the 1960s, for those looking for a different stylistic bent than what the booming rock world offered, the Rat Pack was the ultimate coterie of cool. That august organization's musical ambassadors, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis, Jr., would often turn up at one another's performances to sing and joke together. While there are extant live recordings of those events, BOYS NIGHT OUT is something different. Despite initial appearances, it's mostly a compilation of studio tracks featuring Sinatra, Davis, and Martin on their own. The feel is uniformly up-tempo and swinging, as the brass brays with abandon and the drums lay down a jazz-inflected beat behind each singer in turn. There are a couple of signature songs (Davis's "Yes I Can" and "The Goin's Great"), but it's mostly more esoteric fare (including, somewhat inexplicably, Sinatra's version of "Ol' MacDonald"). All three vocalists are present on one track, "We Open in Venice," while Martin and Sinatra pair up on both the "Guys and Dolls" th...