“I was 19, when John, now Juan, Alderete turned me on to this album, while we were recording the first Racer X album. This was the most metal time of my life. I was listening to Accept, Loudness, Yngwie and Queensryche, and although I had heard the famous names Frank Sinatra and Count Basie before, I just assumed that this was old people’s music and something I would never dig.

“That illusion died in about three seconds upon hearing – believe it or not – the version of Hello Dolly on this record. I know it seems impossible, but Frank and the Count somehow made the song almost completely un-cheesy, or perhaps they swung it so hard that the cheese became a non-issue.

“Then there are the songs that are un-cheesy to begin with – and swung equally as hard. My favorite is I Believe In You – the chords, the swing, the lyrics, the voice, the horns and that Basie piano ending are like some kind of big band steamroller. How about the last chord? I had to sit down and figure that thing out. It’s a dominant chord with a b5 in the middle and a 9^th on top.

“Lots of people talk about the Live At The Sands record, but this is the one for me.”