This came out in 1999 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
As a skinny kid with an aw-shucks grin and a crooner’s warm delivery, Harry Connick, Jr. was saddled with endless comparisons to Frank Sinatra.
Lately, though, his perseverance has paid off — he’s dumped that baggage and earned his props as his own man. His latest disc, Come By Me, stays on course. Stuffed with a baker’s dozen tracks featuring both a swingin’ big band and a sweet orchestra, Harry tickles the ivories and serenades his way through standards by Johnny Mercer and Henry Mancini (Charade), Irving Berlin (There’s No Business Like Show Business) and Cole Porter (Love For Sale). Sure, you say, anybody can cover indisputable classics. But Connick really cements his rep with originals — from the New Orleans jazz of the title cut to the poppy crooning of Nowhere With Love — that are so finely crafted you have to consult the credits to tell them from the old masters’ work.
