Once again, my twin brother posts something I would post....
I'm all for the Columbia era, and when he was on radio. Now I know what all them girls wuz screaming about.
I actually spent months duping a collection of Sinatra reel-to-reels back in the 80's: a gazillion hours of him in concert, on radio, etc., from 1935 to 1982.
I never paid much attention to him since until I recently heard the Christmas recordings he did for Columbia, and I just melted.
Once again, my twin brother posts something I would post....
Yep, he was a handsome devil. No doubt about that.
It's the sound of a young master learning how to wield the power bestowed upon him.
Sometimes his name will come up in conversation and, depending who I'm talking to, usually the other person doesn't get it. I just don't see how anyone could NOT get it.
And at the risk of my prose getting too purple... I was born in '61 but I could swear I lived through the late 30's/early 40's too. When I hear that stuff it takes me back to a life I would swear I had. I play him only occasionally but the feeling lasts for days.
I'm a big Capitol 50s man myself. I truly appreciate the warmer, deeper voice with the "I lived it" interpretations and performances of the songs. It was at this time that his artistry had matured to a sublime level even if his voice wasn't as pure, but I like that sound myself. It didn't hurt that the recordings were first rate and the orchestrations by Billy May and especially Nelson Riddle (who set the benchmark for orchestral vocal arrangements) were on full display here.
Capitol and early Reprise are my favorites. These days, however, I've learned to appreciate almost all of his recordings. Some of the later Columbia stuff isn't too good, though.
The Capitol recordings are my favorite. I also like some of the Reprise stuff, but his voice was pretty "cigarette-y" by then.
Neal Hefti, Nelson Riddle, Count Basie ... the guy knew who to work with, that's for sure.
If you haven't heard it, give Live at the Vegas Sands a listen --- some of the language will make you laugh bc only Jersey-boy Frank could get away with it.
I've not purchased his two final albums (Duets I & II) so strictly I should say late 30's to early 80's (my latest album is She Shot Me Down) but if I do choose a particular time, it would be the second half of the 1950's.
With his album Where Are You? (recorded Apr/May 57) I think his voice, his style, his interpretation of the lyric - song after song - was as close to perfection as it's possible to get.
Most will mention the influence/impact of Messrs. Nelson Riddle and Billy May during that halycon decade (starting in April 1953, that is) but I think his recordings with Gordon Jenkins were the pinnacle (and in the 1960s, his best album, IMHO, is the GJ arranged September of My Years).
So whilst both Riddle and May helped produce standard after standard (with hardly a dud track, let alone album), Sinatra's forte was with strings.
When I first bought his albums they were compilations Greatest Hits (Reprise) and Best of ... (Capitol/EMI) ... these last ones being electronically mutilated to create a stereo effect ... and my father who had taken to Sinatra's singing back in 1943 was a little dismissive. As I've aged I appreciate the earlier Columbia recordings more and more (I chose one such recording to play at my father's funeral) and the improved sound on the Columbia/Legacy releases allow the listener to enjoy the quality of that young voice.
Favourite song - from the aforementioned GJ directed 1957 album: I'm a Fool to Want You ... a performance which is better even than his 1951 recording of the song under Axel Stordahl's direction. Strangers in the Night / My Way / Bad Bad Leroy Brown it sure ain't!
I have a few of his recordings post-Columbia, mostly because they were AWESOME pieces of work by Riddle ("In the Wee Small Hours") or May ("Come Fly with Me") or Robert Farnon.
But when I hear him sing on the one by Farnon ("Great Songs from Great Britain"), I hear the raggedness and damage he sustained and I just want to wrap a blanket around him, sit him in an overstuffed chair, give him a cup of warm tea and MAKE HIM REST.
I hear a little of that strain in his voice in so many of that era and beyond that I just stay away so I won't worry about him like I'm his mom.
BTW, I think his best duet partner was Keely Smith, bar none.
I think most folks would agree that Mitch Miller was responsible for silly FS bits like this. But a world without the following rendition is not a world I want to live in.
(It's one of my faves from the show.)
Here's something else that's weird... I TOTALLY get a Shatneresque vibe coming off this guy.
I think there was a Frank Sinatra Variety Show of sorts; David will remember for sure.
I didn't see it when it aired bc I wasn't alive yet. :-) But I caught an airing of an episode on PBS one time. It was with Frank and Ella Fitzgerald. They did "Lady is a Tramp." They've done that one together more than once. They may have done another song also, but I cannot recall, and I see no hits on google.
(To be honest, in the video I saw years ago, I thought that Frank was somewhat "upstaged" by Ella, and actually moved to the side to let her improvise. But I do recall an orange stage, and that is in the video link I posted above.)
I think there was a Frank Sinatra Variety Show of sorts; David will remember for sure.
I didn't see it when it aired bc I wasn't alive yet. :-) But I caught an airing of an episode on PBS one time. It was with Frank and Ella Fitzgerald. They did "Lady is a Tramp." They've done that one together more than once. They may have done another song also, but I cannot recall, and I see no hits on google.
This may be the specific performance of "Lady is a Tramp" that I mentioned:
(To be honest, in the video I saw years ago, I thought that Frank was somewhat "upstaged" by Ella, and actually moved to the side to let her improvise. But I do recall an orange stage, and that is in the video link I posted above.)
I remember seeing them duet (probably on the same special, Lex, but I remember it being black and white, for some reason) and I was struck by how Fitzgerald seemed not to be exerting much effort to give her great performance, whereas Sinatra looked like he was working hard. It was interesting.
I never saw a variety show on TV, but then I haven't followed his work besides radio. I do remember a few TV specials on DVD, though.
Hmmm. There was a Frank show in 1958. And PBS aired a handful of specials pieced together from things Sinatra did, including various appearance with Ella. Either way, Ella is beautiful; there is nothing like her, not even close. I love the Louie and Ella records.
Anyway, how about Frankie with Gene and Jules in On the Town; he was young, and it's Leonard Bernstein's music (some of it).
Here's something else that's weird... I TOTALLY get a Shatneresque vibe coming off this guy.
Oh, yes, Ock-man, I get that.
One of my problems with Sinatra post-1950 is his persona. I never liked what he developed into: (to paraphrase an old Feiffer cartoon about him) a trench coat wearing, dame-slapping, finger-snapping nightbird.
