Take a break chaps, from the classical bog ...

Is it just sentimentality to luxuriate in relistening to Frank Sinatra?

For whatever reason, I had got my Sony record player down from the loft ... and top of the pile of dusty covers was FS singing

Night and Day
Somebody Love Me
Tenderly
Nevertheless
On the Sunny Side of the Street
Love Me Or Leave Me
You Are Love
They Didn’t Believe Me
Out of Nowhere
I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm
For You
Ol’ Man River
The Music Stopped
I Don’t Stand A Ghost of A Chance with You
You Do Something to Me
Begin the Beguine

Anybody else like Old Blue Eyes?

I don't own any Sinatra recordings, but I would certainly strongly agree with the universal opinion that he was one of the best at what he did. No one, it is reported, had a better sense of rhythm than Sinatra, in the way he could "bend" the tempo and still be dead on the beat - in classical terms : a very, very refined sense of rubato. Of course, he didn't just "sing the notes" but put himself into everything I've ever heard he sing.

There's nothing - and I mean nothing! - like hearing a trained voice in some of the standard repertoire. Two of my favourites in this type of repertoire are the following :

1) Blue Skies - Kiri Te Kanawa - and get this, btb! - Nelson Riddle and his orchestra. Riddle, as you undoubtedly know, was one of Sinatra's best collaborators. On this album :
Berlin : Blue Skies
Weill/Nash : Speak Low
Rogers[sic!]/Hammerstein : It Might As Well Be Spring
van Heusen/Burke : Here's That Rainy Day
Rogers[sic!]/Hart : I Didn't Know What Time it Was
Kern/Harbach : Yesterdays
Porter : How High The Moon
Porter : True Love
Wrubel/Magidson : Gone With the Wind
Romberg/Hammerstein : When I Grow Too Old to Dream
Kern/Hammerstein : The Folks Who Live On the Hill

2) Thomas Hampson Sings Cole Porter : Thomas Hampson (baritone) with the Ambrosian Chorus and the LSO conducted by John McGlinn
Begin the Beguine
In the Still of the Night
Easy to Love
Two Little Babes in the Wood
When My Baby Goes to Town
When I Had a Uniform On
I've Got You Under My Skin
Bring Me Back My Butterfly
Who Said Gay Paree?
A Fool There Was
How's Your Romance?
My Cozy Little Corner in the Ritz
Don't Fence Me In
Drink
Night and Day
It Was Written in the Stars
I Concentrate on You
Bull Dog (Yale College)

While there are some little-known numbers in the Porter album, they are all, particularly the well-known ones, delivered with such style, panache and incredible vocal control and "depth" of interpretation, that this is one of my "desert islands" recordings, as is "Blue Skies" with Te Kanawa.

While these two singers are both opera performers of the highest order, they know how to deliver a pop tune along with the best of the breed of pop singers; nothing operatic about these albums.

Regards,

Big Sinatra fan myself.

Hello:

I'm a very big Sinatra fan also, gravitating more towards his classic Capital years recordings more than anything else. Although some of his Reprise albums could be considered classics as well.... as a few of his signature songs are from the 60's era.

Sinatra (along with Nelson Riddle who was the arranger on most of those Capitol recordings) was an innovator. And although he had may imitators, his style and substance has never been matched. The only possible exception to this with was Sammy Davis Jr., who when in his prime, was a fantastic as well. Especially when listening to him perform songs written by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse for Broadway. Believe it or not Vic Damone was also a powerful vocalist as well ~ he sang the title song in the motion picture An Affair To Remember. And on the smoother side, there was the totally under rated Johnny Hartman. His style was similar to Nat King Cole's a little bit. A very luxurious type of vocalist.

If you want to get more into Sinatra - the reissues currently being offered by Concord records - Sinatra/Basie for example. Or "Best of The Best" (get the 2-disc version) are great ways to have his stuff on CD.

I hope this was helpful.

~ Anthony

Another thumbs up here for old blue eyes.

Interesting... Just the other day I watched "Frank Sinatra Sings" on SBS.

Thanks chaps for the superb responses to the Blue Eyes thread. ChopinAddict, Chopinlover49, AnthKeys14, Joel W and BruceD

I’m on my first morning cup of tea ... my poor two dogs were driven out of their wits by all the New Year fireworks in my area ... thanks goodness the racket died down shortly thereafter.

If only the insensitive bearers of matches appreciated the terror which a cracker does to a dog’s sensitive ears.

Now starting with BruceD

My father was a New Zealander so I I know all about Kiri Te Kanawa ... and from your list I can recite most of the first lines of the tunes
Blue Skies smilin’ at me, nothin’ but blue skies do I see.
Speak Low, darling speak low
And where there’s music ... How High the Moon
When I grow too old to dream, I’ll have you to remember.

And from your 2nd list ... who can forget?
Begin the Beguine
In the Still of the Night
Easy to Love
I've Got You Under My Skin
Night and Day

AnthKeys14
I’ve got a video copy of “An Affair to Remember”
with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr ...
so the Vic Damone singing of the theme tune is familiar to me .
I just might have all the Sinatra and Shirley Bassey discs.

Thanks again chaps ... aren't we lucky to appreciate old Blue Eyes ... who's Bing?

While we're kicking around a few hits from the old days ... do you chaps remember some of these?

Here are a few old names to conjure with

The Mills Brothers
Till Then
Across the Alley from the Alamo
Glow Worm
Moon Glow

Mantovani
Autumn Leaves
Swedish Rhapsody
Elizabethan Serenade
Greensleeves

Benny Goodman
King Porter Stomp
Sing Sing Sing
Bugle Call Rag
It Had To Be You

George Shearing
I Got Rhythm
Over the Rainbow
But Not For Me
Lullaby of Birdland

Shirley Bassey
The Nearness of You
If You Go Away
What Now My Love
As Time Goes By

King Singers
The Windmills of Your Mind
She’s Leaving Home
It Don’t Mean A Thing
For the Peace of All Mankind

You might like this one, btb! George Shearing and Mel Torme:

http://youtu.be/iMsTeeK6tB8

And while we're on the subject, sign me up as a Jo Stafford fan.

http://youtu.be/qKG75btADmA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3ltenlQkOk

I count this track as one of the greatest musical achievements ever. Regardless of genre.

It's arranged by Nelson Riddle. Though I must admit that my favorite Sinatra album - from beginning to end - is the Billy May arranged "Come fly with me."

I recently discovered that Sony had issued some live tracks from 1939 - recorded during Sinatra's first "big-time" job, singing with Harry James. Fascinating.

Hello There:

I read your response to my post and wanted to let you know that I was not referring to Shirley Bassey but rather Count Basie. Concord records have re-released their original Reprise records collaborations, which is well worth checking out!

Regards,
Anthony

This is a useful thread for me right now... one of my NY's resolutions being to learn some pop standards! Maybe it's not so much the New Year's atmosphere, but simply having a 2-week break from lessons. I start thinking of all the aspects missing from my "musical education"... including piano-bar repertoire. I was all gung-ho about getting started, until I saw one piano bar pianist's list of songs, and it was well over 1,000. So maybe I will just start with the more manageable list compiled from this thread.

It's interesting to think how a retiree's "standards" list and a 30-year-old's would be different. I'm closer to 50, but I hadn't even heard "Stardust" and "Begin the Beguine" till this past year! The names were familiar, but not the tunes.

Well, well ... glad to hear cefinow that Golden Oldies
"Stardust" (Hoagy Carmichael)and "Begin the Beguine" (Cole Porter) have been heard for the first time by you.

I keep telling the story of my London student days when
I heard Hoagy himself entertain at a West End Theatre.
I was knocked silly by his songs ending with "Stardust"
which brought the house down.

By chance I had been watching the Poirot Movie "Evil Under the Sun" starring the inimitable Peter Ustinov
which featured the background music of Cole Porter ...
what a treat with stars including James Mason, Roddy McDowall and Maggie Smith.

PS I liked bears keyboards including

1940 Jester Spinet
1933 Chiller Console
1903 Haddock Upright

Or did I read them wrong? Where are my specs?

Sorry Anthkeys14 for mixing up Shirley Bassey and Count Basie ... both need to take a bow.