Frank Sinatra: S/D

Eventually I would like to own all of his sad-bastard ballad LPs - for now the only ones I have are Watertown and Only the Lonely, which are both fantastic.

Bought my mother that London Sessions box that came out this year, but I haven't heard it yet myself.

I bought the whole Capitol set not long ago. Fucking fantastic.

Songs for swingin lovers is the apex imo

FInally got around to hearing Only the Lonely... damn it's even heavier and bleaker than I imagined. And incredibly slow. This is my favorite Sinatra, his gloomy rope's-end persona. Where Are You? was my previous favorite LP. September of My Years is great also, if a little too positive.

Anyone heard Close to You, the one he did with a string quartet back in '57? Turned out to be a one-off experiment.

The Hollywood String Quartet, great players. I've always wanted to hear that.

Only the Lonely era is great but it can be a bit of a slog if I'm not in the mood. Prefer the lighter late 50s stuff myself

If you like Only the Lonely you must hear In the Wee Small Hours and the especially bleak No One Cares

yeah I lost my copies of those

any love for the Sands live album mentioned upthread? song performances are great, the stage banter is inscrutable

i love the Sands live album ..
but then again, i have a lot of love for most of franks groove whether it's late night whiskey excess (only the lonely being the ultimate), or uptown party (either of the albums with count basie).

song performances are great, the stage banter is inscrutable

Yeah, that about sums it up. Haven't heard it in a long while though.

I've been listening to some of the more offbeat ones lately - the two Jobim albums (both excellent), and Watertown, an entire album of Bob Gaudio/Jake Holmes songs that baffled his clientele upon its release. Will put Close to You on my upcoming listening list.

If you like Only the Lonely you must hear In the Wee Small Hours and the especially bleak No One Cares

Wee Small Hours was one of my gateway Sinatra albums. Have never heard No One Cares, although that must be one of the best album titles ever (and of course an equally classic cover).

Also love the Sands live album, the first Jobim one, and from the uptempo ones A Swingin' Affair stands out for sheer non-stop energy.

I wrote a ranking of Sinatra's peak period:
https://medium.com/@shujaxhaider/ranking-frank-sinatra-on-capitol-records-d5f1e5e95057

I'm also a No One Cares (and Gordon Jenkins in general) fan.

Surprised I haven't seen this type of ranking before! Would be interested to see how mine corresponds to a consensus.

this piece is great, well done

def agree about the top 5, tho maybe not in that precise order

Same here. Only the Lonely casts a pall as thick as Joy Division.

man that She Shot Me Down cover is lol, never seen that one before

It does toe the line of caricature, but I think you'll be surprised how solid the album is! Especially if you're a fan of the Capitol classics.

I really grew tired of the Billy May records after a couple of listens. So little subtlety in the music.

Have all these LP's been re-released somewhere?

As far as I know they're widely available, at least the more famous Riddles and Mays.

I love "Come Fly with Me", but other than that I only have a Greatest Hits collection. Not sure where I would go next. I'm not a huge fan of downer Frank.

I really grew tired of the Billy May records after a couple of listens. So little subtlety in the music

But then Billy May also did the album Pretty Eyes with Peggy Lee that is one of her subtlest, so I don't know..

Just what I needed tonight -- thanks!

recently added September of My Years and Where Are You? to my collection - now I just gotta track down Wee Small Hours and No One Cares.

I haven't gotten around to listening to it, but I just noticed that literally half the songs on the new Dylan standards album are on Where Are You and No One Cares—apparently Robert shares this board's Sinatra LP preferences. Of the other half at least two only appeared as singles on Columbia.

Have all these LP's been re-released somewhere?

Everything ranked in the article except for the Christmas album and This is Sinatra! is included in this box, which I think is pretty much the best $40 I've ever spent.

Whoa... that's going on my wish list.

I've only watched half of part one, but so far I approve of this HBO doc

no one else saw this...? pretty great. made me feel like Sinatra and Shatner share some similar characteristics, this weird mixture of macho bravado and hystrionic melodrama and ego

I watched second half so far, partially due to your post, thanks. Thought it was pretty great. Loved it when he told Dino "you got a beat like a cop." Had forgotten he had Mia served her walking papers during the filming of filming of Rosemary's Baby.

Loved it when he told Dino "you got a beat like a cop."

haha yeah this was one of his better zingers. Often I find Sinatra's jokes really inscrutable and/or dated

Heard that expression before, but that was a perfect usage of it.

Liked the doc a lot, though musically speaking a lot went unmentioned or was glossed over. Nothing about September of My Years, only a few seconds relating to the Jobim collaborations, etc. Was the name Gordon Jenkins even mentioned?

But the story is so big they have to focus it in some way, and it was a nice move to focus it on Sinatra's own words and the words of his family and closest colleagues.

The story of Sinatra's political shift circa 1970 is still so strange and baffling to me.

only a few seconds relating to the Jobim collaborations

yeah was cool to see the (brief) concert footage but those albums didn't even get a mention!

re: his politics - Sinatra drifting rightward as he aged doesn't strike me as all that uncommon. and in general his politics strike me as being consistent in their clannishness, in that they were guided more by his affinities for (and proximity to) various groups rather than by principle.

his racial politics also reveal a common limitation of white liberalism in the US - ie, overt legal/institutional racism and discrimination is wrong but we still get to make racist jokes

^ Yeah, but I see that as just part of the overall evolution of society, the way things progress in stages. But to switch to the party that is more or less overtly racist, forsaking all previous political connections - that's surprising. To marry a hippie in 1966 and end up endorsing Ronald Reagan in 1970 requires some explanation. It's hard to believe it's all about the Kennedys.

oh all the old leches of his generation wanted a hippie chick of their own, that's not so surprising. and as noted in the documentary the pairing was doomed from the start, rife with misunderstanding. Doc suggested he did not actually switch parties fwiw.

learning that he liked to pal around with Agnew was p lol

I know, the Agnew thing, what..?!

obviously no one enjoyed hangin out w Nixon, maybe Sinatra liked Agnew more cuz he was closer to an actual gangster. Although you'd think Nixon would've introduced Frank to Bebe Rebozo, I bet they would've hit it off

Complicated guy. (Will definitely watch the documentary once it's out for rental/sale.) I can't stand watching him and Martin and Davis making fun of racism via tasteless shtick, but at the same time, I know that's very easy for someone to say from the safe vantage point of 2015. I'm sure he did, in his own fashion, fight the good fight.

Sonny Rollins said when he was on high school, or maybe shortly thereafter, he was really inspired by Sinatra's "The House I Live In," which may have been a "soundie," a pre-video short subject for movie theater (saw an amazing collection of those once, think it was titled Jazz Ball, with a pre-disco ball on the poster)(there was even an attempt or proposal to put them on visual jukeboxes vs television, the new challenger to flicks). This was a gutsy thing to do, early in Sinatra's solo career especially, when racial integrationist sentiments themselves were (at least) highly suspect to some, let alone such sentiments capable of being spread via our National airwaves! And the Silver Screen!

Really like Live In Australia, from 1959, I think, with Red Norvo's combo: the audience and performers are so excited, but the source material is so sad! How will they balance it all, on this great and rare night (Sinatra down under, wtf!). But it works and it's Frank at his jazziest, minus the Chairman of the Board camp, that is (he left in Vegas storage, for this occasion anyway).

He left *it*, the camp, in Vegas storage, that is.

Oh yeah!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Sinatra_with_the_Red_Norvo_Quintet:_Live_in_Australia,_1959

his racial politics also reveal a common limitation of white liberalism in the US - ie, overt legal/institutional racism and discrimination is wrong but we still get to make racist jokes

― Οὖτις, Friday, April 10, 2015 3:19 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^ Yeah, but I see that as just part of the overall evolution of society, the way things progress in stages. But to switch to the party that is more or less overtly racist, forsaking all previous political connections - that's surprising. To marry a hippie in 1966 and end up endorsing Ronald Reagan in 1970 requires some explanation. It's hard to believe it's all about the Kennedys.

― Josefa, Friday, April 10, 2015 5:41 PM

Charleton Heston, guys.

He was at the March on Washington and 18 year later was one of Ron and Nancy's more honored White House guests.

messy, undisciplined doc that struggles mostly because dude's life was so damned huge and all over the map. That "Ol' Man River" footage with MLK in attendance was really something. Nice to see a Watertown shoutout - would have gladly watched a doc of the same length that stuck to just the music.

If you want to see concert docs (which might have some commentary added as bonus material by now, I dunno), def try the TV specials that show him at his 60s peak, as elder statesman (well, Dadpop, flaunting his age amidst the rising tide of Boomer hormones) who also found his own way through some current trends, to creative and commercial success. These also loop back through initial hits, his 50s post-Ava Gardner/throat hemorrhage renaissance as the king of Adult Pop (cool and vs. that greasy kid stuff from Memphis), with Gordon Jenkins and Nelson Riddle aboard sometimes. Check A Man And His Music, from 1965, AMAHM Part II, '66 (think that's the one where he duets with Nancy), and 1967's AMAHM + Ella + Jobim(There's also a 1980 or '81 concert set titled The Man And His Music, but I don't think I've seen it, unless it's the one where he's growling at Wolf Trap, almost like the Muddy Waters of lounge, at times).
The range of the TV trilogy can be disconcerting, especially when he kicks ass on "That's Life," then practically busts a vein on the singing waiter special, "Come Back To Sorrento," like he's immediately gotta reassure Jilly and da boys that he ain't turnin'...reminds me of Greg Tate writing that he couldn't listen to a whole FS album at one sitting, because of getting creeped out by certain old school associations (like race talk in The Godfather). But ain't that America. Think there are audio-only editions, at least there is or was a double-album version of the first special.

Sonny Rollins said when he was on high school, or maybe shortly thereafter, he was really inspired by Sinatra's "The House I Live In," which may have been a "soundie," a pre-video short subject for movie theater (saw an amazing collection of those once, think it was titled Jazz Ball, with a pre-disco ball on the poster)(there was even an attempt or proposal to put them on visual jukeboxes vs television, the new challenger to flicks). This was a gutsy thing to do, early in Sinatra's solo career especially, when racial integrationist sentiments themselves were (at least) highly suspect to some, let alone such sentiments capable of being spread via our National airwaves! And the Silver Screen!

This helped put him on HUAC's shit list; his name was brought up a number of times during the hearings, though he himself was never brought before the committee.