I Really Dislike Frank Sinatra: How alone am I?

I’m sure there must be some good takedowns of Frankie to be found in old newspapers with older critics going “this kid’s ok but he’s clearly no Caruso”.

I once a photo of Sinatra rehearsing in an old Life magazine (not sure of the date, but it was from when Sinatra first got big, so probably some time in the '40s) that's captioned with a comment about his "caterwauling that occasionally resembles a song".

my grandparents both sang opera and thought Frank was trash

Ok boomer

tbf, Frank's take on Aida didn't work, not least because he kept interjecting "Jack!" for emphasis after every third or fourth line.

I have been convinced by the sterling work on this thread and have decided I was wrong about Frank Sinatra all along and won't be listening to him again.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/Astaire%2C_Fred_-_Never_Get_Rich.jpg
Can’t sing. Can’t act. Balding. Can dance a little. Can’t scat. Not a jazz singer.

Got volume 1 of the bio mentioned upthread out of the library. It’s great, albeit lurid in places.

Producer Stephen Lipson is interviewed on The Hustle podcast and at 1:21:12 tells an amazing story about going to see a latter days Sinatra gig where Frank is so out-of-it the the orchestra has to contort itself (play silent in the loud bits because Frank doesn't know where the mic is) before collapsing in the middle of "My Way" before staggering up again like an aged punch drunk boxer who can't stop.

https://thehustle.podbean.com/e/episode-401-stephen-lipson/

tbf, Frank's take on Aida didn't work, not least because he kept interjecting "Jack!" for emphasis after every third or fourth line.

You got to use that "jack" sparingly, otherwise it loses its power. Exhibit A:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IHiBewYetI

(Surprisingly, the riff in "Smoke on the Water" adapts naturally into horn charts straight out of the big band era.)

"some day you will pay the tab I know"

Gonna have to get one of those five album cd sets, you know, the cheapie ones.

I do see capitol LPs in the charity shops, low price. I do end up wondering 'is that one of the good ones, or?'

I scored a new sealed copy of Only The Lonely from a charity shop for 1 euro a couple of weeks back. I'm really into hearing it but my player isn't. So stopped halfway through. Bummer.Had distorted it before that.
I mean fuzz guitar on The World We Knew is one thing, distorting this classic is just blasphemy surely.

The first Capitol CD's (from 1987 and 1991) are cheap and easy way of getting those albums in decent quality. (The remasters issued in 1998/2001 are notoriously awful, some of the worst examples of "remastering" by a major label.)

Also, Sinatra was apparently a good sport about Piscopo's parody - I wasn't sure if he would be because sometimes he doesn't take a joke too well. Brad Garrett opened for him for a while and at the end of one good set, he told the audience, "thank you, and please stay for Mr. Sinatra." The next day, Sinatra's manager called him in and said "Frank wants to know what you meant by that." And Garrett was like "it was a joke! Of COURSE they're going to stay for Frank, they're here for him, not for me." The manager was like "oh yeah sure....Frank doesn't want you to say that anymore."

Great Lipson interview - they're all chock full of great anecdotes - but that podcast host is the worse kind of blabbering fanboy.

I remember Piscopo saying that his Sinatra impression came from a place of respect, whereas he criticized Phil Hartman’s Sinatra for being mean-spirited and “disrespectful to Mr. Sinatra.” I always thought Hartman’s was funnier. Not by a lot, but he went places Piscopo wouldn’t touch.

The sketch of the Duets recording sessions with Adam Sandler as Bono was probably the only worthwhile thing to come out of that album.

Sorry, but this thread makes me imagine…

How Alone Am I? (Capitol, 1959; Arranged and Conducted by Hurting, assisted by Gordon Jenkins)