Frank Sinatra

[Mark Stryker]

Yes, Riddle chart, recorded a year prior on "Songs for Swingin' Lovers!" Good deduction on Herfurt, though I did a Google image search and the photos show a guy with hair, though it's probably a rug. Same guy?

[JSngry]

Should be the same guy, yeah, if you mean the one who played on the Welk show for its last years.

[gmonahan]

Thanks for posting this Mark. The last true collection of un-mined Sinatra is the series TV stuff. This catches him in the classic Capitol period on a great song.

gregmo

[vajerzy]

Enjoyed it! I'm a big Sinatra fan.

[AllenLowe]

damn. absolute perfection. Someone tell Nicholas Payton.

[Mark Stryker]

Here's another tune from the same program with good views of the band. I assume that's Buddy Collette in the saxophone section. Nice. Unusual to see an integrated band on TV in those days. Anybody know who the bass player is?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5HFVo7KmaA

[JSngry]

That's Joe Comfort, the man whose bass playing got me to really listening to Sinatra as a serious singer. What he would lay down on the bottom was so strong, I couldn't help but keep going up/through the layers until, hey, there was Sinatra on top of it all.

Joe Comfort was a true badass. Look at the size of that bass, and listen to the sound he got out of it. No halfass, no bullshit, just oldschool sound.

[Mark Stryker]

Thanks Jim, for hipping me to something I didn't know.

[gmonahan]

Here's another tune from the same program with good views of the band. I assume that's Buddy Collette in the saxophone section. Nice. Unusual to see an integrated band on TV in those days. Anybody know who the bass player is?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5HFVo7KmaA

The shoulder shrug at the end is interesting! I don't think Sinatra thought much of the song--I didn't think much of it either--but it is cool to see the band!

gregmo

[fasstrack]

There was a TV special around '68 or '69: Francis Albert Sinatra Does his Own Thing. Most of it was as embarrassingly bad as the title implies, with Sinatra, possibly in Nehru jacket, reciting lame patter in introducing rock groups of the day, and probably embarrassing himself in song, too, also as per the title.

But there was one sequence that was priceless: Sinatra alone in a trenchcoat, holding (yes, alas) a cigarette, and making one's hair stand on end singing that great (Riddle?) string arrangement of Here's That Rainy Day. Unforgettable.

Anyone else seen this?

Edited December 21, 2013 by fasstrack

[gmonahan]

There was a TV special around '68 or '69: Francis Albert Sinatra Does his Own Thing. Most of it was as embarrassingly bad as the title implies, with Sinatra, possibly in Nehru jacket, reciting lame patter in introducing rock groups of the day, and probably embarrassing himself in song, too, also as per the title.

But there was one sequence that was priceless: Sinatra alone in a trenchcoat, holding (yes, alas) a cigarette, and making one's hair stand on end singing that great (Riddle?) string arrangement of Here's That Rainy Day. Unforgettable.

Anyone else seen this?

That particular program (with Diahann Carroll and the Fifth Dimension) is available as part of volume 3 (entitled "Primetime") of the 7-DVD set, "The Frank Sinatra Concert Collection." It's a good set. That particular ballad was part of a four-ballad medley, "Glad to Be Unhappy," "Here's That Rainy Day," "It Never Entered My Mind," and "Gone with the Wind." It aired on 15 November 1968.

gregmo

[fasstrack]

Thanks for correcting my faulty memory Greg. And if the guests were Carroll and the FD-both class acts-I indeed misspoke. The version I saw may have been edited down to include Rainy Day only. Or I'm getting old....

Edited December 23, 2013 by fasstrack

[gmonahan]

Sorry about the multiple posts, guys. Problem is the cheap cell phone I'm using. I'll fix it when I can get to a computer. Again, sorry.

I just figured you were riffing on the getting old line!!

gregmo

[Mark Stryker]

Epic ballad medleys appeared in several of Sinatra's annual TV specials. Quite theatrical, end-of-love-affair stuff. Typically he'd use one song as a linking device (previously "Just One of Those Things" and "It Was a Very Good Year") opening with say, 8 bars, then returning to that song in between each new tune in the medley. This particular one was structured a little different, opening with a taste of "Glad to Be Unhappy" but never returning to it. Instead the coda circles back to "Here's That Rainy Day," the first full song of the medley. Note: he dons a trench but there's no cigarette. The arranger of "Rainy Day" was Gordon Jenkins.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iwwfFexeSg

He does have a cigarette for this version (1959) with Red Norvo small band. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UESWN--L43Q

The 1966 medley: Wow. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l8RDKUigj4

Finally, the 1965 progenitor. Wow again. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5AW4noPhbQ

Edited December 22, 2013 by Mark Stryker

[Teasing the Korean]

That's Joe Comfort, the man whose bass playing got me to really listening to Sinatra as a serious singer. What he would lay down on the bottom was so strong, I couldn't help but keep going up/through the layers until, hey, there was Sinatra on top of it all.

Joe Comfort was a true badass. Look at the size of that bass, and listen to the sound he got out of it. No halfass, no bullshit, just oldschool sound.

JSngry, if you don't already have it, pick up the King Cole Trio Snader Transcriptions DVD. Joe Comfort was the trio's regular bassist by this point. Amazing that this stuff survived.

"On The Road to Mandalay" was stripped from the UK issue of "Come Fly With Me." The Kipling estate didn't like Frank's irreverent reading.

Every time Sinatra played England afterward, he would ALWAYS include it in his live sets.

[fasstrack]

Epic ballad medleys appeared in several of Sinatra's annual TV specials. Quite theatrical, end-of-love-affair stuff. Typically he'd use one song as a linking device (previously "Just One of Those Things" and "It Was a Very Good Year") opening with say, 8 bars, then returning to that song in between each new tune in the medley. This particular one was structured a little different, opening with a taste of "Glad to Be Unhappy" but never returning to it. Instead the coda circles back to "Here's That Rainy Day," the first full song of the medley. Note: he dons a trench but there's no cigarette. The arranger of "Rainy Day" was Gordon Jenkins.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iwwfFexeSg

He does have a cigarette for this version (1959) with Red Norvo small band. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UESWN--L43Q

The 1966 medley: Wow. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l8RDKUigj4

Finally, the 1965 progenitor. Wow again. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5AW4noPhbQ

Gordon Jenkins, in one of his less weepy arrangements for strings.

[mjzee]

https://variety.com/2018/music/news/frank-sinatra-lush-life-only-the-lonely-1202976600/

Hear Frank Sinatra’s Unfinished ‘Lush Life,’ Finally Released After 60 Years.

[JSngry]

Much ado about nothing, really. I got a batch of Sinatra boots about a decade ago, and this was the first thing I went to. What's that the kids say, meh? Well yeh, meh.

I seem to recall that Frank also says something like "leave it for Nat Cole"? Do they leave that in? Or am I misremembering?

Funny they mention Ring A Ding Ding. The session tapes from that one are intense. Frank is working on every take to find his pocket, he knows when he's there and when he's not,and he chides himself as he goes along. And then when he gets there, whoa...

[gmonahan]

I've had "Lush Life" for years on a boot. If you listen carefully, you can hear the problem with the arrangement, and as Miller said, Riddle wasn't there to fix it, and they never got around to doing it again. I think the notion of the song being "too complicated" for Sinatra is complete nonsense.

 

 

gregmo

[Dan Gould]

For me that song begins and ends with Hartman and Trane.

[JSngry]

OMG, that Variety article TOTALLY buries the lede - namely that this new deluxe reissue provides both the original mono mix and a spectacular fresh stereo mix straight from the original 3 track, plus damn near 20 minutes of Sinatra working on "Angel Eyes" from the opening session of four that produced the final product. Sinatra alternates are quite often worth listening to in sequence, because every one is different. None are ever better than the ones that were chosen for release, but the process...my god, the whole "was Sinatra a jazz singer?" thing is stupid, really stupid, but he tries different things - significantly different things - every take until he finds his zone. The element of improvisation might not be core to him, because he wasn't somebody who could just let it flow every time out and have it land, but he definitely was not afraid to "improvise" - interpretational improvisations, some major, some very subtle -  in search of a perfect take, a truly perfect take. On "Angel Eyes" he got one, but not at this session, and it's fascinating to hear the preliminary evolutions that eventually got it there. Plus, the arrangement has a nice, almost creepy into that was cut for final release. Who knew?

For me, this is a landmark record (and lucky me, I only reallys tarted paying attention to it not too much more than a decade ago, so it's not yet gotten all Pete Hammil-ed to me), and hearing it fleshed out like this (and in the case of the stereo mix, opened and cleared up) is a true delight. The "Lush Life" buzz is a troll for the clueless. The meat is in the original album and the "Angel Eyes" saga.

Have fun, you happy people.

[Brad]

This is a terrific article by Gay Talese about Sinatra that I read a few years. 

Frank Sinatra Has a Cold

[Mark Stryker]

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

OMG, that Variety article TOTALLY buries the lede - namely that this new deluxe reissue provides both the original mono mix and a spectacular fresh stereo mix straight from the original 3 track, plus damn near 20 minutes of Sinatra working on "Angel Eyes" from the opening session of four that produced the final product. Sinatra alternates are quite often worth listening to in sequence, because every one is different. None are ever better than the ones that were chosen for release, but the process...my god, the whole "was Sinatra a jazz singer?" thing is stupid, really stupid, but he tries different things - significantly different things - every take until he finds his zone. The element of improvisation might not be core to him, because he wasn't somebody who could just let it flow every time out and have it land, but he definitely was not afraid to "improvise" - interpretational improvisations, some major, some very subtle -  in search of a perfect take, a truly perfect take. On "Angel Eyes" he got one, but not at this session, and it's fascinating to hear the preliminary evolutions that eventually got it there. Plus, the arrangement has a nice, almost creepy into that was cut for final release. Who knew?

For me, this is a landmark record (and lucky me, I only reallys tarted paying attention to it not too much more than a decade ago, so it's not yet gotten all Pete Hammil-ed to me), and hearing it fleshed out like this (and in the case of the stereo mix, opened and cleared up) is a true delight. The "Lush Life" buzz is a troll for the clueless. The meat is in the original album and the "Angel Eyes" saga.

Have fun, you happy people.

Thanks for the detail. I was going to pass on this because, I was thinking, do I really need buy ANOTHER version of a record I've now owned on at least two previous LPs and two previous CDs? I did not realize, however, that the answer was "yes."

The fact's uncommonly clear.

Edited November 3, 2018 by Mark Stryker

[JSngry]

Yeah, I was totally ready to ignore this until I got an Amazon email which I was going to delete until actually looking at it and finding out what all was going to be on/in it.

The drink (and the laugh) was about to be on me.

[gmonahan]

On 11/3/2018 at 5:51 AM, JSngry said:

Yeah, I was totally ready to ignore this until I got an Amazon email which I was going to delete until actually looking at it and finding out what all was going to be on/in it.

The drink (and the laugh) was about to be on me.

Jim, do you have the "original master recording" version? It's an absolutely gorgeous issue of the original mono Hi-Fi record. I think TTK may have put me onto it. I'm curious how the newly remixed stereo version might compare to it.

 

 

gregmo