Posted on 12/13/2015 3:21:25 PM PST by Bratch
My introduction to Frank Sinatra came by way of “New York, New York” (1979) and “My Way” (1969). Needless to say, I was not a fan. Even as a pre-teen, the over-produced bombast came across as someone, dare I say an old man, trying too hard. Besides, I was born in 1966 and came of age in the early 80s. By law, I was required to worship Springsteen, Seger, Zeppelin, Petty, Van Halen, Def Leppard, and AC/DC, not some crooner belting out anthems about how it’s up to you my way.
With a memory as bad as mine, I don’t have many memories. Flipping through a family photo album can sometimes feel like flipping through someone else’s family photo album. No joke, I have forgotten entire vacations. What I have never forgotten, though, is the moment I fell in love with “The Voice.”
The year was 1985, I was 19 and working in the maintenance department at a nursing home. The radio in the shop was always tuned to WOKY, a station that played only adult standards for folks over the age of a million: Dean Martin, Doris Day, Bing Crosby, Julie London, Vic Damone, Glenn Miller, Peggy Lee, and of course Francis Albert.
To a kid my age, the music played like background music, elevator music. It neither grabbed nor annoyed me. It was just there. That all changed the afternoon Johnny Mercer’s “Summer Wind” came on.
[...] .
Sinatra is our Bach, our Beethoven, our Shakespeare, the artist of our time who will be remembered 500 years from now, 10,000 years from now, for as long as Western Civilization survives.
My list of Sinatra’s 11 greatest songs (other than “Summer Wind”) can be found here.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
He’s no Gene Kelly...but fun to watch. I liked it. Thank you def!
The AWE channel had this tour of Sinatra’s home in Palm Springs the other night....it was interesting....kinda slow moving but interesting to peak into his life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4tGQzo7r6A
Thanks. Interesting.
I saw him a few years before he died — obviously, he couldn’t sing as well as he had in his youth, but he still had great stage presence...and a very nice suit! :-D
>> Sinatra was a master of phrasing <<
That’s what my swing-era professional musician father always said.
Moreover, Sinatra said he learned phrasing from Tommy Dorsey’s trombone playing, when Sinatra was the “boy singer” for the Dorsey orchestra.
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