How accurate is his Mafia support (and his whining) in the Godfather?
During WWII, “Stars and Stripes” did a poll of the soldiers.
The question was who they liked better as a singer, Roy Acuff or Frank Sinatra. Acuff won easily.
Sinatra was a good singer and actually a pretty good actor but I always thought he was over hyped.
Summer Wind is a magnificent song...and Sinatra’s delivery of it is magical. It’s perfect!
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| "If I am captured, I will continue to resist by all means available. I will make every effort to escape and aid others to escape. I will accept neither parole nor special favors from the enemy." |
Ava Gardner said Ole Blue Eyes was packin’ some serious heat.
Sinatra was no Andy Williams or Nat Cole.
His voice was at best okay.
Even a lot of the big band leaders were more appealing as vocalists. Frankie Laine comes to mind in that regard.
I’ve always been aware of Sinatra...thought he was a good singer, but not all that fond of his style of music.
Last week, I took an international trip to Brazil. On Delta’s entertainment system, they had five Sinatra albums to choose songs from. I picked out 20 or so songs on a playlist, and listened over and over. I was blown away.
I get it now... The guy was a phenomenal singer. His phrasing, pitch, breath control.... Off the charts awesome. I’ve added a couple dozen songs to my iTunes library. One More for the Road? Summer Wind, Wee Small Hours..... All just incredible.
I thought that his acting performance in the Manchurian Candidate was excellent.
His songs from the Capitol record years are his best work. IMHO. The great American songbook. Where is that CD?
If you played Vegas in the ‘50’s and ‘60’s you knew mobsters. Hell, if you went to the shows you would very often see the mobsters make a grand and showy entrance as they were escorted to their tables. Vegas was something special in those days.
As for Sinatra, he was part of the soundtrack of America’s post WWII heyday. What a fantastic time it was what with the great crooners, modern jazz, the birth of rock ‘n roll, and the purest country & western ever played and sung.
Contrary to the propaganda, the ‘50’s and early ‘60’s were a wonderful time to be alive.
This cover by Sinatra sums it all up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gab2Vuz2Nk
His daughter Nancy had a song out “These Boots Are Made For Walking”. I was listening to it and wrecked my dad’s car. I thought for sure the boots I had on would do nothing but walking after that.
My dad never said a word, and I went on to wreck his pickup a couple months later.
Fast forward to this era, my daughter just wrecked my pickup. She called, once I found out she was OK I laughed and made jokes of it. She was as surprised as I was when I wrecked my dad’s car that I was not PO’d over it.
I laughed the first time I heard a music critic proclaim that Sinatra was a master of phrasing.
Phrasing?
Wth is phrasing?
But when I listened to some of his performances and the way he could ‘dance’ those lyrics around a beat, I began to understand what the critic meant.
And nowadays, I concur: Sinatra was a master of phrasing.