Homage to Ol' Blue Eyes
Category: Music...
Posted Monday, April 21, 2008 at 10:19 PM [GMT-6]

One of my favorite aspects of blogging is the opportunity to chase rabbits let loose by readers who do me the honor of leaving comments. And thus I found myself googling "Frank Sinatra's version of 'The Star Spangled Banner'" in an attempt to answer Deborah's rhetorical question as to whether The Chairman ever recorded that song.

I didn't take the time to find a definitive answer, but I found something better: this article published in the Virginia Quarterly Review that provides an amazing amount of insight to Sinatra's roller-coaster career. The article was written in 1999, about a year after the entertainer's death, and as we approach the tenth anniversary of his passing, it remains a fitting tribute: unflinching, respectful, informed.

I always took Sinatra for granted. He was around long before I was born, and he was there, doing his thing (or reinventing it, as the case may be) throughout most of my life. And thus I didn't realize or fully appreciate some of his accomplishments, such as the invention of the "concept album." From the above-linked article:

Sinatra would begin the planning for each album with a mood or a feeling in mind—despair, perhaps, as in Only the Lonely, or acceptance of loss (In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning), or exhilaration (Songs for Swingin Lovers; A Swingin Affair). He would then choose appropriate instrumentation—heavy on brass for upbeat albums, thick with strings and reeds for sad ones, a string quartet to create an introspective setting, and so on. He would select an appropriate arranger—usually Billy May for raucus up-tempo albums like Come Swing With Me and Come Dance With Me, Gordon Jenkins for mournful albums such as Where Are You? and No One Cares, or (for just about anything) Nelson Riddle, Sinatra's greatest and most versatile arranger. Finally, Sinatra selected the songs and sequenced them to tell a story.

And at one time, Sinatra held the record for a performance in front of the largest live crowd, 175,000 people in a soccer stadium in Sao Paolo, Brazil.

I highly recommend taking the time to read Michael Nelson's article. I suspect you'll then be tempted to jump over to the iTunes Store or Amazon.com music store and add a few Sinatra tunes to your playlist.

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Comments

Cool. I didn't know that but it makes sense to me that an artist would do that.

Posted by: Rachel at April 22, 2008 04:44 PM

He and the whole Rat Pack were always just an old cliche to my generation, but I do have several of his CD's now that I am old enough to appreciate what he did.

Posted by: Gwynne at April 22, 2008 05:18 PM

First let me say how grateful I am that you followed my non sequiter linking the idea of Frank Sinatra singing the National Anthem at a Bulgarian rodeo (that sounds like a Groucho Marx line, huh.)

I broke off reading at the 7th section of the Frank Sinatra biography to write. What an amazing story that Michael Nelson tells. The narrative and pacing are worthy of Ol' Blue Eyes himself. It is perfection.

I'm going to go finish it now, but I hope every one of your readers send it down the line. I'll be sharing it with at least eight others. Thank you for chasing the rabbit :)

Posted by: Deborah at April 22, 2008 09:57 PM

Rachel, you need to get Kyle Lent started on his views about albums. Those musicians take that stuff very seriously!

Gwynne, it's been only in the past few years that I've begun to comprehend the rarefied atmosphere that the Rat Pack moved through. Any definition of the word "cool" in the dictionary is incomplete if not accompanied by that group's photo.

Deborah, I realize that you dropped that reference knowing full well that I'm just a broken-down greyhound who can't resist that rabbit. ;-)

Keep launching; I'll keep chasing.

But, yes, Nelson's article borders on riveting. I envy his ability to succinctly capture the essence of such a long and storied career.

Posted by: Eric at April 22, 2008 10:16 PM
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