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Frank Sinatra: Singers
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Though Frank Sinatra's reputation as celebrity, icon, bad boy, and possibly the greatest singer of American popular songs of the century are paramount to the general public, he has always been valued highly in the jazz community, especially among musicians. Though not a jazz singer per se, he was a child of the big-band era, incubated with an ability to swing in a relaxed, ingratiating way in all kinds of material. Indeed, the theory has been advanced that during the `60s, flinging himself head-on against the rock & roll tide of the time, Sinatra was actually able to revive the big-band era in terms of mass popularity, record sales, concert receipts, and media exposure.
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Frank Sinatra has been called the defining voice of the 20th Century. For over five decades his performances were the apex of pop music. His renditions of songs such as I’ve Got The World On A String, Night And Day, The Lonesome Road, Three Coins In The Fountain, and of course the incomparable My Way make it difficult, if not impossible, for any other singer to include them in their repertoire.
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At Columbia Records, Sinatra came into increasing conflict with musical director Mitch Miller, who was finding success for his singers by using novelty material and gimmicky arrangements. Sinatra resisted this approach, and though he managed to score four more Top Ten hits during 1950-1951 -- among them an unlikely reading of the folk standard "Goodnight Irene" -- he and Columbia parted ways. Thus, ten years after launching his solo career, he ended 1952 without a record, film, radio, or television contract. Then he turned it all around. The first step was recording. Sinatra agreed to a long-term, boilerplate contract with Capitol Records, which had been co-founded by Johnny Mercer a decade earlier and had a roster full of faded '40s performers.
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Sinatra's Capitol albums were among the first so-called concept albums in the way they explored different adult approaches to love and invoked varied aspects of the singer's personality. These were the fun-loving hedonist (''Songs for Swingin' Lovers'' and its equally brilliant 1957 follow-up, ''A Swingin' Affair''), the romantic confidant (''Close to You,'' recorded with the Hollywood String Quartet), the jet-set playboy (''Come Fly With Me''), the romantic loner (''Where Are You?,'' ''No One Cares'') and the hardened sensation-seeker (''Come Swing With Me'').
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* Though his temper was excessive, Sinatra was known for going from extremely angry to somewhat amused in a matter of seconds. In one incident he dumped hot coffee on a casino manager named Carl Cohen, who had somehow gotten on the singer's wrong side. Cohen responded by punching Sinatra in the face, knocking out his front teeth. Sinatra than concluded, as he later told a friend, "never fight a Jew in the desert."
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When the Sinatra crowd walked in, Don Rickles could not be more delighted. Pointing to Jilly, Rickles yelled: "How's it feel to be Frank's tractor?... Yeah, Jilly keeps walking in front of Frank clearing the way." Then, nodding to Durocher, Rickles said, "Stand up Leo, show Frank how you slide." Then he focused on Sinatra, not failing to mention Mia Farrow, nor that he was wearing a toupee, nor to say that Sinatra was washed up as a singer, and when Sinatra laughed, everybody laughed, and Rickles pointed toward Bishop: "Joey Bishop keeps checking with Frank to see what's funny."
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