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Often lauded as the first real 'concept' album, I played this through again the other night and was reminded of the quality of Frank's vocals. He truly hit the mark with this one. Anyone agree?
The Capitol years are the best Sinatra for me. The Ray Robinson of swing.
Agreed, Don, agreed!!
A classic, Ted. It was Sinatra's phrasing - and pausing - aside from his wonderful voice - that made him.
Great fighters get inside the rhythms of their opponents. Sinatra got inside our emotional rhythms a heartbeat before we fully realized them. Thanks again...and again, Frank, every time I listen to you.
(The Way You Look Tonight played at my daughter's wedding at Dad's insistence)
"The Way You Look Tonight" is one of my favorite songs of all time. I first heard it on Chad & Jeremy's "Distant Shores" LP--which, in fact, we had on lovely 8-track!
A lovely version of this beautiful song occurs in "Peter's Friends," a Branagh film starring two of my favorite actors: Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry. Nothing makes me happier than Laurie and Fry as Bertie Wooster and Jeeves in the BBC adaptations!
It was indeed a lovely version, Dan.
My goodness, do you still watch those old episodes of Jeeves and Wooster like me? A sad thiong to me that they didn't make any more.
Fry and Laurie were wonderful in that.
He was also a very underrated actor. Some of his screen stuff was simply superb. The Detective, Cherrry Street, Man with a Golden Arm (my brother played with Shorty Rogers in that one) and many others. There was another where he played an assasin (might have been called Suddenly). Yeah, Frank was a very talented cat. Ironically, I did not care for him in From ehere to Eternity. He was great ----- "All The Way."
Hi, Mike,
I could live happily off a television diet of "Jeeves and Wooster," "Perry Mason," and "Andy Griffith" (the episodes with Barney)--and, of course, boxing!
Well, I am also a big fan of "Invader Zim," which is a recent but brilliant cartoon. "I need tacos. I need them, or I will explode. That happens to me sometimes."
Hey, Dan, to this day I still watch every darn repeat of Columbo. Good grief, the writers they had on that show. I guess people would call it 'innocent' now - but you knew who the murderer was from the opening scene and still remained entranced as Falk set about outwitting him/her.
My two favourite villains? Robert Culp (especially in 'The Most Crucial Game') and the brilliant Patrick McGoohan.
Mike--
"Columbo" was great! I should find that on DVD. Falk's work as Columbo was beautiful.
I'm always impressed with how much story was stuffed into the "Perry Mason" episodes. The action wasn't frenetic, but the stories felt well developed.
I'm getting old . . .
Cheers,
Dan
Ugh!
Mason was a well-written series. I just love quality writing and imaginatve plotting. The Sherlock Holmes series of the 90s was a classic (Jeremy Brett/Edward Hardwicke).
Deadwood was unforgettable - brutal, yes - but full of wonderful little cameos by great actors.
The classic 1967 series of The Avengers (With the lovely Diana Rigg in her prime) was beautifully surreal. (Monty Python two years before Monty Python!)
I don't think Frank sang in any of these, but perhaps we may be forgiven for wandering off the track on this occasion!
Deadwood was unforgettable--no argument there. Didn't Sinatra sing a sone by that name? "Unforgettable, that's what you are.....,
Soooomeday...when I'm awfully loooow....when the world, is coooold....I will, feel a glooow....
You cannot help but love that opening. Sinatra lives!
JLP 6, You have the beat.
This is a Eulogy for Sinatra that I wrote back in June of 98. The reason I made him my editorial was that he had a lot of involvement with boxing &, well... he was Frank Sinatra.
Sinatra
by GorDoom
It’s with a tip of the Fedora & a swig of a strong cocktail or three, that the Ol’ Spit Bucket noted the passing of one, Francis Albert Sinatra ...Sinatra was all things too all men (& women), undoubtedly the entertainment icon of the 20th Century.
But, Francis Albert, was much more than just that.
Frank Sinatra, was a giant presence in American culture for six decades. To certain generations of American testosterone & estrogen, Frank defined what it was to be a Man ... & more importantly, a Cool, Man ... & also, the Dark Menace, on the edge of town.
Inscrutable, obvious, charming, obdurate, the best of friends, the biggest freakin’ A-hole you ever ran across ... & yet, Mr. Sensitivity ... Sinatra skated all definition & characterization, all that obvious stuff.
Let’s face it, he was the living embodiment of millions of post-World War ll, All-American, Wet Dreams: The Come Back Kid, The Golden Pipes ... Hell, he had Ava Gardner for a wife.
Right about this point, all of my loyal CBZ readers, are probably wondering if the Bucket has finally tipped over & all the synapses have finally snapped. What the hell does a eulogy about Ol’ Blue Eyes gotsta do with boxing???
Yeah, well ... Boxing never had a better friend than Frank Sinatra, but we’ll get to that inna New York, New York, minute.
Sinatra. Where do you start? ... Well, I’ll start from the point of view of an unrepentant Rocker, who basically never gave a good God damn about Frank Sinatra & his pre-fabricated Rat Pack.
But ... The Man, commanded respect. It was unavoidable. I’m a stone cold, rock & roll kinda guy .... I make my living within the music biz, & lounge acts & singers are the antithesis of what I do. But Frank, no matter how unfashionable he may have been at certain points throughout the decades, has endured ...
Pop Star: Sinatra created the term.
A man of stunning contradictions, on one hand, rumors of alleged mob ties, on the other, a man who personally raised & donated over a billion dollars for charity ... A man who could be crass & rude in public, often using his fists to make a point. But Sinatra was also a very influential Civil Rights activist. He single handedly opened more doors for black performers than anyone else of his era.
Long before Jackie Robinson hit the major leagues, Sinatra had made it a stipulation in his performing contracts that all his black band members had to be able to stay & eat at the same hotels & establishments that he sang at. Sinatra was the first white performer to ever try to break down racial barriers on that hard core a level.
It is a testament to the sheer influence & the kind of clout that Sinatra wielded, that he personally integrated Las Vegas. Think about it. No entertainer today has anywhere near that kind of power & prestige.
Before I get to Sinatra’s boxing connection, I’ll relay my favorite tale about him: One lost evening, in the post-war 40’s, Sinatra decided to escort Lena Horne, to New York City’s famed Stork Club, for cocktails & dinner. Our younger readers probably only know Ms. Horne as the old lady that sings the GAP commercial on television ... But back in the day, Lena Horne, was not only one of the great jazz singers, she was also one of the world’s most beautiful women.
S’ no problem, except that Ms. Horne is African-American & The Stork Club didn't allow “colored folks” in those days.
The Maitre ‘D started stuttering & fumbling with his menus trying to avoid confronting Sinatra & denying him entrance. Sinatra asked him what the problem was, & the flustered functionary blurted out, “Sir, could you tell me who made the reservation?”
Sinatra sneered at him & said, “Lincoln.”
Needless to say, The Stork Club, was soon an integrated establishment. Sinatra always did things, well, you know ...
Ya gotta like a guy like that. Talk about Cool ... Hell, when Sinatra had his mid-life crisis in the 60’s, what did he do? He marries a 19 year old Mia Farrow. Crisis? What Crisis?
Okay, you boxing boys have been very patient ... Here’s how Francis Albert, connects with the sweet science: Starting in the 40’s, Sinatra owned a piece of & quietly co-managed quite a few fighters. Best known among them was, former heavyweight contender, Tami Mauriello, who fought Joe Louis for the title on September 18, 1946, (KO by 1).
From the 1940’s through the 1970’s, if you look carefully at fight films of the major bouts from that era, you can usually spot Sinatra & his cronies sitting ringside.
Sinatra was such a big fan & booster of boxing (his father had been a fighter), that Life Magazine assigned him to photograph “The Fight Of The Century”, Ali-Frazier l. Sinatra did an outstanding job of vividly capturing the highlights of that epic battle.
But the thing that endears the man, to this wizened scribe, is how Sinatra, with absolutely no publicity or fanfare, financially helped out many fighters in their declining years.
That Sinatra paid medical bills for operations for Joe Louis in his decline is known, but that Sinatra was the reason Louis got hired by the Casino’s as a “greeter”, in the first place, is not.
But it’s not just Joe Louis. Among the many he took care of in times of trouble, were Sugar Ray Robinson & Henry Armstrong.
Louis, Robinson & Armstrong. For helping out those immortals in their time of need, Frank Sinatra, well deserves a tip of the fedora from the boxing community.
The morning after his death, I was watching CNN’s terrific anchor, Bobbi Battista, do an in depth report on Sinatra’s life. When she finished her report, she was obviously moved. She looked directly at the camera & surprised the hell outta me when she said: “He could have called me a “Broad”, anytime ...”
Sinatra.
Even the name sang ...
Here's Sinatra with one of his fighters from the 1950's
A pretty complex man Mr. Sinatra. They often credit him with being involved with one of several epochal breakthroughs in musical eras in the West. Al Jolson then Crosby, then Sinatra, then Presley, the Beatles, Bee Gees/ Saturday Night Fever phenomena and Michael Jackson.
But his links to boxing are indisputable. Al Certo told me several interesting stories about Sinatra and Hoboken. (His mother Dolly midwived him at birth.)
Frank Sinatra with another one of his fighters from the 1950's, Cisco Andrade
Whittier Ca if I'm not mistaken. He was damn good.
Originally Posted by tedsares
Actually from Compton, Ca. known as the "Comptom Comet" he later worked in Whittier, first as a car saleman, then at a boys reform school.
It was around 1955 when he was working as a car saleman at a Chevy. dealer, and I was working at a Ford dealer next door, that we got to know each other and we would have lunch a couple of times a week, he talk me into meeting Ralph Gambina who with Frank Sinatra was his manager. I met Gambina and Sinatra and trained with them for about 6 months, never fought for them.
Compton is a rough place. My son-in-law is from Whittier, and my daughter worked in Compton as a social worker helping older people. She went to Fullerton State and Long Beach State. Fullerton is a baseball powerhouse every year.
Thanks, Bucket - wonderful piece. Sinatra wasn't the nicest of guys - we all know that - but how I wish he was still with us.
Saddest story I heard about Frank in his old age was when we wandered up confused to a woman at a dinner party and said, "Excuse my, but are you my wife?"
He was gone by then - and mercifully died a short time later - he was 40 years my senior to the very day - born on December 12.
Sinatra would be 92 now - and no doubt making mischief if his old bones could manage it!!
The Summer Wind, Bull - do you dig that one?
Last edited by mike casey; 07-25-2008 at 04:04 PM.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_PFLkSR0_4
"Summer Wind"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIiAdHGi3AI
"As Time Goes By"
Thanks, Frank - pardon me for calling it the Summer Breeze. I really shouldn't do this after a long day at the office!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAEQzVv_Itc
"Strangers In The Night"
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