I went crazy! Sunday afternoon in the car to grandma's with the (only) Frank Sinatra cassette playing. My father (22-09-1931 | 11-02-2023) was the biggest fan of The Voice and at that moment I was a fan of my Walkman. I couldn't bear to listen. And then came the turnaround... I was about 15 years old and bought the single "Empty Tables" for my father. Dad didn't play records (let alone singles) and so it happened that I started playing the record, over and over again. I then began to listen to and even buy other Sinatra music. I've heard most of it and own a lot of it. On 25 December 2021, my Sinatra experience was mentioned during the Top2000: listen here to the fragment.
In the 1980s he gave a performance in the Netherlands. The tickets were about fl. 225,- each and that was too much for the pub back then. Unfortunately, I never got to see Sinatra live.
In our film house I was able to enjoy Sinatra The Main Event! together with other fans on 1 December 2023!
Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra, born in Hoboken (New Jersey), decided to become a singer after hearing Bing Crosby on the radio. He started in small clubs in New Jersey and thus came to the attention of trumpeter and bandleader Harry James.
After a short period with James, he joined the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, and after his debut with them in 1940, he became famous as a singer. He had a great appeal to the teenagers of that time (the so-called bobby soxers), who were a whole new audience for popular music. Until then, this music had been reserved for adults, and Sinatra thus became the first teen idol.
In the late forties and early fifties, his career went downhill, but he made a comeback on the big screen in the film From Here to Eternity. He then appeared in many different films, especially The Man with the Golden Arm and The Manchurian Candidate.
In the fifties and sixties, Sinatra was a popular attraction in Las Vegas. He was friends with Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop, and together they formed the Rat Pack – a loose group of musicians and singers who were friends and partied together. Together with other Rat Pack members, he appeared in a number of films, including Ocean's 11, Sergeants 3 and Robin and the 7 Hoods.
Throughout his career, he was accused of having contacts in the mafia and criminal circles.
His voice is instantly recognisable and is described not only in terms of power and charisma but also of nostalgia and tenderness. Sinatra is therefore also called The Voice. He is also often referred to as Ol' Blue Eyes.
Sinatra was married to Nancy Barbato (1939–1951), Ava Gardner (1951–1957), Mia Farrow (1966–1968) and Barbara Blakeley (1976–1998, his death). With Barbato (1917-2018) he had daughters Nancy and Tina and son Frank Jr. (1944–2016).
He died in 1998 at the age of 82 from a heart attack. His last words were: "I'm losing", referring to his fight to stay alive. Sinatra is buried in Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, Palm Springs, California. His gravestone bears the inscription "The Best is Yet to Come".
Sunday Morning Classic
On 11 August 2019, the album "Sinatra Live at the Sands" was on our turntable during our Sunday Morning Classics.
Frank Sinatra released his first live album Sinatra At The Sands in July 1966. The recordings took place in January and February 1966 when Sinatra performed twice a day. It is a perfect representation of Sinatra in 1966. He was vocally at the peak of his powers and the band swung. Some performances are even among the best he recorded.
Come Fly With Me, I’ve Got You Under My Skin, The Shadow Of Your Smile, but also the new The September Of My Years and It Was a Very Good Year show Sinatra's perfect timing and reveal that Sinatra intensely enjoys working with Count Basie. He also looks fantastic on the cover, charismatic, bathing in ‘cool’ and ‘in control’.
But, the album also harbours an elephant in the room, namely the monologue, called “The Tea Break”. It is an interlude in which Sinatra attempts a kind of stand-up comedy. Not very bad in itself, but no comedian was lost to Sinatra.
Some jokes, however, are downright racist and distasteful. This was also the criticism that The Rat Pack had previously received: misogynistic, discriminatory humour, which rather showed that civilisation was a thin veneer. But, the (white) audience enjoyed it, and Sinatra knew that all too well.
Review
Despite the monologue, Sinatra At The Sands is a beautiful time document of Frank Sinatra during the sixties.
Sinatra combined with Count Basie and Quincy Jones is an unstoppable force of nature, giving an intimate insight into the entertainment world of the time at that specific place in the American desert. The sometimes breathtaking beauty of the songs and the music is incredible and impressive.
By Jan Liebregts
source: Wikipedia photo: public domain
