Sinatra 100: Life at the Top...Alone

Date
December 15, 2015

Miracler
Nick Dedina

Location
San Francisco

Liner Notes from ND

In 1955 Sinatra released In The Wee Small Hours, a ballad album that balanced despair with the warm embers of fading romance. In 1956 he cut Songs for Swingin’ Lovers, where he and Nelson Riddle recast ballads as upbeat rhythm tunes without losing the romantic intent. Their practically post-modern redo of “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” on it was so revolutionary that it earned a standing ovation from the orchestra.

Swank, new 12”LPs were created specifically for classical music. Wee Small Hours & Swingin’ Lovers turned the format into a viable conduit for artistic expression in popular music. It took more than another decade for this to filter down to rock. Even Rolling Stone’s list of 100 greatest rock albums includes these 2 (Sinatra, Miles and Coltrane seem to be the only non-rockers/soulsters to make the cut in mass music culture for whatever reason).

Sinatra led the 12” LP era and he pretty much did no wrong between 1955 and 1962. He cut 5 good-to-great original LP sets in 1961 alone! LPs were luxury items – music fans were the young urban professionals of their day. There is that nice scene in 'Let’s Get Lost' where a photographer says nobody in their 20s or 30s listened to rock’n’roll in the 1950s – every record collection was a couple of Broadway shows, a couple of Classical albums, Sinatra and jazz.

Well, you ain’t getting any tracks from those established LP masterworks from this period – not any from a host of other sublime albums cut by Frank with Riddle, Billy May (Come Fly With Me etc) or Gordon Jenkins (classical wrist-slashers) from his greatest artistic period. Even the infamous one-take-only Point of No Return with a dying Alex Stordhaul is tops. Martin Hannett handed Ian Curtis a copy of Only The Lonely during the recording of Closer and basically said, “Listen to this and pick up your game, kid.”

Again, I figured everyone would have this stuff already. In my Film Miracles club I also don’t hand deliver DVDs of Rear Window, The Godfather or Out of The Past, either. That said, this approach may be wrong. Alec Baldwin, I guess Liz Lemon really did think you were a farmer after all.

Anyway, this is 1955 – 1962 is when Sinatra could do no wrong artistically -- This is The Beatles and The Velvets’ full stretch, Bowie from 1970 – 1980, Stevie Wonder during the same time frame. Miles signing to Columbia. Heck, Miles before signing to Columbia, too. The entire run of Roxy Music (Flesh + Blood too??? Sure!).

Oh, yeah, Frank was also the biggest actor at the box office during much of this period. Don’t know what they put in his Wheaties but a salacious article written for one of the gossip rags claimed he really did eat them between bouts in the bedroom. His only commercial failure during this period was his TV show where he was trounced in the ratings by an insane right-wing Irish American priest who was against everything Mr. 100 was doing and stood for.

Of the studio cuts I included, they are often from albums skipped over by listeners. “September In The Rain” is a neglected wonder. Dinah Washington does the definitive version but the music behind her is pretty weak. Again, Nelson and Frank are tops and working in perfect unison. I’ve found the terrible cover of Nice ‘n’ Easy has kept punters away but it contains burnished beauties like “That Old Feeling.” Songs of Great Britain has some beautiful stuff on it – “If I Had You” recut again by Sinatra to feel like “I am never going to get you and life will never be good again.” Ring A Ding Ding has a freaky painted cover but it’s with the genius arranger Johnny Mandel and features a host of Cool West Coast soloists.

And, besides what the hippies went on to believe, Sinatra continued to be a counter-culture figure during this period. The lovely duets with Louis Armstrong and Ella are from an aborted cartoon version of "Finnegan’s Rainbow," where Sinatra replaced the once persecuted Irish characters with African American stars. Back before the war when American manhood was brawny stoicism, Sinatra was the kid who cried into his pillow. Now, during the Eisenhower era  when women were supposed to stop working and men were supposed to get married, move to the suburbs and make babies, Frank was twice divorced, living in the Big City, and cutting positively irresponsible singles like “I’m Gonna Live Till I Die.”

Cuts from 3 great concerts are on here. The set leads off with a brilliant bootleg version of “Night and Day” with vibraphonist Red Norvo. There are a couple of tunes with Nelson Riddle’s big band (including a romping “Lady Is A Tramp”). And, Sinatra's best recorded show ever, a 1962 charity concert in London – why this has never been officially released (last year it came out on DVD only) is beyond me.

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