Frank Sinatra
| Track | Album/Single |
|---|---|
| Come Fly With Me | Come Fly With Me |
| Didn't We | My Way |
| Dindi | Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim |
| Don't Worry 'Bout Me | Sinatra At The Sands |
| Fly Me To The Moon | It Might As Well Be Swing |
| Follow Me | Francis A. & Edward K. |
| Granada | Sinatra Swings |
| I've Got A Crush On You | Sinatra At The Sands |
| I've Got You Under My Skin | The Main Event - Live |
| Mrs. Robinson | My Way |
| That's Life | That's Life |
| Witchcraft | Witchcraft / Tell Her You Love Her |
Sinatra playlist
Contributor: Paul F. Newman
A subjective list – naturally – combining wistful ballads with big band swing. But almost everyone has a Sinatra song forming the background to their lives somewhere along the way. Although Frank Sinatra had many hits with songs that became associated with his name, he was not a songwriter but an interpreter of the lyrics of others and invariably credited them in his live performances. If great comedians have timing as well as wit, great singers have phrasing as well as natural musical range and Sinatra was a master. Aspiring vocalists of any genre can still learn from listening to him, whatever he is singing. I remember my mother telling me about a packed cinema she attended in the mid 1950s where they were showing a film that featured Frank Sinatra. She said when he started singing you could hear a pin drop.
Having said all that, I personally think he tailed off slightly from the end of the 1960s and all but one of my favourite versions of his songs above are before this.
On It Might As Well Be Swing, Sinatra is accompanied by the Count Basie Orchestra, arranged and conducted by Quincy Jones. Sinatra At The Sands and The Main Event are live albums. Sinatra first recorded Witchcraft for Capitol in 1957 and it also appeared on the 1961 compilation album, All The Way.
The earliest song in this Sinatra starter pack was recorded in 1958, the latest in 1974. Frank Sinatra cut his first record with the Harry James Orchestra in 1939 and recorded well over 1,000 songs in his long career.
The official Frank Sinatra website
Frank Sinatra biography (Apple Music)
Paul F. Newman is a writer, editor and astrologer, and once part of a surf band. See his published books on Amazon here.
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I loved Sinatra At The Sands and had it on an 8track cassette. His chats and jokes are good stuff too. Very good choice of the Jobim album.
I’m more interested in Nancy than Frank … a possible future Toppermost there. Their duets are the best and the worst of Frank for me.” “Somethin’ Stupid” was a number one hit in 1967 and would be a first choice in my ten. On the other hand their duet on “Life’s A Trippy Thing” (on the album Nancy in London) is about the worst thing either ever recorded. Try the lyric:
Nancy: Getting stoned on sunshine, getting high on air
Frank: Getting to it naturally, really getting there
Nancy: Getting such a high on, loving what I do
Frank: And I’m so full of happiness, I’m hooked on something new
Yes. Perhaps Frank’s taste was lacking by the 60s. Leaving “My Way” aside, that perennial gift to funeral soundtracks at the crematorium, as a matter of opinion, Frank described his own number one hit from 1966, Strangers In The Night as “a piece of shit” and “the worst f*cking song that I have ever heard”. Well, I like it. And it would be in my ten. I quite like the forced keeping up-to-date of 1962’s Everybody’s Twistin’ too, but the 1940s and 1950s were Frank’s decades.
I’m a Frank fan. Thanks mum. While we’re waiting for a Sinatra aficionado to come along, I offer up my alternative FS Top 10, without further ado and in alpha order. I predict mine are going to veer towards the dark place:
I’m A Fool To Want You (Where Or When) / It Never Entered My Mind (In The Wee Small Hours) / Just One Of Those Things (Swing Easy) / London By Night (Come Fly With Me) / Moonlight In Vermont (Come Fly With Me) / Night And Day (A Swinging Affair) / One For My Baby (Sings For Only The Lonely) / Only The Lonely (Sings For Only The Lonely) / September Song (Point Of No Return) / What’s New (Sings For Only The Lonely)
It would be easy to pick half a dozen tracks from Frank Sinatra Sings For Only The Lonely – Sinatra and Nelson Riddle’s finest hour (after Come Fly With Me!). Although most of the tracks on Only The Lonely were already standards, with these arrangements and Sinatra’s incredible vocals, they are as new.
And if I could squeeze in Love And Marriage and Young At Heart, I surely would.
Set ’em up Joe!
The Guardian has a first rate article on “Dylan & Sinatra: Twin Titans of American Music” by Michael Hann, which is linked. It starts with Dylan’s new recording of “Full Moon & An Empty Heart” and draws some fascinating parallels. It really is a “must read.” I liked the mention of “Watertown” which Frank recorded the same year as My Way. There is also an embedded video of “Restless Farewell” performed by Bob at Sinatra’s 80th Birthday Gala, as a request from Sinatra.