Sinatra - It Was A Bunch of Good Years

It hardly seems possible but it has been ten years since the passing of Frank Sinatra. In a career that spanned six decades, Sinatra was many things to many people. Certainly I have never met anyone who was indifferent to him. Some saw him as the ultimate expression of cool, with the loosened tie and ever present highball. Many as a crass bum who merely cleaned up well. To some he was a loyal and generous friend and to others a vicious enemy. Still others lauded him as a fine actor in such films as From Here To Eternity and The Manchurian Candidate, while some laughed at his efforts in The Kissing Bandit.

Me? I reflect back on Sinatra at his best.

Sinatra the singer. Like Muhammad Ali in the ring, when Frank took the stage to sing he had no peers. Whether he was belting out a swinging rendition of  I’ve Got You Under My Skin, breaking your heart with One For My Baby, or making you smile wistfully with It Was A Very Good Year, Frank was simply the best at what he did. I had the opportunity to see him about ten years before his death. He was doing a concert at the then Garden State Arts Center. By this time it was a crap shoot with Frank as a performer. If you caught him on a good night, he was the same wonderful singer. Other nights his age showed. I can’t say if I saw him on a good or bad night because I was just so in awe of his presence. Of sharing the same space with the great man. He could have belched for two hours and I would have thought it was the best thing I had ever heard.

There were two kinds of Sinatra the singer. The first was the live performer. His roots go all the way back to the New York Paramount Theater when a skinny kid from Hoboken made bobbysoxers swoon while he let loose with songs like I’ll Never Smile Again and Polkadots and Moonbeams. He never strayed too far from a live audience for as long as he lived. Sinatra was able to create a synergy with a live audience that only a very few other performers have ever been able to approach.

He was charismatic and extemporaneous and you could see in his eyes how much he loved performing in front of people. It was before a live audience that Sinatra could really swing.

Then there was Sinatra, the recording artist. Not only was he a thoughtful and utterly professional in the studio, Sinatra made significant contributions to the evolution of recorded popular music. It was Sinatra who first created concept albums. Up until Sinatra an album would just be a collection of songs. Frank, while with Capitol, designed his albums to tell a story or to create a specific mood. He created albums like Only The Lonely and Swinging Sessions that are never out of print even today. His shining hour came when most people were wrapping up their careers as serious singers. At the age of 50 Sinatra recorded It Was a Very Good Year. This concept album looked back at the rich tapestry of a life. Not Franks life, but yours or mine. In one album he was able to capture perfectly the feeling of a man looking back with a wistfulness that only comes with long experience. Of glorious victories and glorious defeats. If you have never heard this album I envy you, because you have the opportunity to hear it for the first time. I urge you to go out, no RUN out and get it. If I could only have one piece of recorded music it would be It Was a Very Good Year .

So here we are, ten years after his passing. I never knew him but I miss him. I suppose that I always will. Happily he left a wonderful legacy of music behind that is as warm and vital and new as the day he recorded it.

Thanks Frank, for everything. I hope you are having a cool drink with Dean and Sammy and swinging again.

That's 30

Holmes