Sinatra 100th: Best Performances – Honorable Mentions 05

18 July 2015 @ 19:00

HEY!…How’s Your Bird?

Here at TCOTS, we’re celebrating Frank Sinatra’s 100th Birthday by counting down what I think are his 100 best performances on Vinyl and CD, but, as promised, we’re also celebrating those tracks [‘Honorable Mentions’] that just didn’t make the List.

As with the 100 Best, Francis Albert will be your pilot and Bobby Bell your navigator [Dean will be serving — what else? — cocktails].

So sit back easy in your easy chair, pour yourself your favorite libation, and let’s go for an aural ride to the stars…

We’re taking a two week break from Best Performance Countdown to catch-up on those recordings that just missed that List.

Time to grab your gal, and take a whirl on the hardwood…

HM17 — Tangerine

Music & Lyrics: Johnny Mercer, Victor Schertzinger
Recorded: 11 April 1962
From the album Sinatra And Swingin’ Brass

I’ve known a gal or two like this. They’re ultimately trouble and they’re not the kind you marry, but, oh man, they’re fun to hang around with for awhile…

HM18 — Day In – Day Out

Music & Lyrics: Johnny Mercer, Rube Bloom
Recorded: 22 December 1958
From the album Come Dance With Me

One of the great swingers from the great Come Dance With Me album, this celebration of being in love hits a bullseye right in the old happy zone. It missed the Top 100 list by a whisker, but that’s my fault for having a beard.

HM19 — Let’s Face The Music And Dance

Music & Lyrics: Irving Berlin
Recorded: 20 December 1960
From the album Ring-A-Ding-Ding

There may be trouble ahead…

Maybe, but there’s definitely a performance here that makes you want to put on your dancin’ boots.

HM20 — My One And Only Love

Music & Lyrics: Robert Mellin, Guy Wood
Recorded: 02 May 1953
Released as a Single; included in the compilation albums This Is Sinatra, This Is Frank Sinatra 1953-1957 [UK MFP], The Complete Capitol Singles

This is a song that so very easily can be done in a over-wrought and pompous way, with the result that the true passion of the lyrics and music get lost in a sea of sap-happiness.

However, in the hands of Francis Albert Sinatra, well…I’ll let Mark Steyn say it:

You fill my eager heart with such desire
Every kiss you give sets my soul on fire
I give myself in sweet surrender
My One And Only Love.

Eager hearts, desire, kisses setting your soul a-fire… Faced with lyrics that ripe, the average vocalist attempts to give them meaning through volume and bombast. But Sinatra does the opposite: He shrinks the declarative boilerplate into something wistful and tender and true. That’s a guy who knows how to sing.

That’s a Master at work at his craft.

See you next time when we’ll take another short helicopter-hop to Bobsville.

Don’t forget to also keep checking out
Pundette’s Sinatra 100 countdown,
Ms Evi’s Sinatra Celebration,
& Mark Steyn’s Sinatra Songs Of The Century.
It’s a ring-a-ding world.

If you’re having trouble tracking down any of the performances on this List, contact me at Robert[dot]Belvedere[at]gmail[dot]com and I might be able to help you.