Point of No Return

[NickGerard]

The recent posts regarding B/EZ stations coincided with my picking up a Sinatra album over the weekend - "Point of No Return."

I have a pretty good Sinatra collection, but somehow I'd never gotten around to buying or even hearing this one. If you like lush string orchestrations, this album is a must-have!

"Point of No Return" is the last album Frank did for Capitol in '61 as he was starting his own label, Reprise. All the arrangements are by Axel Stordahl (who worked with Sinatra a lot in the 40's), and they're just magnificent. Beautiful sweeping strings that almost steal the show from Frank. You've really gotta hear it. I've been listening to this CD non-stop since Saturday!

Sinatra's work with Nelson Riddle and Billy May is justifiably much admired. But he communicates a completely different sentiment when accompanied by lots of strings and little brass. He's much more tender and reflective.

In addition to the above mentioned album, two others come to mind:
"Sinatra and Strings" with Don Costa and "September of My Years" with Gordon Jenkins which won the Grammy for Album of the Year in '65.

The beautiful, dramatic, lush strings on all three of these albums are as much of an attraction as Sinatra's singing.

If you enjoyed the music of the grand old B/EZ stations, I can enthusiastically recommend these three from Frank!

Nick Gerard

 

[BlueHen]

> In addition to the above mentioned album, two others come to
> mind:
> "Sinatra and Strings" with Don Costa and "September of My
> Years" with Gordon Jenkins which won the Grammy for Album of
> the Year in '65.
>
> The beautiful, dramatic, lush strings on all three of these
> albums are as much of an attraction as Sinatra's singing.
>
> If you enjoyed the music of the grand old B/EZ stations, I
> can enthusiastically recommend these three from Frank!

“Point Of No Return” and “Sinatra & Strings” sound like they’re worth getting. A few years ago I tried to build a bit of a Sinatra collection; but since there is so much, I only bought a handful of “essentials” as recommended in an article I read. They included “September Of My Years,” “In The Wee Small Hours,” and “Come Fly With Me.” I think the writer referred to these as the best “concept albums.” I also picked up both Greatest Hits CDs to have my two favorite Sinatra songs, “Softly As I Leave You” and “Cycles,” and the CD in the Capitol Collectors Series with hits from the 50’s such as “Witchcraft” and “Young At Heart.”

I’d also like to find these songs from the 70’s: “Let Me Try Again,” “You Turned My World Around,” “Anytime (I’ll Be There),” and “I Believe I’m Gonna Love You.” With the exception of “I Believe…,” I don’t believe I’ve ever heard these, and that’s unusual because they’re all charted singles, and fairly recent.

 

[NickGerard]

"Let Me Try Again" and more Sinatra stuff

"Let Me Try Again" is on the album "Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back" (1973). This album also features "There Used To Be A Ballpark" which baseball fans all love.

I've looked, but haven't been able to find the other songs you mentioned.

My own list of Sinatra essential albums includes "Songs For Swingin' Lovers" (mid 50's). This is the one I always recommend to new fans who ask me what to get. It's upbeat, full of familiar songs like "I've Got You Under My Skin" and "Makin' Whoopee." It's arranged by Nelson Riddle.

I don't have many compilation albums, but one I like is "The Very Best of Frank Sinatra" on Reprise. (It's the 2 CD set with nothing on the cover except a pic of Frank wearing a fedora). This one features a lot of 60's stuff with Riddle and Billy May, including new recordings of some of his Capitol songs. His voice is a little more mature and pleasingly burnished.

Also exceptional is the album "Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim" which was a whole new kind of singing for Sinatra. Interesting bit of trivia about this one - when the session was finished, as the musicians filed out, in came Nancy Sinatra with her session musicians to record her one song with her dad - "Somethin' Stupid." It was done on the same day.

I could go on and on, but I don't want to bore you guys with my Sinatra obsession - heh heh!

Nick Gerard

 

[BlueHen]

Re: and more Sinatra stuff

Hey, Nick
Here's something I heard somewhere... Is it true Frank did not care at all for "Strangers In The Night?" Ironically, it turned out to be his last (solo) No. 1 on the Billboard chart.

Speaking of Nancy Sinatra, when Frank died in May 1998, Westwood One Standards gave some airplay to her song "It's For My Dad" as a tribute. It may have carried over to Father's Day, but now I never hear it. It's a nice song which I think deserves a few spins now and then. I'm glad I was able to get it on CD at the time.

 

[NickGerard]

Re: and more Sinatra stuff

Hi Blue....

Yes, that's correct. Frank never really cared much for "Strangers" and apparently he said as much in a few live performances. At that point in the 60's, his style of music was being edged out by rock and he really wanted to get back on the charts. He hooked up with a producer named Jimmy Bowen, who had a reputation for having a good feel for the tastes of the day. Bowen found "Strangers in the Night" for Sinatra.

Frank recognized that the song really wasn't on a par with the material he was used to recording, but he took a flyer and it was a success. Same with "Softly as I Leave You", "That's Life", and "Cycles." The songs all charted well and were consistent with public taste at that time , but they really weren't Sinatra's native style. One writer said, "can you really believe that Sinatra would sing a line like "my gal just up and left?"

These songs were pragmatic choices for Frank during a period in American music when he wasn't quite sure what to record. Thank goodness Johnny Mercer and Nelson Riddle came along with "Summer Wind"!

Regarding the Nancy Sinatra tune you mentioned - I'm sure it's a wonderful song and I'd love to hear it, but as a part-time weekend guy I really have no influence on the music played at WW1.

Nick Gerard

 

[BlueHen]

Re: more Sinatra stuff and songs on Westwood One

> Frank recognized that the song really wasn't on a par with
> the material he was used to recording, but he took a flyer
> and it was a success. Same with "Softly as I Leave You",
> "That's Life", and "Cycles." The songs all charted well and
> were consistent with public taste at that time , but they
> really weren't Sinatra's native style. One writer said,
> "can you really believe that Sinatra would sing a line like
> "my gal just up and left?"

That's funny. I like "Cycles," and, yes, that line is probably uncharacteristic. It's more like something from his Duets CDs, of which I am not particularly a big fan. But the attraction of "Cycles" for me is its hopeful message when things get you down... "You know, it's almost funny but things can't get worse than now. So I'll keep on trying to sing, but please just don't ask me now." I also like the piano, evident throughout.

> Regarding the Nancy Sinatra tune you mentioned - I'm sure
> it's a wonderful song and I'd love to hear it, but as a
> part-time weekend guy I really have no influence on the
> music played at WW1.

Frankly, I don't understand WW1 sometimes. I'm not sure if they were responsible for its breakout, but back in 1997, they were the first I heard play "Time To Say Goodbye" (Andrea Bocelli & Sarah Brightman). It turned into a huge international hit which had people talking. Since then, I've heard some other songs on WW1 (usually coinciding with the Chick Watkins Friday interviews), which seem to disappear from their playlist shortly thereafter. Two examples: "We Will Go On" by Daniel Rodriguez, the singing NY cop, and the tribute to NY after 9/11/01 by Tony Orlando (whose title I don't even know). It's possible their association with the September 11th tragedy lessens their "mass appeal" factor, but I think they may have become bigger hits had they been played with more regularity.

The same goes for that Nancy Sinatra song mentioned earlier, "It's For My Dad," and a song called "Fly" by a duo (whom I do not know). They're played for a while, then put away in the vault. At a time when the standards format is being dropped all over the place due to its perceived appeal to "only older people who never buy anything" (a tragedy in itself), you would think some of this newer stuff, or newly-discovered older stuff, would be given a chance to breathe some new life into the format. Josh Groban is an example, yet, ironically, I don't recall hearing him on a standards station, only on AC.

 

[westlife]

Re: and more Sinatra stuff

> Yes, that's correct. Frank never really cared much for
> "Strangers" and apparently he said as much in a few live
> performances. At that point in the 60's, his style of music
> was being edged out by rock and he really wanted to get back
> on the charts. He hooked up with a producer named Jimmy
> Bowen, who had a reputation for having a good feel for the
> tastes of the day. Bowen found "Strangers in the Night" for
> Sinatra.

That's a similar experience to when Linda Ronstadt recorded her "What's New" album in 1983. She had big success with country/pop crossover hits in the late '70s and early '80s, but when the "Urban Cowboy" craze fell out of favor (and took artists like Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton, and Willie Nelson off the pop charts along with it) she had to try a completely new musical style in order to get noticed again. But instead of going for a contemporary rock-pop sound, she sang standards with beautiful Nelson Riddle arrangements, and the result was successful enough that I believe she recorded at least two more albums of standards in the mid-'80s.

Linda was able to reinvent her sound once again in the late '80s, when her duets with James Ingram and Aaron Neville got her back on the pop charts; these songs are still frequently played on AC, Soft AC, and Adult Standards stations today.
<P ID="signature">______________

</P>