I’ve Got the World on a String

A young and charming Frank Sinatra singing with pure joy, and a hint of mischief. Makes me smile every time.

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I’ve got the world on a string
Sitting on a rainbow
Got that string around my finger
What a world, what a life, I’m in love

I’ve got a song that I sing
I can make the rain go
Anytime I snap my finger
What a world, what a life, I’m in love

Life’s a beautiful thing
Long as I hold that string
I’d be a silly so-and-so
If I’d ever let you go

But I’ve got this world on a string
I’m sittin’ on a rainbow
Got that string around my finger
What a world, what a life, I’m in love

Love’s Been Good to Me (1969)

One of the most honest songs that he ever sang, in my opinion. He sings, this is how life is, darling, this is how it is. And you’ll laugh and you’ll cry and you will want to run away, but once in a while, once in a while –

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I have been a rover
I have walked alone
Hiked a hundred highways
Never found a home
Still in all I’m happy
The reason is, you see
Once in a while along the way
Love’s been good to me

Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald Medley (1967)

Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald in an incredible six minutes of medley. I’ve only seen this now, and it’s really quite fantastic!

From the site:

From 1967 TV special “Frank Sinatra: A Man and His Music + Ella + Jobim” showing the two giants singing together a medley arranged and orchested by Nelson Riddle and his orchestra.

Medley: The Song Is You, They Can’t Take That Away From Me, Stompin’ At The Savoy and At Long Last Love. Highlight: a superb scat rendition of Stompin’ At The Savoy.

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Is it an earthquake or simply a shock?
Is it the good turtle soup or merely the mock?
Is it a cocktail, this feeling of joy?
Or is what I feel the real McCoy?

Is it for all time or simply a lark?
Is it Granada I see or only Asbury Park?
Is it a fancy not worth thinking of?
Or is it at long last love?

See the Sinatra-Jobim medley here.

Night and Day (1943)

A young Frank Sinatra surrounded by a bevy of beautiful violinists sings Night and Day. This is his first solo hit song.

Around January 1942, Axel Stordahl arranged and conducted a set of four songs for Frank. This was his first attempt at forging a solo career. Included in this set is Frank’s interpretation of Cole Porter’s Night and Day, and the rendition was well-received. This song was Frank’s first chart entry under his own name. He would later on sing this again in a 1943 film, Reveille With Beverly, his first credited appearance.

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Night and day, you are the one
Only you beneath the moon or under the sun
Whether near to me, or far
Its no matter darling where you are
I think of you

Day and night, night and day, why is it so
That this longing for you follows wherever I go
In the roaring traffics boom
In the silence of my lonely room
I think of you

Remembering Frank Sinatra

Excerpts from the USAweekend.com article by Dennis McCafferty

He did not attend Juilliard or, for that matter, graduate from high school. His school of music was the saloon, where he first crafted his signature style — the pinpoint yet elegant phrasing — that sparked a sensation in the 1940s. Like many of those he sang for, Francis Albert Sinatra took his lumps in life. His temperament was legendary. His much-examined alleged associations with organized crime always will shroud his image. (”I didn’t meet any Nobel Prize winners in saloons,” he once said, as a means of explanation.) He was considered washed up in 1952, when he was dropped by his record companies. Then came the big comeback: an Oscar for “From Here to Eternity” in 1953; the release of “In the Wee Small Hours” in 1955; and a demand for live performances that would last for the rest of Sinatra’s life.

“Hours” — recorded in the middle of an emotionally draining, failing marriage to Ava Gardner — remains one of the seminal works of his career, a unified string of sparse, melancholy songs, released well before “Pet Sounds” and “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” “pioneered” the concept album. The years had begun to finely age his voice, like whiskey in an oak barrel. He got to the soul of the music, and you could feel the sadness within Sinatra with every slow burn of his cigarette. With subsequent smash hits such as “Come Fly With Me,” “It Was a Very Good Year,” “My Way” and “Theme From New York, New York” — Sinatra’s legacy has influenced generations of musical talent. But he never forgot what it was like to be unwanted.

“If someone asked him to sign an autograph, he never said ‘no,’ ” says Charles Pignone, once president of Sinatra’s official fan club and now co-president of Frank Sinatra Enterprises, which oversees Sinatra’s intellectual property. “A publicist would tell him he had to go, and he’d say, ‘If it weren’t for these people, I wouldn’t have a job. And neither would you.’ “

Nearly 10 years ago, on May 14, 1998, Frank Sinatra passed away at age 82 after a heart attack, having been in ill health for years. The anniversary will be marked this month with, among other products, the release of “Nothing but the Best,” a 22-track CD collection; a commemorative stamp from the U.S. Postal Service; and five DVD collections of his films, including those he made with his pals in the legendary Rat Pack. Also, Turner Classic Movies is featuring more than 40 Sinatra movies and specials hosted by his three children — Nancy, Tina and Frank Jr. — throughout this month. Exclusively for USA WEEKEND Magazine, friends and associates recall their most cherished memories of the man and the artist.

(read the rest of the article here)

I Love to Love (1958)

Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin having a blast. What could be more fun for these young handsome men than be surrounded by lovely ladies? Serenading and hugging and kissing them, of course!

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Here’s to you, Frank!

Today, 14 May 2008, is quite special for me. I sit by the window with the record on, Frank Sinatra’s Moon River on repeat.

It has been ten years since he died and left this world a lesser place. Ten years later and I still can’t believe he’s not just somewhere resting, until he can get up to sing in front of us again. Frank has always been a special guy in my life. Believe it or not, his voice and melancholy has seen me through the toughest times. The way he sang through my joy and pain, always so very self-aware — it’s what made him well-loved. It’s what made me love him well. He never sang anything that wasn’t true.

So today, I just thought I’d make time for you, Frank. I just thought I’d spend all day today thinking about you and the impact you had on my life. You deserve at least that.

I’m still the little girl who still dreams of hugging you one day.

‘Round Midnight (1966)

To end my day at work and to carry me off to bed, here’s the great Thelonius Monk performing ‘Round Midnight at Norway in 1966. His magic on the piano is made even more spectacular with Charlie Rouse joining him on the tenor sax, Larry Gales on bass and Ben Riley on the drums.

‘Round Midnight is my personal favorite of Monk’s among his other works, but of course, I’m sure almost everyone of us loves this piece for all its quiet beauty. I’ve always enjoyed Monk’s way of playing the piano, with his body (and that foot) moving together with his fingers. Really, really mad wicked.

From the site:

‘Round Midnight is a 1944 jazz standard by jazz musician Thelonious Monk. It is thought that Monk originally composed it sometime between 1940 and 1941, however Harry Colomby claims that Monk may have written an early version around 1936 (at the age of 19) with the title, Grand Finale. ‘Round Midnight has been recorded in greater frequency than any other jazz standard composed by a jazz musician.

Round Midnight, first three bars of theme

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Once in A While (1978)

With a voice like velvet, here is Sarah Vaughan singing Once in A While while playing the piano, at a concert in Prague. With humor and tenderness, she slips into song as gracefully as only Sarah Vaughan can.

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Once in a while
Will you try to give one little thought to me
Think of me once in a while

Once in a while
Will you dream of the moments I shared with you,
Moments before we two drifted apart

In love’s smoldering ember, just one spark may remain,
But if love still can remember, that spark may burn again
I know that I’ll be contented with yesterday’s memory,
Knowing you think of me once in a while

Once in A While (1977)

This is Dizzy Gillespie in a rare performance of Once in A While at the 1997 Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. He is joined by Milton Jackson in a beautiful ballad medley, playing another song on the jazz vibraphone, But Beautiful. Monty Alexander on piano, Ray Brown on bass, Jimmie Smith on drums.

A side note on Milt Jackson:

He was discovered by Dizzy Gillespie, who hired him for his sextet in 1946. He quickly acquired experience working with the most important figures in jazz of the era, including John Coltrane, Woody Herman, Howard McGhee, Thelonious Monk, and Charlie Parker. In the Gillespie big band one of his jobs was to play in a quartet with John Lewis, Percy Heath, and Kenny Clarke while the horn section took a break from the demanding high-register horn parts. This group, known around 1950 as the Milt Jackson Quartet, eventually became the Modern Jazz Quartet (MJQ) by around 1952, and had a long independent career of some 20 years.

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