If You Were To Select Your Favourite Five - Year Period in the Sinatra Career, Which?

Jeffrey Simmons · #61 03-13-2012, 03:07 PM

It would be very hard to chose just five years from Frank's career which is my favourite. If I were to chose the years which I consider to be his best vocal period I would have to chose between 1955 and 1960 when albums like ...Wee Small Hours, Songs For Swingin' Lovers, Close To You, Where Are You, ....Only The Lonely, No One Cares and Nice'nEasy, to name but a few of the best, were conceived and made.

On the other hand, I was not really around or able to fully appreciate at the time of the birth of those superb albums above, whereas the period of perhaps the greatest excitement for me were the years from 1964 to 1969 when Frank entered into a fabulously productive and somewhat experimental period, the like of which was never to be repeated. In this amazing period we saw the birth of some stunning albums and of course there were Also the singles which stayed with him for the rest of his career. I speak of albums such as Days Of Wine and Roses, It Might As Well Be Spring, Softly As I Leave You, September Of My Years, Strangers In The Night, Moonlight Sinatra, Francis Albert Sinatra and Antonio Carlos Jobim, Cycles, Francis Albert Sinatra and Edward Kennedy Ellington, My Way, A Man Alone and even the recordings for Watertown to name some of the best, not to mention of course the fab double albums of Sinatra:A Man And His Music and the amazing live album, Sinatra At The Sands. Since I was around and enjoying this amazing period as it happened I have to say this was the favourite period for me - when I waited for each next release and we never knew quite what we were going to get!

Add to this some of the amazing songs which came from those albums or that period, some of them huge successes which stayed with Frank for the remainder of his Career - and I speak of:
Fly Me To The Moon
The Way You Look Tonight
It Was A Very Good Year
September Of My Years
This Is All I Ask
Somethin' Stupid
The Summer Wind
The Best Is Yet To Come
Strangers In The Night
The Girl From Ipanema
All Or Nothing At All (swing version)
What Now My Love
Where Or When
That's Life
Cycles
My Way
This Time
For Once In My Life
A Man Alone
Loves Been Good To Me
Something
I will Drink The Wine
Goin' Out Of My Head

Rich_Silverman · #62 03-13-2012, 04:45 PM

This is easy for me. 1955-1960 (isn't that really six years... oh well). From "Wee Small Hours" to "Nice n' Easy."

These albums are the peak of the singer's, songwriter's, arranger's, and musician's art. So many things pulled together to create these perfect albums- Close to You, Only the Lonely, Swingin' Lovers... etc.

Frank had perfected his style, his voice deepened to golden perfection, and he sings without a hint of self consciousness or ego awareness. He's free and perfectly in the moment, and that's what makes great art.

I absolutely love his work with Dorsey: there's a sweet freshness and innocence to it and a real enthusiasm to get going in life. And I adore a great deal of his Reprise output, but second half of the '50s is tops in my book.

I'd also argue that's the peak era for Western culture in general, but that's for another day.

Tina... · #63 03-14-2012, 12:19 AM

Well from the moment Frank "found me " It Was A Very Good Year" and as we are getting more and more releases from the archives that I've never heard before I could never categorise Frank into a time period. So " From This Moment On" I look forward to hearing more and hope it continues " A Hundred Years From Today"

irene soggia · #64 03-14-2012, 12:59 AM

very beautiful post, Tina.

I Believe That A ranking of the songs or periods of FRANK discography is hard to do, Because FRANK has sung it so much that every song is good and his discography of every period enter into with our feeling that we are experiencing right now.

That's why

is IMMORTAL !!

(I hope not to have made too many errors in translation,if I made it, I apologize! )

Patrick71 · #65 03-14-2012, 02:34 AM

I agree with Rich in his post. 1955-1960 is the era when Sinatra recorded some of the greatest albums in music history! As Chuck Granata said in his book, Sinatra had hit his vocal "Sweet Spot" at this time. Just listen to the richness and tone of his voice on the film recordings from High Society and Pal Joey. Close to You and Only the Lonely are high points from this period!

ARIES3032 · #66 03-14-2012, 03:00 AM

It would be so difficult for me. I would have to go with Joan , as I have the beginning in the 40's to 80's.

Rich_Silverman · #67 03-14-2012, 09:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patrick71

I agree with Rich in his post.

I like it when people agree with me. Thank you very, very much.

Markus · #68 03-27-2012, 08:58 AM

I would vote for the Capitol Years period 1956 - 1961: from "Songs for Swingin' Lovers" to "Point of no Return"! I won't forget my favourite album: "Sinatra's Swingin' Session!". I also like the late 60s when I'm thinking of "Cycles" and "My Way"....

ToddGordon · #69 03-27-2012, 10:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rich_Silverman

I like it when people agree with me. Thank you very, very much.

I'm with you, Rich - and Patrick - re the 1955-60 period, or perhaps Markus's suggested 1956-61 mini-era. Although, truth be told, I am more than partial to several other five-year phases, too!

SamMcK · #70 03-27-2012, 10:31 AM

I'm going to cheat and say 1953 to 1963! Seriously though it's very hard to pick what is my favourite album because there are a lot of times where I would rather listen to say the brasher sound of the mid-late 60's, the confident smooth swinging sound of the 50s or even the soft, crooning voice of the early to mid 40's. (VERY underrated in my opinion) Right now i'm listening to "You Go To My Head" from his first album "The Voice Of Frank Sinatra"!

The best thing is that at the ripe old age of 17 I still have so much to discover, right now i'm only really cherry picking tracks but I plan on buying some of those great 1st US Vinyl pressings of the albums and I can't wait!

***Nancy*** · #71 03-27-2012, 08:06 PM

Sam, I wish you would sign up for the free trial at Sirius XM. You might be pleasantly surprised at how much FS you will love if you listen to Siriusly Sinatra.

Rich_Silverman · #72 03-27-2012, 08:12 PM

Siriusly Sinatra is awesome. So is the 40s station. Well worth the membership cost.

The Unvoice · #73 03-28-2012, 06:24 AM

Maybe because Rich is my buddy and has a big influence on me musically (non-rock), but I wholly 100% agree with what he said, even the Dorsey comments, and how hungry he sounds for life in those early recordings. But that period 1955-1960 is just about as perfect as something can possibly get. Pristine!

Oh and I bought Sirius a while back and I would listen to many many stations, but that's all changed now, all I ever listen to is Siriusly Sinatra and on the rare occasion, the 40's station. It's just so addictive!