[Leanne]

I persuaded some friends to watch the Frank documentary last night and they sat with me while I watched it.

They were generally impressed with Frank and one of them said he's a ****ing awesome singer. And they commented on how fit he was.

Then we got talking about what he might be doing if he was starting out now in 2004 and being about 20 years old. Would he be singing the standards, or do you think he might take on a new style of music. I don't mean rap or anything like that. But I personally think he might do something ground-breaking that we haven't yet heard of.

Which musicians and producers do you think he might like to work with?

[Lea]

I was reading in The Sun paper last week that Kylie Minogue plans to ditch pop music and record a Jazz album as her next project.
With acts like Jamie Callum and katie Melua Jazz is popular again said the article.

This is good, I think.
I got bored with pop a year ago, I play noting but Jazz these days and I'm getting more and more into it.

I think Frank would obviously be leading the way if he was here today.
I think if he did some duets with those names mentioned above that would be an interesting project.

[Leanne]

Hi Lea. I was wondering if a young Frank would like to work with Ryan Adams. He's awesome. Of course. That doesn't mean Frank would be singing like Ryan Adams, but he would do it 'His way', with some input from Ryan Adams.

Good question, Leanne. I think he'd still be working with Quincy. Maybe collaborating with the likes of Norah Jones, Josh Groban, Herbie Hancock, of course Bono, and others that have that sort of 'class' Frank had. Maybe even Alicia Keys? I'm not her biggest fan, but she does have great talent. It's hard to picture him doing any other kind of music than what we've been accustomed to hearing from him, because that genre of music helped make him who he was.

I don't think he'd be too old fashioned, doing only old standards, but I don't think he'd be following the Britney and Justin Timberlake types either. He'd be leading the pack... and creating his own sound.

Tough one!!


Bonni

[Ronald Sarbo]

The world is a totally different place than it was in the 40s.

The same set of historical circumstances will never exist again.

The musicanship of the "Big Bands" and its leaders Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Harry James and Benny Goodman.

The songwriters of Broadway and Tin Pan Alley such as Kern, Porter, Berlin, Rodgers and Hart and The Gershwins.

The Jazz scene and its stars like Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Billie Holiday and Ella.

Hollywood at its height with studio heads such as LB Mayer, The Bros. Warner, Harry Cohn, and Darryl F. Zanuck.

The power of Radio and the emergence of TV in the late 40s and early 50s.

From all these institutions Sinatra was able to learn, absorb, work, thrive in, and be part of.

In the process becoming an institution himself.

[pattisam]

and one of them said he's a ****ing awesome singer.

I thought you and your friends used this word, only in the literal sense. Seems there was a heated discussion about this, a while back.

Tough question, by the way. Ya got me But, it's my thought he would be more Michael Buble than Eminem.

[Leanne]

Sorry about my friend's bad language. Shocking.

Yeah, I think Frank would go on beyond Buble. But he would need the right people around him. I do agree with Ron's post above, where he speaks about the band leaders of the 1940s. But, producers and songwriters do exist today. We haven't moved backwards in the last 60 years, have we? People today are just as talented as they were in the 1940s, in my opinion. So, there must be people out there who Frank would love to work with.

[RonnieC]

Frank Sinatra CREATED the standards! Many of his greatest songs were new when he was singing them and he MADE them become standards! I think he certainly liked to do the "Remember when" material in later years, but he always looked ahead! Look at some of the many contemporary songs that he performed into the rock era...Let Me Try Again, If You Go Away, All By Myself,
Send In The Clowns, Isn't She Lovely, Bang, Bang, Sweet Caroline...and the list goes on and on! He put his own unique stamp on EVERY song he touched!

FAS kept breathing new life into the older songs to keep them alive and found new songs to dazzle his audiences with as well!